No, The Coronavirus Isn't Another Flu

Short Wave

NPR

Daily News, Nature, Life Sciences, Astronomy, Science, News

4.7 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 27 March 2020

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump has compared the coronavirus to the seasonal flu. NPR reporter Pien Huang speaks to host Maddie Sofia about why the coronavirus appears deadlier and more transmissible — and why it poses such a risk to our healthcare system.

Here's Pien's story.
Email the show at [email protected].

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	You're listening to shortwave from NPR.
0:05.0	Maddie, survive here with NPR science reporter Ping Huang, hey, thing.
0:08.4	Hey, Maddie.
0:09.9	How's life working at home for you, thing?
0:12.4	Well, glad you asked Maddie, good to hear your voice.
0:16.7	It's all right.
0:17.7	You know, I am trying to work right next to a construction zone right now.
0:22.1	You might be able to hear a little bit of that noise in the background,
0:24.7	but I do have a little pillow for you to help.
0:27.7	So from my closet to your pillow for today, we are going to talk about an idea
0:32.4	that's been in the air a lot lately that the coronavirus is basically
0:36.6	no worse than the flu.
0:38.2	36,000 deaths a year.
0:40.9	People die.
0:41.7	36 from the flu.
0:43.8	But we've never closed down the country for the flu.
0:46.5	So you say to yourself, what is this all about?
0:49.4	That was the president on Tuesday of this week.
0:52.5	And so the estimated death toll last flu season in the US was about 34,000.
0:57.6	And experts say it can range from around 12,000 deaths a year to 61,000 deaths a year.
1:05.2	By contrast, the coronavirus has killed 1,124 people in the US.
1:11.3	That's as if Thursday when we're taping this according to a Johns Hopkins count.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.