As of Valentine’s Day, 2020, more than 1,700 health workers in China have tested positive for Coronavirus. With headlines continuously marking the growth of the virus’s mortality rate, it’s hard not to share the global anxiety. Clearly, this virus is a big deal.
Formally known as COVID-19, Coronavirus takes 2-14 days after exposure to show symptoms which resemble the normal flu. Coronavirus is the result of a mutation of the influenza virus. We see the flu annually when it arrives in the fall and generally kicks everyone until early spring.
However, there is a big difference between the “normal” influenza (flu) and Coronavirus. These differences can be understood with a little bit of insight into the two general strains of influenza and how they each mutate.
The flu you and your friends probably have come down with in the past few years is likely an influenza Type B virus. Type B viruses mutate gradually by modifying their RNA in small shifts called Antigenic Drift. Viruses don’t have DNA like we do, but both humans and viruses have RNA protein strands in all of our cells. In viruses, RNA codes for the proteins that border the surface of their cells. If an RNA strand is replicating and mutates, the corresponding change in the makeup of the cell itself can make it easier to infect a non-viral cell. With these changes happening all the time in all influenza Type B cells, the CDC and public health community have to constantly make a new general influenza vaccine for each flu season.
Americans are urged to get the influenza vaccine each year by various public health modes of communication. This vaccination is only ever an educated guess by the CDC about what the influenza probably will be this season. It’s impossible to perfectly predict how influenza will mutate its RNA in advance, but public health professionals usually do really well at it. By tracking the mutations and giving patients antibodies against the most likely influenza strain, folks with the vaccine are most likely equipped with the antibodies (which fight the antigens in viruses) to tackle influenza cells.
There are a lot of reasons why many Americans don’t seek out the vaccine, and many of them are because of decades of mistreatment and abuse by the medical field based on patient’s race and gender. Other factors contributing to not getting the influenza vaccine each year include access to a local pharmacy, availability of a free vaccine, transportation to a health clinic, and having the privilege of having time off during office hours when most clinics are open. Though the influenza vaccine is generally free, there are dozens of completely valid reasons why people cannot get the flu vaccine. We have to go significantly out of our way to get any type of health care and meet doctors and health care professionals where they’re at with almost no flexibility. The added layers of difficulty to get health care means that folks of oppressed identities are more likely not to get many health care services, including the influenza vaccine.
With a lack of health literacy in addition to access factors, many people don’t think they need to get the influenza vaccine every year. Let’s be clear: you do need to get the influenza vaccine every year.
Coronavirus is not a strain of influenza Type B. Like H1NI, Coronavirus is a mutated virus from Type A influenza. There have been four pandemics in the past century, and they all are caused by mutations in Type A influenza. These mutations are called Antigenic Shift, in which something super big changes in a influenza strain. A commonly found way for Antigenic Shift to happen is when a virus mutates from being able to infect only animals to being able to infect humans. Since humans don’t have any type of built-up antibody against this strain either naturally or through vaccination, this shifted virus is going to be more dangerous for more people.
On February 16th, 300 American passengers who had been exposed to Coronavirus in Japan were flown back to the US. After this incident, there are now 29 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in the USA. This is a scary number. There are also 71,400 citizens in China infected with Coronavirus, mostly near the virus’ epicenter of Wuhan. These numbers spread about the new virus are scary- pandemic is terrifying.
With increased health literacy, we can understand how the influenza and Coronavirus work and how to stay away from them.
All-in-all, the “normal” influenza is immensely more dangerous than Coronavirus. The burden of influenza in the United States is dependent on the year. The CDC estimates that there have been between 12,000 and 61,000 influenza related deaths in the US since 2010. In the 2018-2019 flu season alone, there were more than 35 million cases of influenza in the United States and more than 34,000 deaths.
Because of how viruses work, people with already weakened immune systems are more likely to be more susceptible to the flu. Furthermore, folks with weakened immune systems or who have not been vaccinated are more likely to have a worse flu experience. People who are minors and children, older, living in poverty or are already sick are more likely to be severely worse off after having than the flu than folks who do not hold those identities. The typical Type B influenza is a much greater danger to public health than Coronavirus, and it has been in the US for decades.
Santa Clara University senior Gavin Cosgrave wrote a response to Coronavirus for The Santa Clara. “As a 20-year-old, you’re much more likely to die in a car accident or from alcohol consumption than from nuclear war or disease pandemic” writes Cosgrave. There is privilege in feeling fear for Coronavirus and never having to worry about seasonal influenza.
“Statistically, the coronavirus is a mere blip on the radar in terms of the death count. So far, 560 deaths have been reported worldwide, compared with almost 80,000 flu deaths during the 2017-2018 season” says Cosgrave.
It’s not your fault you’re scared about Coronavirus- the media response and framing to Coronavirus is not calming. Coronavirus is an entirely new virus, and that’s scary. As a new virus, it’s really hard to prevent spread. However scary this new strain is, it is integral to respond to our anxieties and fears with kindness and intentionality.
Unfortunately, many are acting with race-based aggression. One teen who is Asian-American was physically attacked and abused by peers in his high school hallway in San Fernando Valley. Senior Contributor to Forbes Bruce Y. Lee published a piece on anti-Asian racism in the midst of Coronavirus, saying “a number of bullies don’t even seem to be distinguishing among different people of East Asian descent, lumping together those of Chinese-descent, Taiwanese-descent, Korean-descent, Japanese-decent, etc.” In the heat of a pandemic affecting thousands, many are responding with continued and chosen aggression.
A SLU junior and Women’s and Gender Studies’ major commented on how Americans are responding to the virus’ headlines with prejudice and racial bias against folks of East Asian and specifically Chinese descent or who identify as such. She said:
“You can put a non-similar face to (Coronavirus). You can put a face you can recognize as foreign. It doesn’t feel like it’s something that is happening to everyone around you, it feels like this other thing that is isolated and you like to keep it isolated then and keep the hype around it will keep people down. I think people don’t have a good sense of what the flu means in general so when we think it comes from animals or a type of person that you can identify with our eyes you feel scared of it because you’re scared of every person that looks like that and you feel safer from it because we feel that you can recognize it. People sensationalize it as this huge issue affecting everyone, but I think it’s how US medicine deals with foreign originating illness and illness that doesn’t impact the United States. These two issues reveal the true colors of the nation.”
The SLU student interviewed highlights how societal racism contributes to action. There is never any reason to spread racist language and to show aggression and contempt towards folks of East Asian descent. Specifically, it is integral that we raise each other to a standard of compassion and call out or in people making racist judgments and mistakes. Shaming someone infected with Coronavirus is not how to respond to fear. Shaming someone because of their race is not how to respond to fear. We are all hurting under the strain of pandemic, and people with infected friends and family are hurting much differently than those who are not.
There are a lot of reasons contributing to who gets sick and how badly people feel illness and respond to viruses. It’s on us to learn about what’s going on in the world and to respond with grace and kindness. With expanded health literacy, we can all be better advocates for each other, increased public health literacy, and for anti-racist reponses to health crises. Public health officials in organizations and federal departments have already been activated in order to respond to cases of the virus in the US as quickly and with as much caution as possible to ensure that our communities stay as healthy as possible.
The level of response towards Coronavirus is not being issued towards the seasonal influenza. Beyond the creation of an annual vaccine packed with antibody-creating agents. It’s hard to get the flu shot without a lot of privilege, and it’s harder to survive any type of flu without privileged identities.
Nobody should be dying because of any strain of influenza- especially any strain that we already know.