Despite the belief that Covid is no longer a serious virus, the disease is still more deadly than the flu, new research has shown.
Patients hospitalized with Covid in the past year were more than 35 percent more likely to die compared to those hospitalized with seasonal flu, a study by doctors at the VA St Louis Healthcare System in Missouri found.
But the research also acknowledged that rates of serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths from Covid have fallen sharply since the first year of the pandemic, when Covid was five times more deadly than the flu.
It comes as the latest Covid variants, dubbed ‘FLiRT’, are sweeping the country after mutating the virus in a way that evades the human immune system.
Covid had consistently caused a higher percentage of deaths in the United States than the flu until the end of 2023.
Covid deaths have decreased dramatically in the last two years. The death rate for the week ending May 4, 2024 is just 153, compared to 4,165 for the same week in 2021.
The study, published in JAMAHe pointed out that between 2023 and 2024 there were almost twice as many hospitalizations for Covid than for flu.
In the first year of the pandemic, hospitalized patients were almost five times more likely to die than flu patients.
The researchers used the US Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health databases and included patients who had a diagnosis of Covid or seasonal flu between October 1, 2023 and March 27, 2024.
This resulted in 2,647 flu patients and 8,625 Covid patients.
They followed the participants for 30 days, until their death, or until March 31, 2024.
Those with Covid had a 5.7 percent death rate after 30 days, compared to those with flu who had a 4.24 percent death rate.
Covid can cause different flu complications, such as blood clots and long Covid.
Last month, the CDC detected KP.1.1 and KP.2 variants in wastewater sampling and found that the latter accounted for about a quarter of new Covid cases.
The researchers used the US Department of Veterans Affairs electronic health databases and included patients who had a diagnosis of Covid or seasonal flu between October 1, 2023 and March 27, 2024.
The average age of both flu and Covid patients was 74, and the overwhelming majority were men.
New Covid variants have continued to emerge, including the emergence of JN.1, the main variant in the US since late December 2023.
The researchers noted that there was no significant difference in the risk of death between those hospitalized with Covid before and during the predominant JN.1 era, suggesting that JN.1 was no more deadly than the previous ones.
Last month, the CDC detected KP.1.1 and KP.2 variants in wastewater sampling and found that the latter accounted for about a quarter of new Covid cases.
But an infectious diseases doctor told DailyMail.com that these new mutations, which alter the coronavirus’ ‘spike proteins’, also appear to make the pandemic disease less able to penetrate and infect human cells.
This counterintuitive advantage has medical professionals warning of an impending wave of Covid this summer, which should make these sneakier, but less infectious, strains of the virus more common.
Covid deaths have decreased dramatically in the last two years.
The death rate for the week ending May 4, 2024 is just 153, compared to 4,165 for the same week in 2021.