Around the world, COVID-19, otherwise known as the Wuhan virus or coronavirus has made headlines around the world and, as of this writing, appears to be spreading at the level of a pandemic. There have been more than 90,000 cases worldwide and over 3,000 deaths. The virus was first identified in Wuhan City in the Hubei Province of China.

There are a number of coronaviruses that have been identified by humans, but COVID-19 is a ‘novel’ coronavirus, meaning it has not been previously observed or described in humans. Coronaviruses can be passed between human and animals and can cause respiratory distress, pneumonia, and death.

But another virus, one much more dangerous and deadly, is sweeping the globe as well. It presently exists in every single state. [1] It’s no mystery virus, nor is it novel like COVID-19. You’ve undoubtedly heard of it – it is influenza.

Related: Scientists Confirm a Person Can Carry And Transmit COVID-19 Without Showing Symptoms

An underestimated threat

Okay, before you roll your eyes, sigh, and click the back button, consider for a moment how lethal and infectious influenza is. During winter 2019-2020, it infected 13 million Americans, resulted in 120,000 hospitalizations, and killed 6,600. [2] In an exceptionally harsh flu season, as many as 61,000 Americans can die.

“When we think about the relative danger of this new coronavirus and influenza, there’s just no comparison,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and health policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Coronavirus will be a blip on the horizon in comparison. The risk is trivial.”

The problem isn’t localized to the United States, either. A severe flu season can kill more than half a million people worldwide. [3] Yet influenza doesn’t get nearly the attention that COVID-19 has received. The fact is, most people aren’t all that concerned. Currently, there is no cure for COVID-19, but there things you can do for influenza. Ultimately, influenza is just too familiar for many, but it doesn’t mean it’s not dangerous.

Taking precautions against the flu

Not even half of Americans opted to get a flu shot during this most recent flu season. [4] Only 62% of children received the vaccine, even though children, as well as the elderly, are the most vulnerable to the worst effects of influenza. [4] Most Americans aren’t afraid of influenza the way they are more novel diseases, like Ebola, Zika, and now COVID-19. Schaffner believes that our familiarity with the disease has lead to indifference about its impact.

“Familiarity breeds indifference,” said Schaffner. “Because it’s new, it’s mysterious and comes from an exotic place, the coronavirus creates anxiety.”

Similarly, measles, a disease largely extinct in the western hemisphere, killed 5,000 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the last year – twice as many as Ebola, a disease most Americans believe to be considerably more intimidating. [5]

Related: How to Prep For a Quarantine

It may be familiar, but don’t let your guard down

Schaffner worries that the existence of a flu shot doesn’t help the cause of raising awareness of influenza. And in recent years, the vaccine has offered as little as 19% protection against the virus. [6] COVID-19 inspires fear in people more so than influenza because there simply is no cure and little else we can do at this time. It’s a novel virus, meaning it’s completely new to humans. Our bodies don’t have antibodies to protect against it, which means we humans haven’t been able to develop a cure or a vaccine.

This isn’t to say that COVID-19 is not a dangerous virus. In the United States, more than 100 people have tested positive for the virus and 6 have died. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says that the situation in the US is “an evolving situation.”

“We’re dealing with clearly an emerging infectious disease that is now reached outbreak proportions and likely pandemic proportions,” Dr. Fauci told NBC Nightly News’ Richard Engel. [7] “If you look at, you know, by multiple definitions of what a pandemic is, the fact is this is multiple sustained transmissions of a highly infectious agent in multiple regions of the globe.”

“We need to be at least thinking about the possibility if we get a major outbreak of this coronavirus in this country,” the doctor said. “That would mean perhaps closing schools temporarily, getting people to do more teleworking, canceling events where there is a lot of crowds in confined places, canceling unnecessary travels so that you’re not on an airplane for five hours with a bunch of people who might be infected.”

Keep Reading: Expert Warns Coronavirus Could Infect 60% of World’s Population

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