Fox News Reminds Viewers: No Comparison Between Coronavirus and Other Pandemics That Killed Millions
Fox News helpfully reminded its viewers that that ongoing coronavirus outbreak that has claimed more than 3,000 lives worldwide — and caused six deaths in the United States — has, so far, killed far fewer people than the millions lost to smallpox and the Spanish flu pandemic from a century ago.
During her Monday night show, anchor Shannon Bream offered this historical context to the worldwide spread of coronavirus. with guest Dr. Marc Siegal, who she introduced by saying he would “separate fact from fiction.”
“The World Health Organization fears a so-called disease X, which is a new pathogen with potential to cause an epidemic,” Siegal began. “The way they explain it, it sounds like we may be in huge trouble if we get hit by a disease X.”
Then the Fox News medical expert said: “I do not know if this novel coronavirus is a disease X. But here’s what we do know, COVD-19 seems to be more contagious than the flu, spreading by air, by coughing, sneezing, speaking or touch, to more than two people for every one who has it. But it also has its limitations.” According to the WHO, infected droplets expelled from a person can only travel roughly one meter before settling on surfaces, where they can rest for days waiting to infect someone else.
“By comparison, the flu has infected more than 30 million people in the U.S. this year alone. The coronavirus still has less than 100 documented cases here,” Siegal said, without noting that that number is expected to increase substantially based on past transmission patterns.
“So far this Coronavirus has a higher death rate than the flu,” he added, before contrasting the coronavirus outbreak to the worst-ever pandemic in modern history, the deadly 1918 Spanish flu, “which infected more than 500 million people and killed at least 50 million worldwide with 675,000 in the U.S. alone.”
Again differentiating with coronavirus, which has already slowed the global economy and sickened nearly 100,000 people in just over two months, Siegal noted that smallpox was responsible for 300 to 500 million deaths in the last century before the smallpox vaccine effectively eliminated the disease worldwide. “The vaccine for this coronavirus is still several months off, which is part of what has people concerned,” he said, before adding an ominous caveat: “On the other hand, at this point, there is simply no comparison between this virus and the major viral killers of the recent past.”
Watch the video above, via Fox News.
