每日外刊丨0211 - 新型冠状病毒和流感比起来怎么样？

一个多月前，一些曾到过中国湖北省武汉市一家海鲜市场的人被查出感染了一种全新的病毒，随后疫情出现了扩散。目前，这一新型冠状病毒已经扩散到了十几个国家。世界卫生组织表示将成立一个专家组以判定出现在中国的新型冠状病毒是否已经出现全球性的大爆发。这是人类在社交媒体时代面临的第一场由新型病毒导致的瘟疫大流行，网络上充满了恐慌和不确定的气氛。在Twitter和WhatsApp等社交平台上，情绪化的不实信息像野火一样扩散，这使得人们很难了解此次疫情的真实情况。在某种程度上来说，这一新型病毒本身就意味着很强的不确定性，人类对其仍然知之甚少，科学家和医学专家们仍在尽最大努力加强对这种病毒的了解。与此同时，美国近期遭到第二波季节性的流行性感冒侵袭。那么新型冠状病毒真的那么恐怖吗？它和流感比起来怎么样？

In the depths of winter I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer.

The new coronavirus outbreak has made headlines in recent weeks, but there's another viral epidemic hitting countries around the world: flu season. But how do these viruses compare, and which one is really more worrisome?

So far, the new coronavirus, dubbed 2019-nCoV, has led to more than 20,000 illnesses and 493 deaths in China, as well as more than 200 illnesses and two deaths outside of mainland China(05/02/2020). But that's nothing compared with the flu, also called influenza. In the U.S. alone, the flu has already caused an estimated 19 million illnesses, 180,000 hospitalizations and 10,000 deaths this season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Both seasonal flu viruses (which include influenza A and influenza B viruses) and 2019-nCoV are contagious viruses that cause respiratory illness. Typical flu symptoms include fever, cough, sore throat, muscle aches, headaches, runny or stuffy nose, fatigue and, sometimes, vomiting and diarrhea, according to the CDC. In a recent study of about 100 people with the virus, the most common symptoms were fever, cough and shortness of breath. Only about 5% of patients in that study reported sore throat and runny nose, and only 1-2% reported diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.