Comment by arcticbull

Because it's spreading so very fast, and nobody has any pre-existing immunity to this new disease. The flu kills 60,000 Americans every year and so far COVID has killed about 10,000 -- over roughly the same flu season time period. The difference is that the flu is spread out over time and is fighting some pre-existing immunity and flu shots. It also has a lot to do with excess capacity. If there suddenly appeared a new disease exactly as fatal as the flu, that would kill another 60,000 Americans per year and 650,000 people worldwide. There's not really capacity for that.