Here’s Why The Flu Poses A Bigger Risk Than The Coronavirus – Peoria Public Radio

China is facing one of its largest public health crises: the outbreak of the novel coronavirus.

But U.S. healthcare officials are far more concerned about the spread of other viruses, like the flu.

WCBU talked to Lori Grooms, director of infection prevention for OSF HealthCare, about why the flu poses a bigger threat.

Dana Vollmer: Explain why people are more at risk of contracting the flu than coronavirus.

Lori Grooms, director of infection prevention for OSF HealthCare, talks to reporter Dana Vollmer.

Lori Grooms: The flu is something that we see every year and it is commonly circulating. The coronavirus that they're hearing on the news, while there are cases in the United States, the chances of coming in contact with the virus itself are very, very low. The flu virus, it's more common. You could come across somebody at the grocery store, because we all feel like we can wait it out. We have a cough, so I can go to the store and I can get the medicine to take care of it. I can go to work when I'm sick, because I'm just that important that I need to be at work. Unfortunately, because we have the idea that the flu is no big deal and we can go to work with it, we tend to spread it on to others.

DV: Why do people tend to worry about things like coronavirus, but not always think of the flu as potentially deadly?

LG:Because it's new. We're always more scared by the things that we don't know about. Because the flu circulates every year, it's something that we're used to seeing. The coronavirus, we don't know a lot about it and we're being told that we don't know a lot about it. That in itself makes people afraid. Even when you hear things from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or from the World Health Organization, they're still investigating. They can't tell us exactly everything about this virus because it is so new and there's they're still learning about it. That's what makes people afraid.

DV: What role does social media play in spreading misinformation about virus outbreaks?

LG: Social media, while it's a wonderful thing, it can also be a detriment. Not everything you see on the internet is true. With that, misinformation can spread very easily. What I always try to do is defer back to the experts. If you really want information, CDC has a very good website that anyone in the public can get on to and read the World Health Organization the same way. Those are the organizations that are actually investigating and looking at this virus. They have the most up-to-date and the most current information. The Illinois Department of Public Health also has the most current information. You're not always going to find that with every other website.

DV: The coronavirus is not the first major respiratory virus to pop up in recent years.

LG: It happens every two to three years. I've been in my role in infection prevention for over 15 years. Every two or three years, we're having discussions about a virus that has changed and the transmission is a little bit different. We've seen it with SARS, we've seen it with [MERS] in the more recent years. It's not something that is new to the healthcare profession. We've been planning for things like this. And once something like this comes up, infection prevention at your hospitals, your emergency preparedness we're ready to handle it. We keep current on the information and we just make tweaks to what we're doing on an everyday basis.

DV: Is it inevitable that more viruses like this will surface?

LG: Yes. Viruses are genetic makeup, so anytime you have genes you have the ability for them to change as they reproduce. So you will always see changes in viruses. The thing about the coronavirus that you're hearing on the news the one coming out of Wuhan, China is that this was spread from animals to humans at the start. That always causes concern. Once it is caught by humans, we don't know what's going to happen. You're seeing a lot of cases in China because of that because it's a new strain circulating in humans, but it had been in animals for years.

DV: What do you say to people who are still concerned about contracting coronavirus -- should they postpone their travel plans?

LG: My professional answer is to investigate. Would I travel to China right now? Not unless it was essential. CDC has a travel website that anyone can go to and actually put in the country that they are looking to travel to, and they can see whether or not they recommend traveling to that country. At this point in time, Chinais not recommended to travel for leisure and it is only for, like I said, essential travel. Other countries, if you're traveling there, I would go to the website and I would look it up.

DV: Any other advice for people to protect themselves?

LG: All I would say is that with any infection, with any virus it's the basic preventative measures: if there's a vaccine available, get the vaccine; frequent handwashing; avoid touching your eyes, your nose and your mouth without clean without clean hands; coughing into your elbow, coughing into a tissue and throwing it away; cleaning your hands after you've coughed; staying home if you're sick and avoiding purse other persons who are ill.

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Here's Why The Flu Poses A Bigger Risk Than The Coronavirus - Peoria Public Radio