Listen: Which Is The Greater Threat — The Coronavirus Or The Flu?

Kaiser Health News reporter Liz Szabo talked to Connecticut Public Radio about the risks of the novel coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, compared with influenza.

Although Americans are donning face masks to protect themselves from the coronavirus, experts say that influenza poses a much greater risk. Influenza kills more Americans each year than any other virus. So far this winter, the flu has sickened 19 million people, has hospitalized 180,000 and killed 10,000, including 68 children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet only 45% of adults are vaccinated against the flu.