A: No, it’s not, in many ways.
Infographic below lays it out nicely. Big differences are:
* COVID-19 has a higher “R0” or reproductive number –1 sick person can infect 2.0-2.5 other people.
* COVID-19 has a longer “incubation period” — time interval from exposure to symptoms. (And more time when you can asymptomatically “shed” virus — infecting others before you even know you’re sick.)
* COVID-19 puts more people in the hospital — by a factor of almost 10x.
*COVID-19 likely has a higher “case fatality rate” (proportion of infected people who die of the disease.)
