Scientists debate how lethal COVID is. Some say it's now less risky than flu

Has COVID-19 become no more dangerous than the flu for most people?

That's a question that scientists are debating as the country heads into a third winter pandemic. Early in the pandemic, COVID was estimated to be 10 times more lethal than the flu, fueling many people's fears.

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'When does COVID look like influenza?''' says Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco. "And, I would say, 'Yes, we are there.'"

Gandhi and other researchers argue that most people today have enough immunity — gained from vaccination, infection or both — to protect them against getting seriously ill from COVID. And this is especially so since the omicron variant doesn't appear to make people as sick as earlier strains, Gandhi says.

So unless a more virulent variant emerges, COVID's menace has diminished considerably for most people, which means that they can go about their daily lives, says Gandhi, "in a way that you used to live with endemic seasonal flu."