Breanne White, a student from University of Michigan, receives an influenza vaccination at a local supermarket pharmacy, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the United States, Jan. 19, 2013. (Xinhua/Tony Ding)

 
For Americans, the flu is a far graver health threat than novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, despite all the anxieties and media hype on the latter, new statistics from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows.

The flu has caused the deaths of 14,000 to 36,000 Americans, hospitalized at least 250,000 and sickened 26 to 36 million people in the current flu season in the United States, according to recent statistics from U.S. CDC.

A sign advertising the availability of flu shots is put outside a CVS pharmacy store in New York, the United States, Jan. 15, 2013.(Xinhua/Wang Lei)

 
On the other hand, there are only 15 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, with no death reported. Globally, COVID-19 has killed less than 2,000.

The fact is, a Chinese visitor visiting the United States at this time is 10,000 times more likely to die from influenza than an American visiting China is of dying from coronavirus, Simon Murray, a renowned U.S. expert wrote on clinical news portal HCPLive.

Every season flu sickens millions of Americans, hospitalizes hundreds of thousands, and kills tens of thousands. Previously, the 2017-2018 flu season was the most severe in a decade in the U.S..

The 2018-2019 season is record-breaking in duration, with continuous surges of flu activity. The U.S. had two different waves of flu, the first caused by H1N1 viruses and the second caused by H3N2 viruses.