PORT ANGELES – Flu season now has an extra added threat with the recent addition of the coronavirus.

Clallam County Health Officer, Dr. Allison Berry Unthank on both the viruses:

“We are seeing influenza circulating widely in the community, within all of our clinics and all of our hospitals. We have not had any flu related deaths yet this year, which is good, but we are seeing it pretty widespread in our community and certainly seeing it a lot in our emergency departments. As far as coronavirus goes, we actually are not seeing any of that yet in Clallam County. We don’t have any patients that we think have coronavirus. We did have one person who we were observing who had recently traveled back from China. But that person has ended their 14-day window of observation and has not developed the virus. We currently have no one in Clallam County who were observing to make sure they don’t have the virus.”

We asked Dr. Unthank to go into a more detailed comparison between the regular flu and the Corona Virus.

“So far what we know about coronavirus is that it is more deadly than the flu. It’s not one of the more super deadly viruses that we think about.  It’s not Ebola, it’s not SARS. It has what  seems to be about a two percent mortality rate for people who get exposed to the virus. When you compare that to SARS, for example, that had a 10% mortality rate and the flu has about 0.01 percent mortality rate. It’s more deadly than the flu if you get it, but out here, we’re much more likely to get the flu because the flu is all around the place and cronovirus is not.”

Most of the deaths associated with the Coronavirus, tend to be the elderly and those with compromised medical conditions. The young seem to do better in combating the Corona Virus than the elderly.

Dr. Unthank had some suggestions for protecting yourself against both the flu and the Corona Virus.

“We don’t have a vaccine for Coronavirus. We do have a vaccine for the flu. So we still recommend that everybody get vaccinated for the flu. Even if you haven’t been vaccinated yet. There is still time. You can still do it. And then mainly prevent infections with BOTH of these viruses. The number one thing you want to do is wash your hands and don’t touch your face and then don’t go out if you’re sick. Now we’re working hard to get ready so that we are prepared. If and when this virus actually does come to our community so that we are able to respond quickly, but right now we don’t have it here.”

The current flu shot is formulated for current flu strains but is not considered as an effective defense against the coronavirus. The CDC is currently still working to develop a vaccine for the Corona strain.