to tell you that up to 30,000 people have died in the US from the flu this year

[chomalungma]

www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm

Just to put things slightly in perspective about Coronavirus.

The US is a massive population of course.
331 million people.

So that's about 1 in 11,000 people - although that will vary depending on certain categories.

YANBU. People underestimate how serious flu can be. Partly, I suspect, because people are forever claiming to have flu when they just have a bit of a cold...

YANBU to remind people flu can be lethal. YABU to do it as a way to argue that coronavirus is nothing to worry about it in comparison.

It's not about where coronavirus is right now in terms of numbers killed - it's about where it looks like it's going.

It doesn't really put a future threat into perspective though.

The poor people of Wuhan are in a bad way. The overwhelm of their health services is sobering.

if 30,000 people died with flu how many would have had the strain that was being vaccinated for that year and how many a different srain? How many were all ready sick or had compromised imune systems?

Hang on it says 12,000-30,000 well thats a bit of a difference isnt it. Which one ids it?

That says 12000-30000 not exactly precise, is it?

if 30,000 people died with flu how many would have had the strain that was being vaccinated for that year and how many a different srain? How many were all ready sick or had compromised imune systems

All good questions.
And as you pointed out, attributing a death to flu is hard to do.

But there are a lot of deaths - although very low relative to a population.

Big numbers do sound scary - but need to be looked at in context with the probability.

The flu has always been around, this virus is new, it has killed over 1000 people(i bet its higher, the Chinese government is not exactly to be trusted)