Fact check: Ron Paul claims coronavirus deadlier than flu …

The claim: The nations top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, testified to Congress that the death rate for the coronavirus is 10 times that of the seasonal flu, a claim without any scientific basis. Ron Paul, former Texas congressman and candidate for president.

Paul, who is a doctor, made the claim in a column posted on his website. He also called Fauci the chief fearmonger of the Trump Administration.

PolitiFact ruling: False. We wont know for some time what the actual death rate is for people who contract the current coronavirus, COVID-19. But based on figures that are available, its indicated to be at least 10 times higher than the death rate from the flu.

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Discussion: Pauls post was flagged as part of Facebooks efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed.

Fauci is taking the seasonal influenza death rate to be approximately 0.1 percent and the coronavirus to be about 1 percent, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Universitys Center for Health Security.

PolitiFact is a fact-checking project to help you sort out fact from fiction in politics. Truth-O-Meter ratings are determined by a panel of three editors. The burden of proof is on the speaker, and PolitiFact rates statements based on the information known at the time the statement is made

While it is early in the outbreak, there is enough data to say that 1 percent is likely a fairly reasonable approximation with some scientific basis in data.

In some contexts, public health experts have said its too early in the coronavirus outbreak to know exactly what its death rate is.

While the numbers arent all precise, there is a basis for what Fauci said.

Based solely on the numbers, youre more likely to die if you get the 2019 coronavirus than if you get the flu. (Several factors apply, such as age and health.)

A study of 44,672 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in China diagnosed as of Feb. 11, 2020, from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention found a fatality rate of 2.3 percent. Other figures and studies published in early to mid-March by the World Health Organization have placed the fatality rate at 3.4 percent and 3.9 percent.

The flu death rate is much lower.

In its latest weekly report on the 2019-20 flu, for the week ending March 7, 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there have been 36 million flu illnesses and 22,000 deaths. Thats a rate of 0.06%.

The case fatality ratio dividing reported deaths by reported cases is only a snapshot and the rate can vary considerably during an outbreak, the WHO said.

We will not have a clear CFR until the outbreak is over, WHO said in a statement, adding that the CFR can change if it is discovered that there are many more milder cases than originally thought, and can vary by country based demographic factors, such as age.