Patrick Bardill, Ph.D.:
SARS-CoV-2 is not closely related to the influenza virus that causes the flu. They share some characteristics, as both are respiratory viruses with lipid membranes, but there are many differences based on other characteristics that indicate they are not closely related.
Jack Lipton, Ph.D.:
I think people associate Covid-19 and influenza for a couple of reasons.
One, diseases have cycles that start somewhere geographically and move somewhere geographically, and the annual flu migrates from East and Southeast Asia, and generally end up in Europe and the Americas several months later.
Two, there have been a lot of political discussions that connect the two based on fatality rates. The reality is that there is no relation between the two at all. It makes people comfortable to try to find equivalence, in order to better understand something unknown. In doing this with Covid-19 and influenza, people connect the two diseases in a manner that downplays the seriousness of Covid-19. Influenza sounds innocuous to them — and makes it feel less scary. This is ultimately detrimental to all of us, as it encourages others to take the novel coronavirus less seriously.