COVID-19 remained deadlier than influenza this past season, although the difference in mortality shrunk compared with past years, according to a study comparing outcomes of patients hospitalized with the illnesses. “In the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, two U.S. studies suggested that people hospitalized for COVID-19 had nearly five times the risk of 30-day mortality compared with those hospitalized for seasonal influenza,” Yan Xie, PhD, senior clinical epidemiologist at the Saint Louis VA Health Care System’s Clinical Epidemiology Center, and colleagues wrote. “Since then, much has changed, including SARS-CoV-2 itself, clinical care, and population-level immunity; mortality from influenza may have also changed,” Xie said and colleagues wrote. Because of this, the researchers sought to determine if COVID-19 was still associated with a higher risk for death compared with seasonal influenza during the fall and winter of 2022-2023. According to the study, the researchers used patient data from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs...
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