Coronavirus is quite different from the flu. It’s genetically totally different and in particular, its mode of operation is entirely different.

Think of a virus as a hacker that has some exploit into the human immune system — a backdoor into our operating system.

COVID-19 has a brand-new exploit and that’s why it’s so successful. It operates quite differently — for example, many people die when the infection goes to their heart, which never happens with the flu.

The fact that they share the symptom of respiratory distress means little — lots of diseases do, because the lungs are a very nice place for viruses and germs to grow in.

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Humans have spent tens of billions of dollars attempting to beat the flu, but with only partial success. The issue is that the flu keeps mutating faster than we can catch up.

For example, flu shots are cultured and need to be prepared months in advance. So scientists have to guess in the summer what the most popular new mutation is going to be in the winter. About half the time they get it wrong, and the flu shot’s effectiveness is dramatically decreased. I’m amazed they get it right as often as they do, to be honest.

Better gene sequencing, which is a happening topic, can help with this, but it’s complicated by the fact that the United States spends comparatively little money on preventative medicine, which isn’t very profitable.