This article as originally published in March.

As coronavirus infections began appearing across the United States, in cities from Seattle to New York, Americans wondered how to measure this new threat against a more familiar foe: influenza.

President Trump, a self-described germophobe, has said he was amazed to learn that tens of thousands of Americans died from the flu each year. On several occasions, Mr. Trump has accused the news media and Democrats of exaggerating the dangers of the coronavirus.

“The flu kills people,” Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, said in February. “This is not Ebola. It’s not SARS, it’s not MERS. It’s not a death sentence.”

To many public health officials, that argument misses the point.

Yes, the flu is terrible — that’s exactly why scientists don’t want another contagious respiratory disease to take root. If they could stop the seasonal flu, they would. But there may yet be a chance to stop the coronavirus, or at least slow its spread.