What they found was that only one in four people with the flu seek medical care, and only one in 25 people with a cold will do so.
But it doesn’t answer the question. Even knowing the answer, what does it buy us ?
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At one time, retail establishments, school teachers etc. had to take a TB test to be allowed to work in situations where they could spread the disease.
As more was learned, they found out it was possible to quarantine the people at home and still prevent the spread, so instead of a sanitorium, they stayed at home, and were treated with antibiotics.
Once they were no longer infectious, the quarantine was lifted. So it is important to know when an individual is no longer infectious.
Likewise, it is important to know when a person becomes infectious, in order to know how far back to trace their contacts.
As a culture, we have traditionally sort of ignored colds, and the flu in favor of being “hardy” and working. Bosses have not been very understanding about absence at work with just a cold or flu.
And yet, elderly and frail people need to avoid both of those. My Dad was homebound for 5 years after his stroke, and I took care of him. He got some colds and flu that caused him to have to be hospitalized several times. I know that he caught it from the home health workers that came a couple of times a week.
When he was in the hospital, a couple of nurses, advised me that they should be home due to their respiratory illnesses, but their supervisors would “write them up” if they did. So that might have to change a bit—Corona Chan seems to be so much more contagious.
Such a change might also reduce the deaths from “just the flu” each year too.