The R0 (infectivity) of influenza is typically less for influenza than covid, and the time a person is contagious is about a day for flu vs. several days for covid.
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I think you could say both are very contagious, but Covid is worse. So when we saw the effects of shutting down and masking, it was much more apparent for flu because it almost completely shut it down. I have no doubt whatsoever that had we not, the peaks in that chart for covid would have been much higher, and the death rates, both directly from covid and indirectly because health care was overwhelmed.
The emergence of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) not only poses a serious threat to the health of people worldwide but also affects the global economy. The outbreak of COVID-19 began in December 2019, at the same time as the influenza season. However, ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov