The Coronavirus vs. Malaria: Answering Questions and Comparing Death Tolls

coronavirus vs. malaria

Every twelve hours, I get an email telling me what’s trending on Google. And, for the last six days straight, I have not gone a day without getting an email about coronavirus search results. From “coronavirus cure?” to “coronavirus tips”, Google has been buzzing with that one, fateful word: coronavirus.

What is the coronavirus?

According to the CDC, the coronavirus is “a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person. The virus that causes COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that was first identified during an investigation into an outbreak in Wuhan, China.”

The description given by the CDC refers only the strand known as “COVID-19”. The virus is incurable and will only be beaten by quarantine and the creation/implementation of a vaccine. To date, the death toll has reached 268,000 from 3,880,000 cases worldwide. It has officially been classified as a pandemic and has created a level of global panic never before seen.

What are the symptoms?

• fever
• cough
• shortness of breath

As you can see, the disease (while harshly contagious), does not do much outright damage. Its full power is only seen when it affects people with compromised or aging immunities. In other words, you’re above the age of 70, have AIDS/HIV, or have a compromised immunity, you’ll be just fine.

How does it spread?

Like any other virus, it is spread through communication of germs. Being in close contact or proximity with someone with the virus increases your chance of receiving it. It can be received through shaking hands, hugging, breathing the same air they breathe, or touching an area they touched with a contaminated hand (although this is not as common). The best ways to avoid receiving it are through washing your hands regularly, especially before meals, and avoiding contact between your hands and your face.

Now that you understand the virus and its implications, you can also see just how much the media has exaggerated its impact. Of course it’s dangerous, and it has killed people, but there are several factors at play here, the most important being the death toll. The percentage of deaths per case is very low, usually below 6%. In comparison to the almost unreal Ebola death percentage of 90%, this seems mild.

This is no cause to underestimate the disease. Even at a 5% death toll, if 100 million people contract the disease, that’s still around 5 million deaths. As a number, this doesn’t sound large, but that many deaths would still be roughly 4 times the amount of American soldiers that have died in the entire history of the country. (Email me if you’d like the resources on the statistics I have given).

Having already compared the virus to both ebola and the United States Army deaths, we now turn to a bigger rival- malaria.

Coronavirus vs. Malaria

As stated previously, the coronavirus has had (over the past few months) 173,000 cases and 6,500 deaths. Again, these numbers are not to be taken lightly, yet at the same time, they seem to be plebeian numbers when compared to malaria.

Malaria is the leading cause of death in Uganda, causing over 27% of all deaths and infecting almost half of the entire Ugandan population per year. Killing over 10,000 people yearly, the disease is massive in a country the size of the state of Michigan, yet containing 40 million people.

Malaria and Ebola are both far worse then the coronavirus, and yet receive a lot less attention. Of course, Ebola and Malaria aren’t affecting over 3,000,000 people globally, but their death rates put their rival to shame. However, due to the unexpected rise in coronavirus cases, the coronavirus vs. malaria case still remains open, with both sides showing their true colors. Thankfully, the possibility of a drug to combat coronavirus has been ironically found within chloroquine, a medication commonly used to treat malaria. Chloroquine is still being tested, but doctors are beginning to use it on patients infected with the coronavirus.

At the end of the day, the fear behind the virus’ spread is valid. Sadly, if this fear continues to increase, we could soon find ourselves in global crisis. Be safe, don’t act stupid, and remember- God is in control, and there are sicknesses out there that are far worse than this one.


Alright, that’s all for today. Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this post. If you did, make sure to click that Follow button below (or to the side). That way, when I release new content, you’ll get notified. Thanks again, and I hope you have a fantastic day!

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27 thoughts on “The Coronavirus vs. Malaria: Answering Questions and Comparing Death Tolls

  1. Great post, thanks for sharing. I honestly don’t know what to think about this whole coronavirus thing… Most people are definitely overreacting and getting overly scared, though there is some reason for that. When you compare the coronavirus with even just the flu, its numbers are small in comparison to the very normal sickness people often get. I don’t know what the future holds, but I think that all we need to do is: Stay strong through this as a people, keep personal hygiene (which, obviously everyone should be doing already…), look out for yourself and those around you, and most importantly, trust God through this. Whatever happens, He’s got it all under control, and there’s no reason to freak out or anything, when we know that God is in control.
    Anyways, pardon my long comment. Again, thanks for the great post. Keep up the good work!

    Liked by 1 person

  2. NoahJ

    It is really funny to see all the people freaking out about Coronavirus and its not even that bad. It might even be called a ‘Baby Virus’ when compared to Ebola or Malaria 🤣🤣

    Liked by 1 person

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  4. I do not think COVID-19 is over-hyped. Remember Ebola never made it to the US or /Canada, that I know of. Malaria also effects a certain geographic area and that is the key. The Cornavirus has no boundaries. It is a cross-over virus from animals to humans. People in bad health will most likely die from it. You can have it for 5 days and not even know it, but still be contagious. The spread has been geometric.. See this link:

    The real tragedy here is that China hid it for so long.

    “We currently do not know where 2019-nCoV falls on the scale of human-to-human transmissibility. But it is safe to assume that if this virus transmits efficiently, its seemingly lower pathogenicity as compared with SARS, possibly combined with super-spreader events in specific cases, could allow large-scale spread. In this manner, a virus that poses a low health threat on the individual level can pose a high risk on the population level, with the potential to cause disruptions of global public health systems and economic losses. This possibility warrants the current aggressive response aimed at tracing and diagnosing every infected patient and thereby breaking the transmission chain of 2019-nCoV.”

    Take care Africa Boy, bless you and your work. You are very advanced for your age , Good parenting I guess. We need more of that in the US.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Thank you very much, and you are correct. I appreciate you taking the time to correct me, and I’ll adjust the mistakes I’ve made in the post.
      xD my parents would be pleased to hear that, thank you very much, sir.


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