In the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were trying to understand the severity of the disease, many comparisons were drawn between this disease and influenza. These comparisons have been a major cause of confusion and misinterpretation. Comparisons with seasonal flu, the influenza virus that comes every winter, led to the idea that the severity of the disease was similar, not taking into account that the virus that causes COVID-19 is new in the population, or that, unlike influenza, no vaccine or efficient antiviral treatment is known. The other comparison was with pandemic influenza, in particular the Spanish Influenza that caused tens of millions of deaths in 1918. The virus responsible for the 1918 pandemic was new in the population, expanded quickly, and caused a significant number of deaths in young adults. That was a time of global war, when influenza viruses were not even known to be the causative agent, and treatments were less developed.