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Ah, ok.
However "flu" is not arbitrary and random. Influenza viruses belong to different genera in the family Orthomyxoviridae. If a virus belongs to a genus in a different family, it's not an influenza virus. If you study taxonomy you'll see that the differences between genera (and indeed between species within a genus) can often be more "apparent" than those between families. However there will be key identifying attributes that will have led to each species being classified in one genus or another. Occasionally (or often, in some orders!) further research leads to things being reclassified, or merged together, or split apart; taxonomy is very definitely not a static thing. Further, as science develops new ways of classifying things, (DNA sequencing for instance) the changes can sometimes be quite radical. Not, however, arbitrary. When "experts" describe the grouping of viruses into "influenza" or "not influenza", it's very likely that either those experts are medical doctors rather than taxonomists (and hence neither know nor need to know the criteria) or are taxonomists who know the differences but cannot explain them in layman's terms. There are, I'm sure, aspects of software development which to you are quite distinct, but that you would struggle to explain to a layman in a sentence or two.
Three of the genera within Orthomyxoviridae have names that start influenza but others don't. It's probably historical, and related to the reclassification processes mentioned above, that some are actually called influenza and others are not. Coronaviruses belong to a different family, Coronaviridae
Then again, the term "flu" has come to mean, in common parlance, a wide range of viruses that may not be influenza at all, and perhaps much of the "it isn't flu" response comes from conflating the common parlance term with the scientific definition.
Regardless of what it is or isn't, or what it's called, it's probably best avoided.
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Member 7989122 wrote: Could anyone explain this to a person with next to nothing background in medical theory?
Maybe by asking different bunch of people ? we are not medical "persons" we're computer "persons"
I'd rather be phishing!
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Maximilien wrote:
Maybe by asking different bunch of people ? we are not medical "persons" we're computer "persons"
Yeah, but if some "common housewife" looked up, say, a Linux Core Developers Forum with a question about what this "operating system" thing is, do you think that she would get an answer that makes any sense to her? Of course those Linux core developers would insist that the answer makes perfect sense, but I am not sure that the housewife would agree.
Similarly, if I went to some forum of virologists, they would probably give me an answer that would be totally greek (or maybe Latin) to me. Often, if you really are new to a field, you can get more help by first getting hold of some digested, simplified information than by going to the top experts.
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Semantics?
But either way I hear that the Corona virus goes well with Lyme disease.
I, for one, like Roman Numerals.
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Because we are like sheep not able or willing to absorb more.
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That statement makes no sense at all, even in your language. More than what?
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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More than we're already accustomed to. So the news media "simplifies" it as well as sugar coats it. Just a flu strain.
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same reason lions are called lions, and tigers, well tigers.
both will eat you, but you'd hope that the guy trying to get the attacking beast off you isn't the fella from the circus which his whip and chair if it's a tiger. (A picture of Sigfried & Roy would be the better choice.)
Flu shots don't fix corona, you'd want the doc to inject the correct magic juice in or not?
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I used to work in a genetic company and some intelligent person asked this very question of one of the doctors working there.
The answer was and you may not be satisfied with it - "convention".
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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GuyThiebaut wrote: The answer was and you may not be satisfied with it - "convention".
Once it is declared that it is a mere convention, I am perfectly happy with it.
Telling someone that their Eternal Truth is a mere "convention" can be very upsetting to them, even with insignificant details.
Like when I (many years ago) helped this lady, who had been using Word Perfect for years, to learn to use MS Word: When I explained the the button with the printer icon, she objected fiercely to that way of working: "You must agree that using the F7 key for printing is much more natural!"
Or dress codes: In several countries, you are required by law to expose certain parts of your body when in public, but to cover other parts. Saying "Sheesh, it is just a convention" and throwing away your swimsuit on the beach will be met with far stronger reactions than just "He is not behaving according to established conventions".
OK, even the fiercest "correctionists" are not threatening to call the police, even if you wrongfully describe Corona symptoms as a flu. But it goes far beyond "a mere convention" reactions. Such as when I ask what distinguishes flu viruses from non-flu, and one answer concludes "Doctors are idiots, eh?" To me, that is a quite emotional reaction to the questioning of a convention. To me it says, Don't you ever dare to touch that convention!, at the same level as Don't you ever dare to drop your swimsuit at our beach! if I ask for the real justification for the swimsuit requirement.
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...it sounds like you were not satisfied with the answer 
“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens
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I am not an expert, but I guess the difference is like getting hit by a tree while passing by, or getting hit by someone with a tree:
The first can happen because there's bad wheather, the other can happen, because you asked a silly question. But in both cases, the symptoms are the same 
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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Some restaurant chains have replaced their plastic straws with a version that looks/feels/tastes like cardboard because, I'm told, sea turtles end up with those straws in their stomach. Or some such. The inside of these cardboard straws seem to be lined with something that isn't cardboard because, I'm assuming, cardboard itself would otherwise absorb the liquid and start decomposing immediately.
Only, the cardboard straws do start to decompose before I can even finish my drink, and I end up with pieces of cardboard and whatever that coating is, in my stomach.
Somehow I'm not thinking this helps me. But then, I'm sure that sort of thinking is wrong, because the goal isn't to help me.
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Stop buying the drinks, or stop using the straws...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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You don't drink when you eat at a restaurant?
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From a glass or a demi-tasse I do!
From a cardboard / styrofoam cup full of chemicals? No ...
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I'll keep an eye out for the guy who brings his own glass at a restaurant.
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Most restaurants provide them, normally without my making any special request ... 
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Even my 3-year old grandson can drink straight from a cup or glass.
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Why would anyone want such a thing?
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The restaurant Blaze Pizza doesn't even offer straws. Instead they have lids that you sip from. Yup, that's right, adult sippie cups.  And it is still difficult to get much out when there's a lot of ice.
Kelly Herald
Software Developer
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Such drinks should be banned for ecological reasons. Ice and plastic are both a huge waste of energy.
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