>the flu averages out to about 10k deaths each year
There's actually a lot of controversy around these numbers, with the CDC itself acknowledging that it's challenging to truly know for a number of reasons [1].
Here's a pretty remarkable quote from that page:
>"most people who die from seasonal flu-related complications are not tested for flu, or they seek medical care later in their illness when seasonal influenza can no longer be detected from respiratory samples"
So, it's really tough to know. As a result, some allege that the estimates are inflated as part of the campaign to ensure vaccination.
How many of those were terminally ill or otherwise unlikely to survive the year without the flu? Fungal infections (something you practically never hear about) kill more people than influenza, but mostly the immune compromised.
We're all pretty used to it so it doesn't seem like a big deal but it's actually very dangerous.