Covid-19 vs Seasonal Flu in USA

I realize that given current cases are over 300,000 that there will be more deaths in the coming weeks. However, the information provided in the image below should help to put the Covid-19 virus in perspective. So far, even though the first case was 4 months ago, there are only 8,500 deaths. That makes Covid-19 milder then the mildest flu season in 10 years. While is is likely that deaths will top the low of 12,000, will deaths outpace the worst flu year of 2018 with more then 61,000 deaths (reported at 80,000 in other sources)? At this point it does not appear that is going to happen. So once again, does the collective economic suicide of the entire world make sense when the world largely went on without even noticing the 61,000 deaths of 2018? Data from https://www.ocregister.com/2020/02/08/how-influenza-is-much-more-of-a-threat-to-americans-than-coronavirus-right-now/