Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi said that the WHO published a bulletin stating that COVID-19 is "equivalent in lethality to seasonal flu" in October 2020 in this video. I linked the video so that it should start at the relevant timestamp.
I looked through their bulletin for October and wasn't able to find this information. I also checked in November and December without success.
Is this information incorrect or is the date or source incorrect?
Yes and no.
According to how the question is framed. It seems as if the exact text of what is being spoken is as much interpretation of the listener as 'stated fact' by the presenter in the video. That makes the question necessitating a two part answer:
Results I included 61 studies (74 estimates) and eight preliminary national estimates. Seroprevalence estimates ranged from 0.02% to 53.40%. Infection fatality rates ranged from 0.00% to 1.63%, corrected values from 0.00% to 1.54%. Across 51 locations, the median COVID-19 infection fatality rate was 0.27% (corrected 0.23%): the rate was 0.09% in locations with COVID-19 population mortality rates less than the global average (< 118 deaths/million), 0.20% in locations with 118–500 COVID-19 deaths/million people and 0.57% in locations with > 500 COVID-19 deaths/million people. In people < 70 years, infection fatality rates ranged from 0.00% to 0.31% with crude and corrected medians of 0.05%. Conclusion The infection fatality rate of COVID-19 can vary substantially across different locations and this may reflect differences in population age structure and case-mix of infected and deceased patients and other factors. The inferred infection fatality rates tended to be much lower than estimates made earlier in the pandemic.
— John P A Ioannidis: "Infection fatality rate of COVID-19 inferred from seroprevalence data", Publication: Bulletin of the World Health Organization; Type: Research Article ID: BLT.20.265892, (Submitted: 13 May 2020 – Revised version received: 13 September 2020 – Accepted: 15 September 2020 – Published online: 14 October 2020) link
That paper is not directly comparing the IFR/CFR for both Covid19/Influenza. This comparison is made by Bakhdi. As such the comparison may be valid, but loaded with problems of all kinds. Numbers for IFR/CFR are based on very wobbly data, in both cases.
That this presentation of comparing numbers would be 'the consensus reached' is most probably, if not surely, false. In fact the Ioannidis paper is seriously disputed. With valid and invalid reasons, sometimes.
The current 'consensus' about that comparison, of course ignoring the highly stratified age-distribution of Covid risk compared with Influenza – according to what the WHO sees as 'consensus' is outdated but still:
Mortality for COVID-19 appears higher than for influenza, especially seasonal influenza. While the true mortality of COVID-19 will take some time to fully understand, the data we have so far indicate that the crude mortality ratio (the number of reported deaths divided by the reported cases) is between 3-4%, the infection mortality rate (the number of reported deaths divided by the number of infections) will be lower. For seasonal influenza, mortality is usually well below 0.1%. However, mortality is to a large extent determined by access to and quality of health care.
— Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Similarities and differences with influenza 17 March 2020 | Q&A WHO
But Bhakdi correctly quotes the numbers given from the paper presented on the WHO website. Whether these comparisons are a fitting description is currently under political investigation, as long as the scientific evidence numbers keep rolling in and opinions over how to interpret these still evolve.
'Disease' is also a socio-political, economic etc syndrome, and not a mechanistic linear function of viral properties. Access to medical care, proper medical care is a highly variable influence on outcome. So expect to see the numbers as well as any possible consensus about this change further in the future.
