MMM
Statements like "it's not real" or "it's the flu" are often imprecise ways of conveying a thought...
I think that is a good way to express the difference between practical and technical definitions.
In a similar vein, the claim that the Spanish Influenza of 1919 was "worse," is definitely true in a practical sense (In terms of the total number of deaths) but it is not true in a technical sense. Modern medicine did not exist in 1918/1919 and if you want to make an accurate comparison, than you have to look at Covid 19 cases is areas where medical treatment was nonexistent.
The Spanish Influenza in its most virulent form had a mortality rate of just over 4%, which is roughly comparable to Covid 19 when it is left untreated.
(My sources for the influenza mortality rate are: Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search For the Virus that Caused It by Gina Kolata and America's Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918 by Alfred W Crosby -- I don't know where people are getting their information from lately)