Abstract
In public conscience, diseases are divided into common diseases that can be cured quickly and for which drugs are readily available commercially and severe ones that are incurable or difficult to treat. One of the most common diseases is one that everyone has encountered in one way or another and whose symptoms are well known.
Although flu can have serious consequences and complications, in common parlance this disease is not considered as a severe one. The stereotype of flu was widely used during the coronavirus pandemic.
The previously unknown COVID-19 was often compared to the influenza virus to indicate the level of danger (for example, comparing COVID-19 to flu meant that COVID-19 was not within the range of dangerous viruses). In my presentation, I aim to show how the stereotypical representation of flu is applied in Czech and Russian mass media texts of the coronavirus era.