The end of the annual flu

[Panicattacka]

The medical and scientific communities can't figure out where the flu has gone (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8875201/Has-Covid-killed-flu.html) or why it has virtually disappeared:


In the Southern Hemisphere, where the flu season happens during our summer months, the WHO data suggests it never took off at all. In Australia, just 14 positive flu cases were recorded in April, compared with 367 during the same month in 2019 – a 96 per cent drop. By June, usually the peak of its flu season, there were none. In fact, Australia has not reported a positive case to the WHO since July.

In Chile, just 12 cases of flu were detected between April and October. There were nearly 7,000 during the same period in 2019. And in South Africa, surveillance tests picked up just two cases at the beginning of the season, which quickly dropped to zero over the following month – overall, a 99 per cent drop compared with the previous year.
In the UK, our flu season is only just beginning. But since Covid-19 began spreading in March, just 767 cases have been reported to the WHO compared with nearly 7,000 from March to October last year. And while lab-confirmed flu cases last year jumped by ten per cent between September and October, as a new season gets under way this year they've risen by just 0.7 per cent so far.... Other research by Public Health England has confirmed this. Globally, it is estimated that rates of flu may have plunged by 98 per cent compared with the same time last year.

'This is real,' says Dr David Strain, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School. 'There's no doubt that we're seeing far fewer incidences of flu.'
So where has flu gone?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8875201/Has-Covid-killed-flu.html



Covid-19 is the flu, obviously. Despite whatever differences there might be between a coronavirus and a rhinovirus, Covid-19 is simply playing the role that the annual flu strain, which is different every year, does. It is a little more dangerous than the normal flu virus, though considerably less dangerous than certain historical strains. Which is why all the lockdown and mask nonsense is now totally pointless, and is merely delaying the natural process of the virus working its way through the population before it finally peters out.

It wasn't a bad idea to err on the side of caution when the virulence of the disease was unknown. But now we know, so there is no reason to continue being paranoid about it.

[Lencoboy]

The medical and scientific communities can't figure out where the flu has gone (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8875201/Has-Covid-killed-flu.html) or why it has virtually disappeared:


In the Southern Hemisphere, where the flu season happens during our summer months, the WHO data suggests it never took off at all. In Australia, just 14 positive flu cases were recorded in April, compared with 367 during the same month in 2019 – a 96 per cent drop. By June, usually the peak of its flu season, there were none. In fact, Australia has not reported a positive case to the WHO since July.

In Chile, just 12 cases of flu were detected between April and October. There were nearly 7,000 during the same period in 2019. And in South Africa, surveillance tests picked up just two cases at the beginning of the season, which quickly dropped to zero over the following month – overall, a 99 per cent drop compared with the previous year.
In the UK, our flu season is only just beginning. But since Covid-19 began spreading in March, just 767 cases have been reported to the WHO compared with nearly 7,000 from March to October last year. And while lab-confirmed flu cases last year jumped by ten per cent between September and October, as a new season gets under way this year they've risen by just 0.7 per cent so far.... Other research by Public Health England has confirmed this. Globally, it is estimated that rates of flu may have plunged by 98 per cent compared with the same time last year.

'This is real,' says Dr David Strain, senior clinical lecturer at the University of Exeter Medical School. 'There's no doubt that we're seeing far fewer incidences of flu.'
So where has flu gone?

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-8875201/Has-Covid-killed-flu.html



Covid-19 is the flu, obviously. Despite whatever differences there might be between a coronavirus and a rhinovirus, Covid-19 is simply playing the role that the annual flu strain, which is different every year, does. It is a little more dangerous than the normal flu virus, though considerably less dangerous than certain historical strains. Which is why all the lockdown and mask nonsense is now totally pointless, and is merely delaying the natural process of the virus working its way through the population before it finally peters out.

It wasn't a bad idea to err on the side of caution when the virulence of the disease was unknown. But now we know, so there is no reason to continue being paranoid about it.

Well that sounds rather interesting, but I still wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet, especially until there's more hard evidence.

Also remember it's the Daily Fail, whose narratives can often be dubious even at the best of times, and they're probably more likely to be anti- restrictions anyway.

But I'm still prepared to take it as it comes, especially if the lack of 'normal' flu is fact this year.

If that's the case, I personally believe it's most likely in spite of Covid rather than because of it, that is with all the Covid-related precautions most of us have been taking since about March, it's highly plausible that it's helped to minimise the risks of being infected with 'normal' flu.

[Pamplemousse]

Coronavirus does not equal 'flu virus. They're not the same, only idiots think that.

The Daily Mail - a source even Wikipedia classes as unreliable.

[Lencoboy]

Coronavirus does not equal 'flu virus. They're not the same, only idiots think that.

The Daily Mail - a source even Wikipedia classes as unreliable.

I did say that all stuff spewed out by the DM must be treated with caution, even though I did dare to have a quick butchers at it.

There was some rather interesting commentary there, but at least until there's further evidence, whatever that DM article says still needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially as to the best of my knowledge, the BBC and others don't appear to have covered it as yet.

[Pamplemousse]

Has there been any peer review of the WHO paper quoted?

[Panicattacka]

I'd like to see an estimate of the numbers of children now living in poverty (or will soon be doing so) because their parents lost their jobs to the Covid panic...

Also the suicides and deaths to cancer, heart disease and other conditions because people couldn't get treatment or were afraid to. The other day when one of my co-workers starting talking about the "rising covid cases" I pointed out that we will never get a count of the people who were killed by the lockdown itself.

In March, anyone with half a brain understood it was a tradeoff: take an economic hit in exchange for making sure the hospitals could keep up. That's why it was supposed to be temporary, for a few weeks. If they'd told us back then they would be demanding masks and threatening more lockdowns seven months later, no one would have gone along. It's nuts what is happening now.

[Gary A]

I'd like to see an estimate of the numbers of children now living in poverty (or will soon be doing so) because their parents lost their jobs to the Covid panic...

Also the suicides and deaths to cancer, heart disease and other conditions because people couldn't get treatment or were afraid to. The other day when one of my co-workers starting talking about the "rising covid cases" I pointed out that we will never get a count of the people who were killed by the lockdown itself.

In March, anyone with half a brain understood it was a tradeoff: take an economic hit in exchange for making sure the hospitals could keep up. That's why it was supposed to be temporary, for a few weeks. If they'd told us back then they would be demanding masks and threatening more lockdowns seven months later, no one would have gone along. It's nuts what is happening now.

You don’t know that so why say it? You can’t tell us what people would and wouldn’t have done. You can tell us what you would’ve done but that is literally only speaking for yourself.

As for this drivel about SARS-COV2 replacing influenza, what are you talking about? Do you reckon that virology is like a football game and Mother Nature is a coach making tactical substitutions to kill time or something?

Isn’t it more likely that influenza transmission is reduced due to social distancing, lockdowns and all of the other things in place like mask wearing and hand hygiene? And before you say “well that isn’t reducing Covid transmission”, how do you know it isn’t? We don’t have a yearly set of numbers to compare with Covid as it literally didn’t exist this time last year.

Coronaviruses and influenza viruses, not rhinoviruses which cause the common cold, are completely different in behaviours and structures. They both cause respiratory infections, but the way in which they do this is completely at odds.

[ankietyjoe]

Isn’t it more likely that influenza transmission is reduced due to social distancing, lockdowns and all of the other things in place like mask wearing and hand hygiene?


Of course it fvcking is.

[Lencoboy]

You don’t know that so why say it? You can’t tell us what people would and wouldn’t have done. You can tell us what you would’ve done but that is literally only speaking for yourself.

As for this drivel about SARS-COV2 replacing influenza, what are you talking about? Do you reckon that virology is like a football game and Mother Nature is a coach making tactical substitutions to kill time or something?

Isn’t it more likely that influenza transmission is reduced due to social distancing, lockdowns and all of the other things in place like mask wearing and hand hygiene? And before you say “well that isn’t reducing Covid transmission”, how do you know it isn’t? We don’t have a yearly set of numbers to compare with Covid as it literally didn’t exist this time last year.

Coronaviruses and influenza viruses, not rhinoviruses which cause the common cold, are completely different in behaviours and structures. They both cause respiratory infections, but the way in which they do this is completely at odds.

I think what you have said in your third paragraph is probably the most plausible explanation for a possible reduction in 'normal' flu cases this year.

I wonder if cases of the other notorious 'bug' that usually starts doing the rounds from around this time of year onwards (the dreaded Norovirus) might also end up being less this year in spite of Covid and all its precautions and restrictions?

Once again, I wish you a speedy recovery Gary.

[Pamplemousse]

Norovirus: the very definition of "contagious"...

[glassgirlw]

I’m sorry but I am so sick and tired of hearing that SARS Cov-2 is “just the flu”. It 100% is not the flu. Not even the same genetic components as the flu. Does it have some of the same similarities as far as infections go? Sure. But it is NOT the flu. And if more people would actually participate in the mask wearing and social distancing, we’d have had a much better handle on this ages ago - without causing serious harm to worldwide economies. Instead, let’s just go ahead and be selfish, do what we want, have no concern or empathy for our fellow human beings, and prolong this virus as long as we can. Great plan. Sorry. Rant over.

[Pamplemousse]

I’m sorry but I am so sick and tired of hearing that SARS Cov-2 is “just the flu”. It 100% is not the flu.

Rant justified. I'm getting to the point where I feel the need to deploy an educational instrument for these people in the shape of a Louisville Slugger.

[Pamplemousse]

Elsewhere:

Not wearing a mask is linked to antisocial traits, study finds


The antisocial profile was linked to higher scores in the personality questions related to “callousness, deceitfulness, hostility, impulsivity, irresponsibility, manipulativeness, and risk-taking”, antisocial traits which, the study notes, “are typically present in people diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD)". This group also had lower scores in affective resonance.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/mask-wearing-anti-social-personality-traits-study-brazil-b1347252.html

[Lolalee1]

That Daily Fail is a load of BS.Where they come up with this shite is boggling

[Phill2]

It's true we've had virtually no flu this year.
They're putting it down to lockdowns and social distancing.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Of course it fvcking is.

+1 from me guys :yesyes:

Knock on effect. Put more police in an area to stop violence but the burglary rate goes down too. Pretty obvious that presence reduces across the board. Same with increased hygiene to less infection in general.

Probably find Q2 2020 car accidents down on last year too since hardly any cars were on the road.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Norovirus: the very definition of "contagious"...

It's a great weight loss plan too. My GF lost 2 stone in one week with this. :ohmy:

The trade off is what money you save on food you spend on bog roll. And it's not very environmentally friendly with all that toilet flushing...

[phil06]

I often catch a cold over the winter my worry is once I catch a cold it may be COVID as cold/flu seems to be classed as covid now?

[ankietyjoe]

I often catch a cold over the winter my worry is once I catch a cold it may be COVID as cold/flu seems to be classed as covid now?

This should be good.

So go on, where is it classed as Covid now?

[fishman65]

I often catch a cold over the winter my worry is once I catch a cold it may be COVID as cold/flu seems to be classed as covid now?Phil, colds and flu are not classed as covid. They are different viruses, its like saying lions are now classed as tigers. The symptoms of influenza and the coronaviruses that cause the common cold are similar to covid even though covid seems to have more variety.

[Gary A]

I often catch a cold over the winter my worry is once I catch a cold it may be COVID as cold/flu seems to be classed as covid now?

I can assure you that the symptoms of Covid are very different than any cold or flu I’ve ever had.

If you develop symptoms, get tested. If it’s Covid, you’ll know, if it isn’t, you’ll also know. Stop looking for problems for five minutes.

[Pamplemousse]

So come on Phil, we have a poster here with the real deal as regards Covid - but you've not told us where you heard that colds and flu are classed as Covid.

[ankietyjoe]

If it’s Covid, you’ll know, if it isn’t, you’ll also know.


Well, yes and no. A woman I know (around 50) who works for/with the NHS was tested for routine and has shown antibodies. She doesn't even remember being ill.

I don't think symptoms are the determining factor, the issue here is a ridiculous statement that he's probably made up in his head for whatever reason. Attention, I'm beginning to suspect.

[Gary A]

Well, yes and no. A woman I know (around 50) who works for/with the NHS was tested for routine and has shown antibodies. She doesn't even remember being ill.

I don't think symptoms are the determining factor, the issue here is a ridiculous statement that he's probably made up in his head for whatever reason. Attention, I'm beginning to suspect.

What I meant was if he goes for a Covid test due to whichever symptoms he’s experiencing the test will tell him whether it’s Covid or not that’s causing his symptoms.

[ankietyjoe]

What I meant was if he goes for a Covid test due to whichever symptoms he’s experiencing the test will tell him whether it’s Covid or not that’s causing his symptoms.


Spot on

[phil06]

Sure but Flu and covid are quite similar where as a cold is more mild. I guess this is why there is lots of negative tests as people get confused to which one they have?

[ankietyjoe]

Sure but Flu and covid are quite similar where as a cold is more mild. I guess this is why there is lots of negative tests as people get confused to which one they have?

Even if people do get confused, what is your point? How does that relate to your absurd idea that a cold would be classed as Covid? Who would class it as Covid? Can you define the nature of your point, because I aint' getting it.

[pulisa]

Phil lives in Glasgow so I expect anyone who coughs once worries about covid.

[Gary A]

Sure but Flu and covid are quite similar where as a cold is more mild. I guess this is why there is lots of negative tests as people get confused to which one they have?

There are lots of negative tests because the main symptoms of Covid, especially at an early stage of infection, are so very similar to a number of other conditions. The first symptoms I personally experienced were a loss of taste and smell and a headache. These could quite easily have been caused by a common cold or any number of other viruses.

If you instantly think “I have Covid” the second you feel a headache, cough or whatever then you’re being completely irrational. The vast majority of folk suffering these symptoms will not have Covid. As I said above, in the event of feeling any such symptoms the most sensible thing to do would be to get a Covid test. This will tell you whether or not your symptoms are Covid related.

It’s just the way it is at this point I’m afraid, you just need to deal with it.

[Pamplemousse]

If you instantly think “I have Covid” the second you feel a headache, cough or whatever then you’re being completely irrational.
But isn't that severe health anxiety in a nutshell?

I note from the figures that my local area has had a 733% increase in cases in the last week. Except for going to work, I am voluntarily going into lockdown. I have enough tinned and packet food for at least a fortnight, maybe three weeks - I just cannot take a chance with my own life.

[phil06]

Phil lives in Glasgow so I expect anyone who coughs once worries about covid.

No I don’t stay in Glasgow my point is my area has 40 cases vs Glasgow which has 400 but we are on level 3. Town I used to stay in last week reported zero cases which is crazy given we are living under tough restrictions get Fife is a lower level.

[fishman65]

But isn't that severe health anxiety in a nutshell?

I note from the figures that my local area has had a 733% increase in cases in the last week. Except for going to work, I am voluntarily going into lockdown. I have enough tinned and packet food for at least a fortnight, maybe three weeks - I just cannot take a chance with my own life.I think that's a good move PM, I presented Mrs F with the stats and allowed her to decide whether she wants to shield again. Our Achilles Heel however is my daughter working in our local Spar.

[Gary A]

No I don’t stay in Glasgow my point is my area has 40 cases vs Glasgow which has 400 but we are on level 3. Town I used to stay in last week reported zero cases which is crazy given we are living under tough restrictions get Fife is a lower level.

It goes by which area health board you’re in, not towns etc. Ayrshire and Arran are under level 3 restrictions yet most of the towns and villages in these areas haven’t seen a positive case for weeks. They do, however, incorporate places like Kilmarnock, Irvine and Kilwinning which are larger towns so are seeing large amounts of cases.

Just the way the cookie crumbles I’m afraid.

[Pamplemousse]

I think that's a good move PM, I presented Mrs F with the stats and allowed her to decide whether she wants to shield again. Our Achilles Heel however is my daughter working in our local Spar.
It's got worse. Overnight the cases have increased by five, which now makes our district purple on the map at https://coronavirus-staging.data.gov.uk/details/interactive-map

[pulisa]

But isn't that severe health anxiety in a nutshell?

I note from the figures that my local area has had a 733% increase in cases in the last week. Except for going to work, I am voluntarily going into lockdown. I have enough tinned and packet food for at least a fortnight, maybe three weeks - I just cannot take a chance with my own life.

You don't have to because you can control your own environment. You're doing the right thing, PM and hopefully your mental health will improve too.

[ErinKC]

If we shut down schools, social distanced, and wore masks every flu season, there's be barely any flu every year. It shows that doing those things prevents the spread of respiratory illness...