21–30 of 55 posts
The title on HN is probably invented by the submitter, which is misleading and doesn‘t match the HN policy. The title on the page: “Influenza: FluNet Summary 26 October 2020 Source: Laboratory confirmed data from the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS).” It‘s also possible that those who would normally participate in the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System just weren‘t able to do w…
Next part, since the focus of 2020 was Covid testing, I'm pretty sure flu testing resources were lessened in the process, if not borderline ignored.
At what point was it okay to judge a population on 0.0000001157142% sample size?
While I'm not a fan of the WHO anymore, to be fair to them, where the hell do they say the flu disappeared? This title is disingenuous.
Reading the graph posted, you may think we stopped tracking the flu. However, it's not clear yet whether that is the case, and the charts from 2019 show that. Here are the charts for 2019 and 2020 in the US*: https://imgur.com/a/HvBJoj2 (Note the axes are on different time scales unfortunately). They are very similar with two major exceptions. 1. Week 13, about March 23rd, there is a dip lower, presumably due to the…
I know your text describes this but it's easy to look at the graphs and miss!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But this article is using flu-tests to test for specimens of the flu. Why would a lack of COVID tests mess up the flu-tests that they're using?
They didn't perform flu tests on all "covid" deaths.
https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/pdfs/mm6937a6-H.pdf
“Initially, declines in influenza virus activity were attributed to decreased testing, because persons with respiratory symptoms were often preferentially referred for SARS-CoV-2 assessment and testing. However, renewed efforts by public health officials and clinicians to test samples for influenza resulted in adequate numbers tested and detection of little to no influenza virus.”
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not sure why you are getting flagged. People not seeking medical assistance could be a reason why the sampling isn’t collecting any flu case.
Because they're not reported cases, but sampled cases, so whether reported goes up or down doesn't really matter as the sampling is consistent.
> The current influenza surveillance data should be interpreted with caution as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have influenced to varying extents health seeking behaviours, staffing/routines in sentinel sites, as well as testing priorities and capacities in Member States. The various hygiene and physical distancing measures implemented by Member States to reduce SARS-CoV-2 virus transmission have likely played a role in reducing influenza virus transmission.
But also:
> Globally, despite continued or even increased testing for influenza in some countries influenza activity remained at lower levels than expected for this time of the year.
[1]: https://www.who.int/influenza/surveillance_monitoring/update...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
But this article is using flu-tests to test for specimens of the flu. Why would a lack of COVID tests mess up the flu-tests that they're using?
They didn't perform flu tests on all "covid" deaths.
If anything, there's less testing for flu because of covid. But nonetheless, this is sampling, not testing, the WHO performs consistent randomized sampling over time to keep the data meaningful. If they just were based on testing of reported flu cases the data would be heavily biased and basically useless in tracking the disease.
Reading the graph posted, you may think we stopped tracking the flu. However, it's not clear yet whether that is the case, and the charts from 2019 show that. Here are the charts for 2019 and 2020 in the US*: https://imgur.com/a/HvBJoj2 (Note the axes are on different time scales unfortunately). They are very similar with two major exceptions. 1. Week 13, about March 23rd, there is a dip lower, presumably due to the…
Reading the graph posted, you may think we stopped tracking the flu. However, it's not clear yet whether that is the case, and the charts from 2019 show that. Here are the charts for 2019 and 2020 in the US*: https://imgur.com/a/HvBJoj2 (Note the axes are on different time scales unfortunately). They are very similar with two major exceptions. 1. Week 13, about March 23rd, there is a dip lower, presumably due to the…
Note the different horizontal axes been the graphs. The top one goes back up after week 43/44 which is about where the bottom one ends. I know your text describes this but it's easy to look at the graphs and miss!
Reading the graph posted, you may think we stopped tracking the flu. However, it's not clear yet whether that is the case, and the charts from 2019 show that. Here are the charts for 2019 and 2020 in the US*: https://imgur.com/a/HvBJoj2 (Note the axes are on different time scales unfortunately). They are very similar with two major exceptions. 1. Week 13, about March 23rd, there is a dip lower, presumably due to the…
Note the different horizontal axes been the graphs. The top one goes back up after week 43/44 which is about where the bottom one ends. I know your text describes this but it's easy to look at the graphs and miss!