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Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

#131

Post by hombre_fatal »

ggggtez wrote: post #101
moftz wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember it not being a huge deal to have a bunch of people at work come with flu-like symptoms. "It's just something going around." Work gave out flu shots every year but that isn't 100%. It wasn't even considered much of a faux pas to show up to work feeling a little ill. Now, showing up to work with flu-like symptoms could put you in the hot seat with HR. Having a bunch of people fall ill in the office now resul…

One time I was really sick at an airport McDonalds. Fever, sneezing, the whole thing. But you're in an airport, and you have to eat something. I had to explain almost pedantically why they should allow me to order verbally instead of using their touchscreens, for the safety of the other customers. I think today, they'd have a protocol to accommodate people who are obviously sick so they don't have to touch anything.…

You didn’t think of just washing your hands and maybe using a knuckle to touch the screen instead of going HN pedant on the $7/hr worker?

Besides, I would think shooting mucus debris in their direction by talking is worse than using a cleaned knuckle on a screen far away from them.

Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

#133

Post by mrtksn »

petertodd wrote: post #128
mrtksn wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that's the hypothesis of the "There's no Covid-19" crowd that will disappear whenever hospital corridors are filled with dead bodies. On the other hand PCR test are not inaccurate at all, at least regarding false positives. There are detailed articles and even Youtube videos on the process and if you take a look, you will understand why it's quite accurate. In essence, they create a reaction that will mass produ…

> On the other hand PCR test are not inaccurate at all, at least regarding false positives. PCR tests work by selectively amplifying DNA. Each PCR test cycle approximately doubles the amount of the selected DNA. (for SARS-CoV-2, an RNA virus, the RNA is first converted to DNA) Since each cycle approximately doubles the amount of selected DNA present, PCR tests can be extraordinarily sensitive if enough cycles are use…

That's not PCR's but the sample processing error rate. It's not inherent to PCR but the specific organisation that runs the mass testing efforts. If UK's has these issues the maybe they should improve their quality standards.

Thankfully we don't have to stop with a PCR test.

Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

#134

Post by jvm_ »

postalrat wrote: post #112

https://syndromictrends.com/metric/panel/rp/percent_positivi... Unless I'm reading that chart wrong it seems like flu went away but viruses that cause cold like symptoms stuck around. If masks/etc was super effective wouldn't you expect those to go down with influenza?

It seems there's a battle between virus's, they don't like sharing resources and the 'strongest' wins.

https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56483445

Coronavirus: How the common cold can boot out Covid

Think of the cells in your nose, throat and lungs as being like a row of houses. Once a virus gets inside, it can either hold the door open to let in other viruses, or it can nail the door shut and keep its new home to itself.

Influenza is one of the most selfish viruses around, and nearly always infects alone. Others, such as adenoviruses, seem to be more up for a houseshare.

If rhinovirus and Sars-CoV-2 were released at the same time, only rhinovirus is successful. If rhinovirus had a 24-hour head start then Sars-CoV-2 does not get a look in. And even when Sars-CoV-2 had 24-hours to get started, rhinovirus boots it out.

"Sars-CoV-2 never takes off, it is heavily inhibited by rhinovirus," Dr Pablo Murcia told BBC News.

He added: "This is absolutely exciting because if you have a high prevalence of rhinovirus, it could stop new Sars-CoV-2 infections."

Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

#135

Post by blueline »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #78

If I caught the flu, how would the government/scientists studying this stuff even know I got it? If you're anything like me you probably just take some time off and get over the illness without ever seeing a doctor or taking a flu-test. How do they measure such things? I suspect they use some elaborate statistical model to try and generalize the results to the whole population.

how do you think they measure (roughly) how many people got the flu in previous years?

Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

#136

Post by gregmac »

moftz wrote: post #26
brandon272 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The likely explanation is that, because the flu is significantly less transmissible than COVID, even states with "no restrictions" were able to knock it out because enough people took enough measures to protect themselves from airborne/surface communicable disease in general. In other words, you can probably beat back the flu significantly by having enough of the population mask up, wash/sanitize their hands, etc.

I remember it not being a huge deal to have a bunch of people at work come with flu-like symptoms. "It's just something going around." Work gave out flu shots every year but that isn't 100%. It wasn't even considered much of a faux pas to show up to work feeling a little ill. Now, showing up to work with flu-like symptoms could put you in the hot seat with HR. Having a bunch of people fall ill in the office now resul…

I really, really hope that "coming to work sick" is considered bad form from now on, or even outright against policy.

It's always been dumb: at best they're just getting more people sick (some of whom will need to take time off, negating any supposed benefit of the sick person not just staying home in the first place), and at worst it's spreading a flu that eventually results in someone dying.

On top of that, a massive number of companies have just proven remote work is possible, even during entirely non-ideal conditions (lockdowns, virtual school, high stress, etc).

Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

#137

Post by spinny »

grumpyautist wrote: post #97
panarky wrote: post #89

Every community has a baseline mortality rate during "normal" times. During abnormal times like pandemic, famine and war, more people die than usual, but often the cause isn't known. If you subtract baseline mortality from actual mortality to get excess mortality, that's often a better estimate of the casualties from pandemic, famine and war than the death certificates for every person who died. Excess mortality in m…

That article is drawing conclusions based on an incomplete data set. Suicide with covid is a covid death anyway.

nope, having covid when getting run over by a bus counts as a covid death in many places

Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

#139

Post by lreeves »

BitwiseFool wrote: post #78

If I caught the flu, how would the government/scientists studying this stuff even know I got it? If you're anything like me you probably just take some time off and get over the illness without ever seeing a doctor or taking a flu-test. How do they measure such things? I suspect they use some elaborate statistical model to try and generalize the results to the whole population.

I don't know where you live but in Canada we have programs like FluWatchers which send sample groups a survey every week asking about flu-like symptoms, flu vaccinations (and COVID now) and such every flu season. They can also request a voluntary sample from you to help track these things.

So the data is there :-)

Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic

#140

Post by cortesoft »

ggggtez wrote: post #93
BitwiseFool wrote: post #78

If I caught the flu, how would the government/scientists studying this stuff even know I got it? If you're anything like me you probably just take some time off and get over the illness without ever seeing a doctor or taking a flu-test. How do they measure such things? I suspect they use some elaborate statistical model to try and generalize the results to the whole population.

>worldwide Because people outside the US actually see their doctors when they get sick? Or people who are otherwise older/younger/immunocompromised etc. Don't just assume that everyone is a young healthy person like yourself.

I don't think not going to the doctor for mild illnesses is a strictly US thing.
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