How much money big pharma lost on that, is there a study?
Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic
491–500 of 821 posts
Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic
#492Covid-19 case counting is a mess. Usually it's based on "the PCR test" which is actually a group of many different tests (the chains they test on can be different and the number of cycles can be different as well). Cases may go undetected, so testing-after-symptoms is very different than testing-random-population-sample. Sometime cases are filed based on symptoms alone. Hence we know very little about the number of C…
There are critics saying that the PCR cycle thresholds they used for testing were too high (37-40). If you look at the values they use for determining covid post-vaccination, they used a cycle threshold of 28. Thoughts?
https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/138783651725969408...
Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic
#493Maybe we were too callous just allowing the ordinary flu to run rampant, and we should consider in future doing things like masking up when a flu season is expected, so as to stop the disease from killing thousands of old people. And also possibly consider going for full eradication rather than harm reduction. Can flu jabs be made more effective, and multi-strain, using mRNA vaccine technology? That's a genuinely new…
Given the rather low mortality rate for the flu, I think implementing more regulations in our lives isn't a good idea. Bureaucratic creep is a serious issue, and this sort of thing could be a gateway to regulating more aspects of life down the road. Educating people and encouraging them to wear masks 100%, but let's not start mandating anything new, or levying new fines that we have already seen be disproportionately…
The comment you're replying to never mentioned regulations or any governmental intervention.
Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic
#494[deleted]
Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic
#4951. stay in your home
2. wear a mask
3. extra emphasis on washing your hands and not touching your face
I'm only prepared to continue with #3 and I hope Covid will encourage more people to get annual flu shots. Beyond that, I'm rolling the dice.
Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic
#496Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did we even test for the flu? Or did we just presume that flu cases were COIVD because the symptoms are so similar? The idea that the flu just 'disappeared' despite world trade continuing just sets off my bullshit detectors. Between all the countries that did little or nothing initially, and the people who refused to wear masks and didn't lock down...there's just no way it dropped to zero. Less? Sure. But gone? I sim…
Around Autumn it was subtly mentioned that the UK figures were going to be for flu and covid combined. Before that it was noted that flu was killing more than coronavirus in summer.
Do you have any links to substantiate those claims, please?
Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic
#497I was just commenting to a co-worker my entire family hasn't been sick since the pandemic started. That is very unusual for a family with young children. No flu, no stomach viruses, absolutely nothing for more than a year now. Thankfully no covid-19 either.
This year was a great experiment in person hygiene. It was the healthiest I have ever been for a full year, no colds, stomach bugs, anything. I'm not sure which practices I'll continue, but its definitely shown me that I have wayyyy more control over my health than I previously thought. Curious what others think are the most effective continued practices. Seems like social distancing isn't super reasonable, but maybe…
Have you been sleeping more because of WFH? That could be the major factor here.
Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic
#498Earlier quoted context omitted.
We were warned of bad outcomes if precautions weren't taken. Precautions were taken, and the worst outcomes were avoided. This doesn't invalidate the prior warning. I don't want to assume bad intentions on your part but I'm not really sure what you want us to conclude from these posts... elaborate?
That it wasn't predictable or obvious flu cases would go to near zero. These news stories are not about how if we do X then flu cases will go to near zero, and most operate under the assumption flu season is coming and will likely be a "twindemic" that needs to be mitigated/lessened. It didn't come and now we are pretending it was clear it was never coming. Just tired of people using selective memories to pretend tha…
> That it wasn't predictable or obvious flu cases would go to near zero.
How could it not be predictable? I get the cold/flu when I or someone in the family is exposed to someone sick and it gets passed on.
If we're all staying in the house and not going anywhere for a year, by what mechanism could we possibly get sick? Seemed predictable to me.
In any case, it's been so awesome to not be sick in over a year. With elementary school kid, it used to be I was sick every few weeks all year long. Not looking forward to going back to that kind of normal.
Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic
#499Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Given the reproduction number appears as the base of an exponent, I would not consider the difference "small." The difference in measurement is small, relative to the error in measurement. Look at the error bars on the R0 estimates in that paper. Influenza runs from 1.06 to 3.4 . You are trying to make micrometer inferences from a parameter where our best estimates are measured in libraries of congress.
Last spring COVID was managing to achieve rapid spread at the same time that the flu season naturally ended. Despite the challenges in measuring R0 for both, this is pretty direct evidence that R0 is higher for COVID than for the flu.
R0 is not static. As people become immune to the current strains and the virus mutates, people will still have partial immunity to the new strains. Some people will be fully immune depending on their antibody response and the mutations.
Next year it is entirely possible that the R0 of covid drops below influenza.
If you introduced influenza to a naive population (i.e. native americans) you would get massive death.
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Re: Flu has disappeared worldwide during the Covid pandemic
#500Earlier quoted context omitted.
This year was a great experiment in person hygiene. It was the healthiest I have ever been for a full year, no colds, stomach bugs, anything. I'm not sure which practices I'll continue, but its definitely shown me that I have wayyyy more control over my health than I previously thought. Curious what others think are the most effective continued practices. Seems like social distancing isn't super reasonable, but maybe…
You can do a LOT. I haven't been sick once in 6+ years because I do the following: 1) Almost never eat out. Home cooked meals that I've prepped / washed. This was single handedly the biggest factor that completely removed "getting sick" from my life. 2) Hand wash before touching face, or food. 3) Avoid sick people. If I hear someone coughing or sneezing, I move away from them. Call me a germ freak, I don't care, I've…
you're like a hedge fund manager who's made money 6+ years in a row; your day will come.
You can't "avoid sick people" by moving away from those obviously sick. If that were the case this covid thing would have been easy. Best bet is your habbit avoided you catching hay fever from someone with seasonal allergies.