• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

US 'Mysteriously' Sees Lowest Flu Season On Record During COVID Pandemic

VySky

Supporting Member
DP Veteran
Joined
Sep 12, 2019
Messages
32,566
Reaction score
11,938
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Moderate
Interesting.

Spin away at will

=======

Despite all those warnings from Dr. Anthony Fauci about COVID-19 and the flu joining forces in 2020 and 2021 to create some kind of super-deadly double-whammy viral pandemic, it's no longer a secret at this point that worries about a super-charged flu season simply never came to pass. We've reported on the phenomenon of falling flu cases before,

February is usually the peak of flu season, when doctors' offices and hospitals are packed with patients. But that's not the case this year. Instead, the flu has virtually disappeared from the US, with reports coming in at far lower levels than the world has seen in decades. Some areas, like San Diego, have seen such low numbers, health authorities have demanded audits of COVID-positive patients to see whether some might have been misdiagnosed.

According to the CDC, the cumulative positive influenza test rate from late September into the week of December 19th was just 0.2%, compared to 8.7% from a year before.

Hospitals say the expected army of flu-sickened patients never materialized, and that nationally "this is the lowest flu season we’ve had on record," according to a surveillance system that is about 25 years old.

One source from Maine Medical Center in Portland, the state's largest hospital, said "I have seen zero documented flu cases this winter," said Dr. Nate Mick, the head of the emergency department.

 
CONSPIRACY-PSEUDOSCIENCE
Sources in the Conspiracy-Pseudoscience category may publish unverifiable information that is not always supported by evidence. These sources may be untrustworthy for credible/verifiable information, therefore fact checking and further investigation is recommended on a per article basis when obtaining information from these sources. See all Conspiracy-Pseudoscience sources.

  • Overall, we rate Zero Hedge an extreme right biased conspiracy website based on the promotion of false/misleading/debunked information that routinely denigrates the left.
Detailed Report
Factual Reporting: LOW
Country: Bulgaria
World Press Freedom Rank: Bulgaria 111/180
History
Launched in 2009, Zero Hedge is a finance blog founded by Colin Lokey also known with the pseudonym “Tyler Durden,” Daniel Ivandjiiski, and Tim Backshall. According to a Bloomberg Interview the Zero Hedge founders/authors were anonymous until 2016. A Professional Service Subscription is required to read the rest of the interview from Bloomberg, however, a New Yorker article also covered their history.
Zero Hedge wrote a rebuttal article regarding the Bloomberg interview that can be found here. A quote from the rebuttal reads: “Zero Hedge hired Colin when he approached us over a year ago begging for a job after he was fired with cause from Seeking Alpha, following a fight with a co-worker.”

Read our profile on Bulgaria’s government and media.



Zero Hedge - Media Bias Fact Check


VySky and his fake news. *sigh*





.
 
Interesting.

Spin away at will

=======

Despite all those warnings from Dr. Anthony Fauci about COVID-19 and the flu joining forces in 2020 and 2021 to create some kind of super-deadly double-whammy viral pandemic, it's no longer a secret at this point that worries about a super-charged flu season simply never came to pass. We've reported on the phenomenon of falling flu cases before,

February is usually the peak of flu season, when doctors' offices and hospitals are packed with patients. But that's not the case this year. Instead, the flu has virtually disappeared from the US, with reports coming in at far lower levels than the world has seen in decades. Some areas, like San Diego, have seen such low numbers, health authorities have demanded audits of COVID-positive patients to see whether some might have been misdiagnosed.

According to the CDC, the cumulative positive influenza test rate from late September into the week of December 19th was just 0.2%, compared to 8.7% from a year before.

Hospitals say the expected army of flu-sickened patients never materialized, and that nationally "this is the lowest flu season we’ve had on record," according to a surveillance system that is about 25 years old.

One source from Maine Medical Center in Portland, the state's largest hospital, said "I have seen zero documented flu cases this winter," said Dr. Nate Mick, the head of the emergency department.

This is a great data point since we can compare to flu seasons of previous years. The difference is that lock downs, social distancing, and masks had a material effect. You can probably extrapolate how bad covid would have been with out those.
 
^^^ And every time your post are in vein ^^^

The left likes shooting the messenger
 
This is a great data point since we can compare to flu seasons of previous years. The difference is that lock downs, social distancing, and masks had a material effect. You can probably extrapolate how bad covid would have been with out those.
Or as has been suspected for some time, Covid cases are being over counted
 
Or as has been suspected for some time, Covid cases are being over counted
That doesn't make sense. Please explain.
 
The link in the OP relative to misdiagnosis of Covid 19
Back at the beginning of the pandemic when there were nowhere near enough tests available, unless people were seriously ill, doctors relied on symptoms alone, and probably some were misdiagnosed that were flu. But the shortage of testing has been over since June, and so I doubt if that's why. The precautions that were put in place probably account for most of it.
 
This is a great data point since we can compare to flu seasons of previous years. The difference is that lock downs, social distancing, and masks had a material effect. You can probably extrapolate how bad covid would have been with out those.

Also ...

About 11 million more people in the US were vaccinated before Oct.2 than the same time period in 2019.

And as you pointed out mask wearing and social distancing helped lower the number of flu cases this year.

New data from the health IT firm IQVIA finds that 23.5 million people got the flu shot from Aug. 7 through Oct. 2, compared with 12.6 million during the same timeframe in 2019.

Data info from :

 
This is a great data point since we can compare to flu seasons of previous years. The difference is that lock downs, social distancing, and masks had a material effect. You can probably extrapolate how bad covid would have been with out those.

Our flu season typically comes from the southern hemisphere . We base our flu strains for the vaccine on the strains prevalent " down under" during their flu season (which is our summer/ their winter). They spent those months like we did - in lockdown. Add to that the immunity we have to flu due to previous exposure throughout the years (something absent from Covid) and the restrictions in travel in general. Then the heightened hygiene and such. Not a surprise flu isn't an issue this season. I work in an ER and we've not had a single case of flu this year. We don't really know the infectious dose of Covid - it may be that it is far lower than Flu - which would help explain why covid is spreading and flu is not.
 
CONSPIRACY-PSEUDOSCIENCE
Sources in the Conspiracy-Pseudoscience category may publish unverifiable information that is not always supported by evidence. These sources may be untrustworthy for credible/verifiable information, therefore fact checking and further investigation is recommended on a per article basis when obtaining information from these sources. See all Conspiracy-Pseudoscience sources.

  • Overall, we rate Zero Hedge an extreme right biased conspiracy website based on the promotion of false/misleading/debunked information that routinely denigrates the left.
Detailed Report
Factual Reporting: LOW
Country: Bulgaria
World Press Freedom Rank: Bulgaria 111/180
History
Launched in 2009, Zero Hedge is a finance blog founded by Colin Lokey also known with the pseudonym “Tyler Durden,” Daniel Ivandjiiski, and Tim Backshall. According to a Bloomberg Interview the Zero Hedge founders/authors were anonymous until 2016. A Professional Service Subscription is required to read the rest of the interview from Bloomberg, however, a New Yorker article also covered their history.
Zero Hedge wrote a rebuttal article regarding the Bloomberg interview that can be found here. A quote from the rebuttal reads: “Zero Hedge hired Colin when he approached us over a year ago begging for a job after he was fired with cause from Seeking Alpha, following a fight with a co-worker.”

Read our profile on Bulgaria’s government and media.



Zero Hedge - Media Bias Fact Check


VySky and his fake news. *sigh*

.

The last desperate attempt to derail a top is citing the fake blog "Media Bias Fact Check" - designed only for THE most gullible.

Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is a website founded in 2015 by editor Dave Van Zandt. The website has been described as an amateur effort to rate news media sources based on +factual accuracy and political bias.
Alexandra Kitty, in a 2018 book on journalism, described MBFC as an apparent "amateur/civic outfit" and wrote that its founder's only qualification was a degree in communications.When Journalism was a Thing. Zero Books. p. 158.

The Columbia Journalism Review describes Media Bias/Fact Check as an amateur attempt at categorizing media bias and Van Zandt as an "armchair media analyst." The Poynter Institute notes, "Media Bias/Fact Check is a widely cited source for news stories and even studies about misinformation, despite the fact that its method is in no way scientific."https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/heres-what-to-expect-from-fact-checking-in-2019/

Media Bias Fact Check is either inept and/or dishonest.
Siewert goes on to write that Just Facts is “a deceptive site because they do use facts, but not all the facts in order to mask their right Bias.” As proof of this, she cites two articles that take issue with the Stanford Law Review paper cited by Just Facts. Neither of these articles appeared in a journal, and one of them is from a publication “written and published entirely by Harvard undergraduates.” Siewert does not even attempt to prove whether the critiques have any factual or logical value.

Anyone citing Media Bias Fact Check might as well be citing The Onion.
 
It is not mysterious. It was in fact expected.

Why? How does the flu spread? Through particles from the mouth and nose. So if people wear masks, then those particles dont go very far and hence dont spread.

Add into the frame, that people are handwashing far more than normal, then another infection route is curtailed.

Plus social distancing helps as well of course.

But also remember, the Flu virus does not live long on surfaces and really hates heat, and it is no wonder why the flu season is all but non existent.
 
Interesting.

Spin away at will

=======

Despite all those warnings from Dr. Anthony Fauci about COVID-19 and the flu joining forces in 2020 and 2021 to create some kind of super-deadly double-whammy viral pandemic, it's no longer a secret at this point that worries about a super-charged flu season simply never came to pass. We've reported on the phenomenon of falling flu cases before,

February is usually the peak of flu season, when doctors' offices and hospitals are packed with patients. But that's not the case this year. Instead, the flu has virtually disappeared from the US, with reports coming in at far lower levels than the world has seen in decades. Some areas, like San Diego, have seen such low numbers, health authorities have demanded audits of COVID-positive patients to see whether some might have been misdiagnosed.

According to the CDC, the cumulative positive influenza test rate from late September into the week of December 19th was just 0.2%, compared to 8.7% from a year before.

Hospitals say the expected army of flu-sickened patients never materialized, and that nationally "this is the lowest flu season we’ve had on record," according to a surveillance system that is about 25 years old.

One source from Maine Medical Center in Portland, the state's largest hospital, said "I have seen zero documented flu cases this winter," said Dr. Nate Mick, the head of the emergency department.

Where's the mystery? People have been home, away from crowds, wearing masks, social distancing and there's your main reason for low flu numbers. Don't forget that flu is also far less easily transmissible than Covid-19.
 
The link in the OP relative to misdiagnosis of Covid 19

COVID tests do not trigger false positives from the presence of Influenza.
 
I just love threads that start as the 'truther manifesto' and end up a public embarassment.

Hilarious how obvious the answer is, but CT truthers just love delusion
 
I’m still waiting to see if you can redeem this thread with something mysterious.
Authors, themselves, can be extremely mysterious - among other outlandish adjectives. :)
 
So what is it?


Are Covid 19 cases being over counted as some flu cases are being classified as Covid 19

Or are Covid 19 cases being under counted and and 30% of the population has been exposed and have antibodies to Covid 19?


I have seen such claims from the same person
 
Maybe COVID attacks other viruses? Might be something science wants to research.
 
Or as has been suspected for some time, Covid cases are being over counted
:rolleyes:

Back in the real world: Most of the measures used to reduce the spread of COVID also stop other respiratory illnesses, such as... influenza.

And no, COVID isn't being "over counted." Here is the numbers of excess deaths for 2017 through 2020. One of those years is not like the others. Unless you think someone "over counted" 500,000 deaths due to no reason at all.

Excess Deaths 2017 to 2020.png

And yes, ZeroHedge is total garbage. Even when they write something factual, they manage to screw it up. If you don't want to hear people attacking your sources, then get better sources.
 
Maybe COVID attacks other viruses?
Uhhhh... no. That's not how it works.

It's that social distancing, masks, cleaning, school closures, travel limits and other methods used to keep COVID in check also reduced influenza transmission, especially among seniors.

Also, the number of people getting flu vaccines jumped 46% among adults. It's the highest number of flu vaccines ever given during flu season.

 
Any idiot knows that keeping a distance from other people during flu season, wearing a mask in public, using hand sanitizer, etc. will lower the cases of influenza like any other disease. Why is that so hard for some to understand?
 
Interesting.

Spin away at will

=======

Despite all those warnings from Dr. Anthony Fauci about COVID-19 and the flu joining forces in 2020 and 2021 to create some kind of super-deadly double-whammy viral pandemic, it's no longer a secret at this point that worries about a super-charged flu season simply never came to pass. We've reported on the phenomenon of falling flu cases before,

February is usually the peak of flu season, when doctors' offices and hospitals are packed with patients. But that's not the case this year. Instead, the flu has virtually disappeared from the US, with reports coming in at far lower levels than the world has seen in decades. Some areas, like San Diego, have seen such low numbers, health authorities have demanded audits of COVID-positive patients to see whether some might have been misdiagnosed.

According to the CDC, the cumulative positive influenza test rate from late September into the week of December 19th was just 0.2%, compared to 8.7% from a year before.

Hospitals say the expected army of flu-sickened patients never materialized, and that nationally "this is the lowest flu season we’ve had on record," according to a surveillance system that is about 25 years old.

One source from Maine Medical Center in Portland, the state's largest hospital, said "I have seen zero documented flu cases this winter," said Dr. Nate Mick, the head of the emergency department.

What is mysterious about this? People have been social distancing and masking up, more people are getting flu vaccines etc. Wouldn't you expect a much lower number of flu cases?
 
Back
Top Bottom