Poll of the Day > Great News!

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.summerlandreview.com/news/after-30000-tests-influenza-nowhere-to-be-found-in-b-c/

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/still-no-influenza-cases-detected-in-albertas-bizarre-season

https://globalnews.ca/news/7579880/flu-cases-nonexistent-saskatchewan/


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Yes, the same steps used to block covid also block the flu... unless mysteriously the flu is not being found but covid is

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Lokarin posted...

Yes, the same steps used to block covid also block the flu... unless mysteriously the flu is not being found but covid is

Its the second thing there. Thousands of cases of Covid but not one single case of the flu (that wasnt detected in someone who got the live virus vaccine). Amazing.

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Frequent hand washing, wearing masks in public, limiting close contact with other people, and unusually high vaccination rates have mostly eliminated influenza transmission? I am very surprised by this outcome.

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Lol.

Flu spreads the exact same way Covid does (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/spread.htm). So are you saying that the vaccines are more responsible for literally zero cases in three provinces (almost 6.5M people)?

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adjl posted...

Frequent hand washing, wearing masks in public, limiting close contact with other people, and unusually high vaccination rates have mostly eliminated influenza transmission? I am very surprised by this outcome.

^

also the R0 of influenza is not as high as COVID

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grimhilde00 posted...

^

also the R0 of influenza is not as high as COVID

Could you cite what it is?

Nevermind: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/r0-covid-19-virus-key-metric-opening-plans/story?id=70868997

Suspected at 2-3, while the flu is 1-2. Hardly any reason for such a huge difference (lack thereof in the case of the flu) in numbers.

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zebatov posted...

Its the second thing there. Thousands of cases of Covid but not one single case of the flu (that wasnt detected in someone who got the live virus vaccine). Amazing.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/still-no-influenza-cases-detected-in-albertas-bizarre-season

says there were 49 cases, the "no cases" is for certain provinces

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, there have been only 49 detected influenza cases across the country this season, a number the federal agency said was exceptionally low for this time of year.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/flu-season-2020-canada-public-health-1.5804673

Canada is also pushing the flu vaccine harder than ever, and Canadians are listening. Although Canadian provinces ordered almost 25 per cent more flu shots than last year, many can't keep up with demand.

that helps

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zebatov posted...

Could you cite what it is?

Nevermind: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/r0-covid-19-virus-key-metric-opening-plans/story?id=70868997

Suspected at 2-3, while the flu is 1-2. Hardly any reason for such a huge difference (lack thereof in the case of the flu) in numbers.

someone doesn't understand exponential growth or how only one has superspreader events

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I haven't had the flu since I was a little kid, my immune system is too kick ass.

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grimhilde00 posted...

that helps

2/3 of Alberta didnt get the flu vaccine, yet no cases exist.

darcandkharg31 posted...

I haven't had the flu since I was a little kid, my immune system is too kick ass.

I get the flu once every ten years or so. It puts me down for a day or two and then Im fine. Worried about what my next cold is going to be like since I havent had one in almost two years now.

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"That helps"

Along with ALL THE OTHER factors

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grimhilde00 posted...

"That helps"

Along with ALL THE OTHER factors

I regularly go to the pubs where nobody wears masks, some dont wash their hands after using the bathroom and almost nobody distances themselves from others. Are those the factors youre talking about?

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also looks like our coronavirus R0 could be high as 5.7

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tarahaelle/2020/04/07/the-covid19-coronavirus-disease-may-be-twice-as-contagious-as-we-thought/?sh=42081f9229a6

https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/7/20-0282_article

and never mind the new strain that's been going around for some time that's even more infectious

so yeah, flu is a lower r0 by far

zebatov posted...

I regularly go to the pubs where nobody wears masks, some dont wash their hands after using the bathroom and almost nobody distances themselves from others. Are those the factors youre talking about?

sad part is I'm not even surprised that people seem proud to be an idiot these days

you != statistics at large

but congrats, you do belong as part of the problem :)

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zebatov posted...

I get the flu once every ten years or so. It puts me down for a day or two and then Im fine.

and then you give it to some immunocompromised person and they're not fine

herd immunity through vaccination has ALWAYS been a thing people should have been discussing even with the flu, and many were discussing that. Just barely anyone cared because it wasn't as bad as it is now but it still killed many people.

It's not always about YOU. This is not new.

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zebatov posted...

Suspected at 2-3, while the flu is 1-2. Hardly any reason for such a huge difference (lack thereof in the case of the flu) in numbers.

The very article you linked posted...

And while R0 = 1 and R0 = 2 might seem close, "the difference between a reproductive number of 1 and a reproductive number of 2 is huge, in terms of the number of people who will ultimately be infected,"

When R0 is 1 (that is, each infected person infects 1 other person), ten iterations of transmission results in a total of 11 cases (1+1^10). When R0 is 2, ten iterations results in a total of 1025 cases (1+2^10), and that gap only widens with further iterations (by 20 iterations, or about 6 months in the case of Covid, it's a difference between 21 and 1,048,577). When you're talking about exponential growth, small changes in the base can result in huge differences in the final product.

zebatov posted...

Flu spreads the exact same way Covid does (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/spread.htm). So are you saying that the vaccines are more responsible for literally zero cases in three provinces (almost 6.5M people)?

Of course not. It's common knowledge that influenza is less contagious than Covid, so it stands to reason that the precautions intended to slow the spread of Covid would be more effective for slowing the spread of influenza than they have been for Covid. Toss a vaccine on top of that, plus the fact that people generally isolate as soon as they show flu symptoms these days (asymptomatic flu transmission is a thing, but accounts for less of its transmission than for Covid because the incubation period is shorter), and such numbers aren't that hard to believe.

Of course, all of this ignores the most significant factor, which is that this is only looking at confirmed positive tests. Given how much we're doing to protect vulnerable populations (up to and including isolating the elderly), it stands to reason that flu hospitalizations (the primary source of influenza tests) would be mostly eliminated. The only other way you're getting positive influenza tests is from people who are sick enough with the flu to go visit a doctor, and many of those people are generally just getting tested for Covid when they show symptoms and isolating until they go away instead of risking a doctor's visit. Testing is up, but mostly as a precautionary measure for health care workers and other people working with vulnerable populations (who are at less risk than usual this year because fewer flu-infected people are coming in and they've got more robust personal protections), rather than testing people with cold/flu symptoms for it.

Basically, people that are catching the flu this year are just staying home and toughing it out, not getting tested to confirm that they've got it. I very much doubt that there are genuinely zero cases out there, just a vastly reduced number that isn't being picked up by health surveillance.

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zebatov posted...

Lol.

Flu spreads the exact same way Covid does (https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/disease/spread.htm). So are you saying that the vaccines are more responsible for literally zero cases in three provinces (almost 6.5M people)?

https://i.imgur.com/dV7AZza.jpg
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Oh okay :)

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