Poll of the Day > Does the flu exist anymore

(+) Yeah! (+)

Did Covid win the war

---

they both still exist


---

Seems like if anyone has flu like symptoms now adays its deemed to be Covid

---

It also seems everything gives you COVID and whenever someone dies it's always put down as COVID. It's just a buzzword for the media in most cases. While COVID is real all this scare mongering isn't most of the time.

---

some real fuckin brainiacs in here lol

---

I have thoughts on the masks, but I do have to admit that I haven't caught so much as a cold in the past year since their use became nearly mandatory in my area.

---

ArvTheGreat posted...

Seems like if anyone has flu like symptoms now adays its deemed to be Covid

no actually, people in hospitals are generally diagnosed with what ails them.

---

Not in three western provinces, one case in the fourth one over, and only forty-two across Canada (as of a few weeks ago). So, yes, but barely.

---

My coworker's brother has a pretty prominent position at the CDC. He said flu is being diagnosed as covid in most cases. Anyone who shows flu-like symptoms is considered covid whether testing positive or negative. I mean, its pretty fucking obvious for anyone who isn't a smooth brain anyway when fairly major cities are suddenly inexplicably reduced to hundreds or even dozens of cases of flu in the past year. I hear about people I know getting the flu every year (except this year)

I catch a cold like every other winter. I hadn't caught the flu since grade school until last year and it's a huge difference in debilitation; I can't imagine catching it every year.

---

OhhhJa posted...

My coworker's brother has a pretty prominent position at the CDC. He said flu is being diagnosed as covid in most cases. Anyone who shows flu-like symptoms is considered covid whether testing positive or negative. I mean, its pretty fucking obvious for anyone who isn't a smooth brain anyway when fairly major cities are suddenly inexplicably reduced to hundreds or even dozens of cases of flu in the past year. I hear about people I know getting the flu every year (except this year)

Funny, because the CDC website points out that low flu prevalence is likely due to the measures taken to curb covid having profound impact on reducing flu transmission.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6937a6.htm

Reuters fact check on your claim states

Low flu levels during the pandemic are likely the result of coronavirus measures such as mask wearing and social distancing, not because it has been mislabeled as COVID-19.

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-flu-levels-idUSKBN29R2AU

Not sure why we'd pay attention to your nephew's friend's dad who works for Nintendo's cousin who works for the CDC. Now that testing is rolled out and more easily available, cases are confirmed by testing, not just glancing at someone with flulike symptoms and labeling it as covid. There are millions of covid tests being done in the US each week (1-2 million each day).

States are reporting test positivity rates, which requires discriminating whether someone tests positive for covid or not. This stat is nonsensical under your scenario of just labeling ppl as covid positive without testing being done.

---

OhhhJa posted...

My coworker's brother has a pretty prominent position at the CDC. He said flu is being diagnosed as covid in most cases. Anyone who shows flu-like symptoms is considered covid whether testing positive or negative. I mean, its pretty fucking obvious for anyone who isn't a smooth brain anyway when fairly major cities are suddenly inexplicably reduced to hundreds or even dozens of cases of flu in the past year. I hear about people I know getting the flu every year (except this year)

anytime someone coughs theres people that are like uh ohhh its really annoying


---

Clench281 posted...

Funny, because the CDC website points out that low flu prevalence is likely due to the measures taken to curb covid having profound impact on reducing flu transmission.

Yeah everyone's heard this excuse. Funny how it REALLY didn't work for curbing covid. It must be REALLY REALLY contagious lol. Also, love the cognitive dissonance of reconciling "people aren't following the recommendations and thats why covid is so rampant" with "flu has been nearly nonexistent because of masks and social distancing" lol. Pick a lane please.

And lol at citing fact checks by multi billion dollar corporations. Real trustworthy stuff with no agenda there lmao. Quit sucking at the teet of billionaires and for your own opinions

OhhhJa posted...

Funny how it REALLY didn't work for curbing covid. It must be REALLY REALLY contagious lol.

It's all a hoax REMEMBER

---

We shouldn't trust the CDC making official statements but we should trust your game of telephone through two people (but it's originating from the CDC so it's trustworthy)?

OhhhJa posted...

It must be REALLY REALLY contagious lol

... yes? Do you understand what a pandemic is?

Flu just doesn't spread as well. About half of the adult population gets the flu vaccine, which provides some extent of immunity, reducing the size of the susceptible population, decreasing the rate it spreads. At the start of the pandemic there was no vaccine for covid.

Covid has a potentially long asymptomatic phase where you're infectious. Flu typically only has a day where you're infectious prior to symptoms showing up. Then people know to isolate.

So yes, covid is going to spread much more efficiently than the flu and precautions prevent covid transmission is going to be even more effective at reducing flu transmission.

---

Based on CDC data the flu prevalence is about ~half to ~a third of what it was in 2011-2012. That really isn't so bizarre given the massive numbers of people working from home, wearing masks, avoiding public transportation, and distancing from others.

---

Ohhhja sure does love his anecdotal evidence.

---

I hate to say it, but I have to agree with Clench here just from my own anecdotal experience. I have an immune system forged from playing in dirt, retail, working around contractors/tradesmen (which won't take a day off unless they're physically bedridden) and most recently working in close proximity with a person that's in and out of hospitals (where only the .01% of strongest germs survive). I still get about 3 colds/flu/random virus of the year every year normally.

With the emphasis on masks, handwashing, and general sterilization of common areas in the past year I haven't had so much as the sniffles in the past year outside of allergies.

Every native instinct in me bristles at masking on principle. The recent "double masking" thing is like, seriously?...now you're just fucking with us to see how far you can push this conformity bullshit.

But I can't actually deny that something is very different in the general spread of germs overall.

Now I don't doubt that there may be an entire generation of "bubble boys" that makes peanut allergies look like hayfever going forward.

But I haven't had a cold in a year now.

---

Lung cancer is less of a concern than Covid. I have to wear a mask at all times, so as not to spread this deadly disease, but I can take my mask off to have a cigarette if I want.

---

Jornavyr posted...

Lung cancer is less of a concern than Covid. I have to wear a mask at all times, so as not to spread this deadly disease, but I can take my mask off to have a cigarette if I want.

As a smoker, the fun part is coughing once and watching 4 people shit their pants.

---

WhiskeyDisk posted...

I have thoughts on the masks, but I do have to admit that I haven't caught so much as a cold in the past year since their use became nearly mandatory in my area.

Same here! Im going to keep wearing them even after this is done. It doesnt help my allergies much but I havent had my usual winter colds.

---

Zareth posted...

Ohhhja sure does love his anecdotal evidence.

he has to, otherwise he wouldnt be lying about having a connection in the cdc, ok?

---

Fierce_Deity_08 posted...

Same here! Im going to keep wearing them even after this is done. It doesnt help my allergies much but I havent had my usual winter colds.

Same. I usually get multiple colds every year, really bad coughs that last a month or more even.

Nothing in 2020.

---

ArvTheGreat posted...

Seems like if anyone has flu like symptoms now adays its deemed to be Covid

It's often suspected to be Covid, but it's not diagnosed as such without a positive Covid test. The days of "presumptive" Covid cases are mostly past now that testing is more readily available (and even then, presumptive Covid cases were based on more symptoms than would be common to any flu-like illness).

Clench281 posted...

the CDC website points out that low flu prevalence is likely due to the measures taken to curb covid having profound impact on reducing flu transmission.

There's also the fact that flu cases in general can be expected to be under-reported this season because people with flu symptoms are going to be isolating instead of seeing a doctor for a conclusive influenza test, meaning it's mostly just going to be serious cases that get confirmed (and those prone to serious cases are doing more than usual to avoid flu infections because of Covid). At least looking at Canada, influenza testing rates are way up this year, but that's pretty much entirely because everyone working with vulnerable populations is getting proactively tested for it regularly, not because the general population is getting more tests than usual.

OhhhJa posted...

Funny how it REALLY didn't work for curbing covid

It didn't work for *stopping* Covid. It has worked for curbing it, at least in areas that do enough of it.

OhhhJa posted...

Also, love the cognitive dissonance of reconciling "people aren't following the recommendations and thats why covid is so rampant" with "flu has been nearly nonexistent because of masks and social distancing" lol. Pick a lane please.

I've already corrected you at least once when you've spouted this nonsense. I shouldn't have to do it again if you're trying to maintain any pretense of intellectual honesty here.

WhiskeyDisk posted...

Every native instinct in me bristles at masking on principle.

You shouldn't instinctively resist listening to the best available public health advice. That's just silly.

---