Seasonal Flu Season?

[Thisoldbird]

Usually at this time of year hospital wards get over crowded with older people with respiratory problems from seasonal flu. It seems to me it disappeared when Covid hit the ground running.

Also I'm hearing of young people who tested positive last summer, double vaccinated yet now testing positive with the new variant!
Just what is going on..

[emmie]

i don't think its disappeared just that covid seems to take precedence over everything else - the news is full of covid stats for some reason i can't fathom it has none for flu.

[rowanwitch]

The vaccine does not stop you getting covid this has been the message right from the start. It does stop most people from getting sick enough to need hospital. The flu vaccine however does protect you from getting the most prevalent strains. Also mask wearing and the other precautions seem to reduce flu spread too.

[Gromit]

We have had flu under control for many years, and hospitals are rarely over run by flu in the winter flu season.
But there are years when we get a bad dose of flu and we get a peak. We usually get 200-300 deaths a year from flu, but in 2018 we had 20,000. But we still coped.
Covid deaths are well over double that.

Flu and covid strike the most vulnerable - the old, the sick and the very young. I suspect covid is killing people who in previous years would have died of flu. So we should see less flu.

[emmie]

no we will see people's death attributed to covid, when they went into hospital with the flu.

[emmie]

https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transparencyandgovernance/freedomofinformationfoi/deathsfrominfluenzaandcovid19in2020and2021

[TheChair]

"It seems to me it ..."
Well, that's pretty incontrovertible then, isn't it?

[emmie]

if i had the flu i would stay home, as the chances of catching covid in hospital seem still to be high. If one can't be treated at home for flu, then put patients on isolation wards specifically for them.

[bobbinwales]

There has been areal push on flu vaccines this year. They started early.. mine was September rather than Nov/ Dec and at the covid booster sessions they were also offering free flu jabs.
So this should be helping keeping cases down.
Also maybe 100000 of those who would of been most vunerable to flu have died earlier than expected due to covid so a good few thousand flu deaths have been avoided

[Sqad]

////Also I'm hearing of young people who tested positive last summer, double vaccinated yet now testing positive with the new variant!
Just what is going on..////

The LFT is not accurate as an indication of Covid infection and after inoculation antibody activity diminishes varying from 3 to 6 months depending on which study you rely on.

Also in my opinion and understanding the new variant is not as affective by present vaccines as previous variants.

Flu or seasonal respiratory viruses have receded into the background because of measures taken for Covid....wearing masks, washing hands and social distancing.
It seems that what is good for the goose is good for the gander.