COVID-19 is so deadly...

[profjeremy]

... that it apparently killed the flu this year!

I went onto the CDC’s website to look at influenza data, as my fiancée and my mom have both tested positive for COVID-19 (I have the same symptoms as my fiancée but haven’t gotten tested), but my mom has vastly different symptoms that I think seem more like the flu. I took a look at the data for the last 8 weeks and noticed that the numbers seemed low, which the CDC acknowledges. However, when I looked at last year’s data during the same timeframe, things started looking a little crazier than expected:



You don’t have to be a statistician to notice that a 96% drop in positives while also increasing tests by 40% might seem a bit odd. Then again, what isn’t odd about the way this “pandemic” is being spun to the world?

I have my own opinions, but am interested to hear people’s thoughts on these interesting statistics!

 

[jsharmon7]

Can you send a link to where you found this?

 

[profjeremy]

Can you send a link to where you found this?

The data for the past 8 weeks is on this page: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/

There are links to look at data for past flu seasons and I clicked on Week 48 of the 2019-2020 season for the comparison, then simplified it in an Excel chart of my own. All of the data came from the CDC website, though.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Could it be that the CDC and doctors in general are ignoring the flu cases due to lockdowns, etc? After all, its just the flu. No big deal. you'll be fine.

(and if you get flu and die you'll be counted as a covid death anyway)

 

[johny5]

Could it be that the CDC and doctors in general are ignoring the flu cases due to lockdowns, etc? After all, its just the flu. No big deal. you'll be fine.

(and if you get flu and die you'll be counted as a covid death anyway)

Yes.

 

[KittySlayer]

I went over a half a century and never got a flu shot and never got the flu. I was smart, washed my hands, didn’t touch my face, never shook hands, socially distanced. Never wore a mask.

Train an entire nation full of sheep that they will die if they don’t follow the hygiene rules and socially distance. Add a mask that 60% of them wear correctly.

I am not surprised that the number of people with the flu is way down. This ain’t rocket surgery or brain science.

 

[Chewie]

I've heard this for many months and have seen the daya as well (months ago). I have also heard that there are many examples of the plain Jane flu showing up as positive for covid. The data has been so poorly handled and, comingled, and just plain poorly done that it would take beaucoup man hours to sort it all out. That wont happen because it doesn't meet the requirements of the "pandemic" agenda coordinators. If you are a realistic or logically thinking human being this should raise many questions (which need answers) about this whole " crisis"!

 

[jsharmon7]

I went over a half a century and never got a flu shot and never got the flu. I was smart, washed my hands, didn’t touch my face, never shook hands, socially distanced. Never wore a mask.

Train an entire nation full of sheep that they will die if they don’t follow the hygiene rules and socially distance. Add a mask that 60% of them wear correctly.

I am not surprised that the number of people with the flu is way down. This ain’t rocket surgery or brain science.

So these measures work for the flu but not
covid? Cases of covid are through the roof right now, so how could that be?

 

[Twangbanger]

I'll have to go look for the spiked JH study documenting how deaths from heart disease and other causes have also gone way down.

Oh that's right, I can't look for it, they removed it. (Somebody a week ago published a link to the Wayback Machine and a copy of the study...suffice to say, the authors "caught hell" for it in the academic sense).

But the bottom line is, the overall death rate hasn't changed this year. People are still dying at the same rate, it's just being attributed differently.

 

[BugI02]

I'll have to go look for the spiked JH study documenting how deaths from heart disease and other causes have also gone way down.

Oh that's right, I can't look for it, they removed it. (Somebody a week ago published a link to the Wayback Machine and a copy of the study...suffice to say, the authors "caught hell" for it in the academic sense).

But the bottom line is, the overall death rate hasn't changed this year. People are still dying at the same rate, it's just being attributed differently.

https://web.archive.org/web/2020112...1/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19

Someone will be along shortly to tell you the study was retracted, but it was not. The actual study was a presentation to a seminar and never was a paper submitted to a journal. Genevieve Briand is a tenured professor, teaches statistics and is 2nd in charge of the college's Applied Economics masters program. The study is well within her areas of expertise. The synopsis of the presentation was written for the Johns-Hopkins newsletter by Yanni Gu, who is a student and the newsletter is a student publication. The student directors of the publication elected to spike the story 'because it was being used to spread misinformation' but Prof Briand stands by her analysis and J-H has never questioned the study, only made it inaccessible

 

[terrehautian]

Know what I do when I get the flu, which I rarely do flu shot or not, I stay home and get better. Now, this isn't an option for all if you get pneumonia or something else with it, I get that. Going to the doctor after three days of the flu gets you a go home and get better, no meds. After this, hopefully they get the true number of flu cases so it can be actually counted (doubt it), I bet it would be pretty high.

 

[Twangbanger]

https://web.archive.org/web/2020112...1/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19

Someone will be along shortly to tell you the study was retracted, but it was not. The actual study was a presentation to a seminar and never was a paper submitted to a journal. Genevieve Briand is a tenured professor, teaches statistics and is 2nd in charge of the college's Applied Economics masters program. The study is well within her areas of expertise. The synopsis of the presentation was written for the Johns-Hopkins newsletter by Yanni Gu, who is a student and the newsletter is a student publication. The student directors of the publication elected to spike the story 'because it was being used to spread misinformation' but Prof Briand stands by her analysis and J-H has never questioned the study, only made it inaccessible

Encouraging everybody to read Bug's linked article, above.

It is real smack-in-the-head material.

 

[Ark]

https://web.archive.org/web/2020112...1/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19

Someone will be along shortly to tell you the study was retracted, but it was not. The actual study was a presentation to a seminar and never was a paper submitted to a journal. Genevieve Briand is a tenured professor, teaches statistics and is 2nd in charge of the college's Applied Economics masters program. The study is well within her areas of expertise. The synopsis of the presentation was written for the Johns-Hopkins newsletter by Yanni Gu, who is a student and the newsletter is a student publication. The student directors of the publication elected to spike the story 'because it was being used to spread misinformation' but Prof Briand stands by her analysis and J-H has never questioned the study, only made it inaccessible

Incredibly important point. They had no actual fault or justification in the presentation, they just didn't like that it was giving "those people" on the internet ammunition.

I am so damn tired of 11 months and counting of fearmongering and nonsense stats. The deadly virus so deadly you need a yearlong PR campaign and funny farm statistics to convince people it's deadly.

 

[KittySlayer]

So these measures work for the flu but not
covid? Cases of covid are through the roof right now, so how could that be?

Valid point.

Counter point - COVID testing is through the roof right now.

 

[jamil]

https://web.archive.org/web/2020112...1/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19
A closer look at U.S. deaths due to COVID-19

Someone will be along shortly to tell you the study was retracted, but it was not. The actual study was a presentation to a seminar and never was a paper submitted to a journal. Genevieve Briand is a tenured professor, teaches statistics and is 2nd in charge of the college's Applied Economics masters program. The study is well within her areas of expertise. The synopsis of the presentation was written for the Johns-Hopkins newsletter by Yanni Gu, who is a student and the newsletter is a student publication. The student directors of the publication elected to spike the story 'because it was being used to spread misinformation' but Prof Briand stands by her analysis and J-H has never questioned the study, only made it inaccessible

The thing about free speech is that ideas are debated openly and the bad ones don't survive the debate. When someone tries to hide ideas rather than openly debating them, it appears that they're afraid of those ideas. If this study is bunk, then have that debate in public and public debunk it in a forum where both sides get to make their cases. But this **** of "spiking the story" makes it look more like they're afraid of open debate. As I've said before, when you act like you're hiding something, it's reasonable to think you're hiding something.

 

[jsharmon7]

Valid point.

Counter point - COVID testing is through the roof right now.

Makes you wonder what flu numbers would be if we repeatedly tested everyone for it like with covid.

 

[terrehautian]

Makes you wonder what flu numbers would be if we repeatedly tested everyone for it like with covid.

Said this since they started testing in mass, especially for those without symptoms and just wanted tested “because “. If I was to get the flu, which I haven’t since before and since getting flu shots, bad enough I wouldn’t be going until I know it isn’t a short cold/cough. By then tamiflu wouldn’t even be useful. If I was coughing bad or something else, I could get meds for that but not the flu.

 

[jamil]

Makes you wonder what flu numbers would be if we repeatedly tested everyone for it like with covid.

A not insignificant number of people are hospitalized for the flu every flu season. I'll bet a lot of people won't get the flu this year because of all the factors of mitigation for covid. I work from home exclusively now. That alone dramatically reduces the reasons I have to leave the house, and opportunities to be around other people. My whole team works remotely now. So none of us factor into was to get infected that we'd have had otherwise.

It's the social distancing more than anything that will impact the flu season this year. I don't think mask wearing will impact it much at all since there's not the long presymptomatic period that covid has. Likely, people who do start having flu-like symptoms aren't going out in public like they would have in past flu seasons. So I think it would be more surprising than not to find a typical flu season this time.

 

[cosermann]

My sister, an RN who works at a hospital up in southern Michigan, told me last week, that oddly, they don't seem to be seeing flu cases yet this fall/winter. Just offered as an on-the-ground observation independent of the CDC's stats (or lack thereof). Kind of interesting.

 

[profjeremy]

So if masks and social distancing are keeping the flu from spreading, why are COVID cases spiking? And if the cause of COVID cases spiking is that people aren't adhering to masking/social distancing, then how would they not be transmitting the flu? Both influenza and COVID-19 are respiratory illnesses that are at least said to be transmitted in similar, if not identical ways. It doesn't make logical sense for one to spike while the other drops to near-zero.

Another thing to think about... flu tests would be given if a patient exhibited flu-like symptoms. As you can see from the OP, there have been 40% more flu tests given in Weeks 40-48 of 2020 than in Weeks 40-48 of 2019, ostensibly because 40% more people are exhibiting flu-like symptoms. Yet when tested, it seems that there has been a 97.4% drop in the influenza positivity rate this year, as compared to last. Did the ubiquitous flu, which has been around long enough for us to refer to fall/winter/spring as "flu season", suddenly decide to take a vacation in 2020, letting COVID have a turn instead? That doesn't make much sense, does it?

I'm a big believer that intelligent human behavior in an economy follows the theory of utility. That is, behavior will adapt to maximize the value to be extracted from the situation. There is an insane amount of economic value attached to COVID at this point, both currently and with much more to come. There is relatively little attached to the flu at this point. If I run a medical organization of some sort, would it not make sense for me to classify as much as possible as COVID, which is wildly more profitable for me than a case of the flu? No, I don't have any proof of this and I don't think that the average doctor or nurse is in on that. However, I also know that information about COVID tests and cases is being treated very differently than other medical information has been. My mom has been a nurse at a hospital here in Indiana and has talked about how closely guarded any information about COVID is, as well as how "very strange" that is compared to what she's seen over the last 10+ years at that hospital.

Perhaps I'm just a skeptical SOB that has seen too much, but my experience is that people game the system at every opportunity, especially the people at the top (that's why they're there!). Look at human behavior throughout all of human history and tell me where that hasn't been the case. Why should this be any different?