I was told I was exaggerating when I said flu can kill

[Peaceplant]

I said this during Covid and I was laughed at for comparing the severity with flu.

I was going to mention the Spanish Flu epidemic. Estimates of the number of deaths vary from 25m to 50m people, at a time when the population was probably considerably smaller than now.

My grandmother was 19-20 then, and she remembered it well. Hospitals were crammed with people, and several of her neighbours died.

Thankfully, medicine has advanced considerably since then, so deaths are probably a lot less likely.

That’s a strange comment OP. I thought it was widely known that both flu and covid can kill.

Listen everyone, you might die from flu. Happy Christmas 🙄

Well we have vaccination now if that's what you mean. And antibiotics to treat secondary infections. But beyond that, most of our modern lifesaving techniques and equipment won't work terribly well if hospitals get overwhelmed and medical staff get sick (or have sick family members at home that they need to care for).

You could get vaccinated, and vax your children. HTH.

So did my grandfather.

I never realised how bad it could be, until I got it 3 years ago at the age of 32. I'm very strong and healthy, with no underlying conditions and I really did feel like I was going to die. It took me well over a month to be able to walk or eat again properly.

Ive honestly lost count of the number of what I consider to be basic facts that other people deny. I used to get riled up over it, now I just instantly put the shutters down. But they still burn away in my memory.

Well the laugh will be on the other side of their faces now. You can rest easy in the contentment of your vindication OP.

Well I’ve done both! It sounds like everyone likes scaremongering and dwelling on fear, that’s what is annoying.

Most diseases can kill if the person who catches them is weak enough, or unlucky enough to succumb to something that most people survive.

Covid was 5 years ago op. That's a very long time for you to still be thinking about this ...

The common cold, flu and COVID can all be almost symptoms free, mild, moderate, serious and fatal.

Flu is more likely to be fatal in younger people than COVID-19 but overall in the past couple of years deaths from respiratory infections whether COVID or flu have dropped to the average pre COVID levels, there is always fluctuations in various winters, analysis by end of 2023, had COVID as being roughly 2 times more likely to be fatal than flu but not so different if you included pneumonia etc . The vast majority of fatalities are in people with other serious health problems.

The world was shut down over covid, but flu kills too. How come the world is not shut down over it every year?

It usually kills in far smaller numbers than the first wave of Covid did?

If we had a virulent flu epidemic one year, like the 1918 outbreak, you would see similar disruption.

Because in 2020 covid was a novel virus - no one in the world had any immunity to it which is why it was able to spread so quickly and kill so many. Because there was no vaccination against it and no one knew how to treat it successfully (or in fact at all). Because in 2020 we didn't even know how many and whom it might kill, or what the long term consequences of the infection were.

None of that has been the case with flu for a very long time.

For most people, dying of flu isn't something they give much thought too, it's just not on their radar.
Sounds like you were talking about this with someone who didn't really want to have the conversation in the first place.

60-100 million people died of Spanish flu in 1918 around the world. Of course flu is serious.