Why is "just" flu supposed to be a good thing?

[randomsabreuse]

Influenza can be a very serious illness... everything about Covid sounds like one of the major flu epidemics (like the Spanish Flu as featured in Downton Abbey).

Surely the issue is that we've downgraded the common meaning of "flu" to "nasty cold that you can't battle through a day at work with" and forgotten that it's one of the biggest killers in history.

I'd say that Covid-19 being very much like Influenza (symptoms, infectiousness) is actually true, but calling it "just flu" understates the potential seriousness of both!

Sorry for the rant - been pissing me off since February!

I agree! Has also been bugging me for months!
I have had 'proper' flu a couple of times. Felt truly awful, couldn't get out of bed for at least a week, took another few weeks to feel totally better. Very similar to a couple of friends experience with Covid.
Lots of people say they've had 'flu' when they've just had a bad cold. Proper flu is truly hideous and I do know a few people who've died from it.
My rant over as well...

Yes you are completely right - people misuse the term "flu". Loads of people on here pretending they've had flu when it was obviously a cold or saying they were asymptomatic with flu (er why were you tested for it if you didn't feel unwell) - and my particular favourite is on Strictly Come Dancing when they say they've not trained for a day or two because they've had flu. No, you've had a cold!

I've had proper flu twice in my life and while I don't live my life in fear of getting it, it's not something I want to repeat. Whereas a cold is an inconvenience and you usually get over the worst of it in a day or two or three.

Totally agree, it’s baffling.

One minute they are saying you can’t compare covid to flu, then they are talking about the 1918 flu epidemic.

Flu is a really nasty virus if you get it badly. Covid is a really nasty virus if you get it badly. Equally both can be pretty mild or non-existent.

Perhaps it’s because flu is part of our ‘norm’ and covid is new and a lot isn’t known. But if covid had also been around and flu was novel the panic would be about flu instead I imagine with people saying it was the worse of the two.

Completely agree. There’s a lot of minimising going on. Now that’s not to say that we don’t need to adjust to a new normal and get on safely with our lives, but COVID-19 is a horrible illness in some, just as the flu is, and to deny it is irresponsible reckless.

Flu can be a very serious illness yes - even sometimes for the young and healthy. But it doesn’t command the (disproportionate, IMO) levels of fear and precaution that Covid continues to in people in low risk groups: why is that? People like to bring up the risk of “long Covid” but never the many other illnesses which can leave you with medium or long term complications (I had scarlet fever complications for over a year following it, for example.)

Flu is horrible and does kill.

But the death rate for flu is nothing like as high as the Covid death rate was originally feared to be. Also flu doesn’t have long term after effects, as far as I know.

So if the Covid death rate and effects turn out to be similar to flu, that’s good news compared with what we had originally feared

I think there’s two reasons for this:

1. People are used to hearing about ‘having flu’. It makes us feel a bit calmer because we can compare it to something we already know about, rather than ‘unprecedented killer virus we don’t know anything about’.

1. People use the word ‘flu’ wrongly a lot of the time. So many people ring in sick with so-called flu, and they’re back in two days, looking grand, like they’ve never been away. I’ve had (suspected) flu twice in my life and it absolutely floored me for at least a week - I was very unwell. While I understand not everyone experiences illnesses in the same way, most people who have flu are not skipping about at work two days later. At best; I think these people have had colds.

I remember having "proper" flu as a kid. Either that or measles. My primary memory is needing to crawl/be carried to the toilet ... No idea how old I was though.

The issue with Covid is that it is new, there is no vaccine, and there isn't the background immunity, plus it is less respiratory and more vascular.

I'm not saying it's not dangerous, I'm saying flu can be dangerous too.

I think modern society isn't used to illnesses that are difficult to treat. We have massively reduced death from childbirth, vaccinate against common diseases and have lots of treatments for things that used to be a quick death sentence. Think we're getting a taste of the bad old days and it's a shock!

Because with we don't all quarantine, wear face masks and stay 2 metres apart?

When people refer to it as just flu, they mean a virus that we live with, nothing new or out of the ordinary.

Flu kills lots of people yes, but mostly older people who are near the end of their lives. It's just part of life. You get old, you get weak, you die. So covid in that sense is just like flu. Somthing you will be vulnerable to when reaching the end of your life.

Yes some younger people will get ill and maybe even die from covid, but the same can be said about flu. So yes covid is "just" like flu. It's hitting the same demographics in a simular way. In fact now it seems to be effecting less people than flu.

Because 'flu' is a catch-all phrase used to cover a wide range of illnesses as well as real flu. Real flu is serious, and a whole lot worse than a cold. Fortunately, we do have a flu vaccine every year which reduces the death rate quite significantly.

COVID is both more serious (for most people) and there is no vaccine.

Also flu doesn’t have long term after effects, as far as I know.

It does if you develop pneumonia and/or have to be ventilated.

@Alabamawhirly1

When people refer to it as just flu, they mean a virus that we live with, nothing new or out of the ordinary.

Flu kills lots of people yes, but mostly older people who are near the end of their lives. It's just part of life. You get old, you get weak, you die. So covid in that sense is just like flu. Somthing you will be vulnerable to when reaching the end of your life.

Yes some younger people will get ill and maybe even die from covid, but the same can be said about flu. So yes covid is "just" like flu. It's hitting the same demographics in a simular way. In fact now it seems to be effecting less people than flu.

Is flu known to specifically affect the BAME community as well?

Flu kills lots of people yes, but mostly older people who are near the end of their lives. It's just part of life. You get old, you get weak, you die. So covid in that sense is just like flu. Somthing you will be vulnerable to when reaching the end of your life.

This makes me so cross!! Yes, both flu and COVID can takedown 'older' people, but I don't consider someone in their 50s or 60s 'near the end of their life'! Have some compassion, for crying out loud.

COVID is both more serious (for most people) and there is no vaccine.

You've got that backwards. Covid is extremely mild for most people. In fact so mild most people have little to no symptoms of covid. For a small minority of mostly elderly and/or people with existing relevant health conditions, it can be very sever and cause death.

Most people who contract flu will be quite ill, and for some who are young, elderly, pregnant or vulnerable it can be very sever and cause death.

Basically if your in a vulnerable group you don't want ethier, but that could be said for any infection, and the vulnerable group for flu seems to be bigger.

I think modern society isn't used to illnesses that are difficult to treat. We have massively reduced death from childbirth, vaccinate against common diseases and have lots of treatments for things that used to be a quick death sentence. Think we're getting a taste of the bad old days and it's a shock!

Absolutely right. We've got so used to having a jab or popping an antibiotic for anything serious, that we don't take basic precautions seriously anymore.

This makes me so cross!! Yes, both flu and COVID can takedown 'older' people, but I don't consider someone in their 50s or 60s 'near the end of their life'! Have some compassion, for crying out loud.

Who said anything about 50s and 60s. Don't put words in my mouth.

Most people dying from covid are 80+ those younger are mainly people with existing health problems. The death rate for those in their 50s and 60s is still pretty low and you have a much higher chance of being mildly effected than you do of dying from it.

This makes me so cross!! Yes, both flu and COVID can takedown 'older' people, but I don't consider someone in their 50s or 60s 'near the end of their life'! Have some compassion, for crying out loud.

The end of life isn’t about age it’s when you die. My mother died prematurely way before covid, it isn’t something new.

People are statistically more likely to die each year as they get older and this whether we like it or not includes all ages from about 40.

You don’t want to die at 60, I don’t want to die at 60, DM didn’t want to die at 60 but death is the only thing that is certain and we won’t all live until old age.

"COVID is both more serious (for most people) and there is no vaccine."

It's looking as if Covid isn't any more serious for most people than flu. With more testing we're discovering that a huge proportion of people who are infected with the Covid virus are completely unaware of it. Flu seems roughly as serious as Covid despite there being a vaccine.

"Also flu doesn’t have long term after effects, as far as I know."

Flu kills tens of thousands of people each year in the UK. But there's a vaccine. Long term problems it can cause include inflammation of the heart (myocarditis), brain (encephalitis) or muscles (myositis, rhabdomyolysis) tissues, and multi-organ failure. I know of people who have had ME-like symptoms for many years after a dose of the 'flu and I myself was unable to work for 3 months afterwards and fell into bed early for a good year, although I was young and fit.

Is flu known to specifically affect the BAME community as well?

Do you make a point of turning every conversation into a race argument.

And yes, many illnesses and diseases effect the BAME population disproportionately. The reasons are varied and complex. Do you want to get into a discussion about TB and diabetes as well?

Do you make a point of turning every conversation into a race argument.

Genuinely, I'm not sure I've ever discussed race on Mumsnet ever. Why are you so twitchy about race?

So, back to the point ....

Elderly are disproportionately affected; BAME community; diabetics...? Are they affected...? Who else...?

Please can anyone chip in. I'm trying to work out exactly how small this "tiny minority" really is.

Covid is being compared to the Spanish Flu epidemic... which was unusual because it seemed to kill young adults at a far greater rate than expected (even after the Great War). Spanish Flu was notable in a time when mortality was usual.

Is Covid worse than that? Remains to be seen...

My primary issue is with the comparison to 'just' flu.

Covid could well be considered similar to influenza because

Similar initial symptoms
Similar method of transmission
Can cause mortality and morbidity to an unpredictable extent.

But arguably Covid is more variable in the levels of symptoms it causes
More variable incubation period
Arguably not primarily a respiratory virus.

Is it more like polio.

The most common cause of hospitalisation in infants is RSV (common cause of bronchiolitis) if I remember correctly... basic cold virus that most of us have no issues with...

Any virus could have long lasting effects or kill anyone.

mostly older people who are near the end of their lives (flu)

More true for covid than flu, which is worse for the very young and very old. more children get seriously ill with flu than covid. My toddler son was ill with pneumonia from flu and was on oxygen, many small children in there with e.g. bronchiolitis, the children's ward was quite an eye opener for me.

All ethnicities have different propensities to different diseases - certain Asian races are more prone to diabetes at a much lower BMI than white Europeans.

Skin cancer is more prevalent in white people, especially those who carry the gene for red hair.

Covid severity may be linked to vitamin D deficiencies, which are more prevalent in BAME communities.

Sickle Cell Anaemia is linked to certain racial groups and I assume that as scientists understand more of the human genome more vulnerabilities to diseases will be linked to race.

Of course a large number of flu infections are asymptomatic too, so for many people flu isn't that serious - as is the case with COVID. I've never had the kind of illness people describe on here as flu - I've had flu-like illnesses which may have been actual flu where I've had a fever for a day or so and felt rough for 2-3 days. I've never been so ill I couldn't get out of bed or prepare food and drinks. I've been completely fine when my husband, child and most of my family caught flu from my dad one Christmas - as were one other sister and my mum. But we know flu is very serious for many and kills many, particularly the elderly. So I'm not sure any kind of comparison is very helpful. I didn't realise that loads of polio infections were asymptomatic too. It seems to be much more common with viruses than we realise.