Not a single case of flu detected by Public Health England this year as Covid restrictions suppress virus

[DGRossetti]

Seems masks, sanitising, social distancing, and not being dragooned into work when ill might just have some effect

www.independent.co.uk/news/health/flu-cases-covid-england-phe-latest-b1805124.html

Not a single case of influenza has been detected by public health officials in England for the past seven weeks, with infection rates at historic lows amid the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions.

The social restrictions brought in to curb transmission of coronavirus, combined with increased uptake of the flu vaccine, have both been credited with driving down infections.

Thousands of swab samples are processed and analysed by scientists at Public Health England (PHE) every week to survey the prevalence of different respiratory diseases in the population.

But of the 685,243 samples that have been reviewed at PHE’s laboratories since the first week of January, not a single one has tested positive for influenza.

Does that mean flu is gone then? Won't be back? If not, there will probably be an epic year of flu deaths next year.

Or are they going to try and persuade us that we should lock down every winter to prevent flu because that is NOT going to happen.

It means some of the measures we've taken should remain to reduce flu deaths in future - people being more mindful of hand hygiene and working from home if you're ill for example. I might carry on wearing a mask on public transport during winter months. Personal responsibility and free choice though. Nothing should be dictated.

It's hard to know how this will play out over the long term - will coronavirus replace the flu viruses as the main seasonal virus when social distancing ends? Will they co-exist?

There was a much wider flu vaccination programme this year and higher take up too. Presumably PHE only knows about the most serious cases. If you stay in bed and take paracetamol for a week, they wouldn't know about it.

Ha, no, it just means that most people who thought that they had covid (and weren't tested) actually had flu. It also means that an amount of people died of flu (as they do every year) but medics put death down as due to covid.

It's all very well saying don't go to work if you're ill but many people have no choice if they can't afford to take time off. If people want this then campaign for better sick pay.

@callmeadoctor

Ha, no, it just means that most people who thought that they had covid (and weren't tested) actually had flu. It also means that an amount of people died of flu (as they do every year) but medics put death down as due to covid.

How have you managed to work that out?

Do you reckon the flu virus has just been sneakily avoiding all the people with Influenza like illness who got swabbed while simultaneously spreading wildly in the people who didn’t.

@callmeadoctor

Ha, no, it just means that most people who thought that they had covid (and weren't tested) actually had flu. It also means that an amount of people died of flu (as they do every year) but medics put death down as due to covid.

I definitely won't call you a "doctor".

There's plenty of things I could call you, but it might get me deleted.

It's mind boggling how many people are incapable of critical thinking.

I can't get my head around it. I get flu is less contagious and we have social distancing etc but wouldn't it still go round in schools? They always say kids are the main drivers of flu. Was there cases of flu end of 2020 when schools were full?

@callmeadoctor

Ha, no, it just means that most people who thought that they had covid (and weren't tested) actually had flu. It also means that an amount of people died of flu (as they do every year) but medics put death down as due to covid.

The OP actually states that 685,243 samples were tested and were negative so clearly medics are testing for flu rather than just bunging everything down as covid.

@OliveTree75

I can't get my head around it. I get flu is less contagious and we have social distancing etc but wouldn't it still go round in schools? They always say kids are the main drivers of flu. Was there cases of flu end of 2020 when schools were full?

Less global travel. There was very little flu in the Southern Hemisphere during their winter and travel restrictions mean that not much will have made it north so there’s less to spread in schools. I don’t know what the flu vaccine uptake was in schools was this year but a lot of the children may well be immune which will have made it even more difficult.

Just to add to my earlier post, part of the flu vaccine push this year was the reasoning that having flu and covid at the same time/concurrently would have worse outcomes.

The fact this was even acknowledged leads me to believe these figures are being monitored closely. We aren’t the first country to report a drop in flu deaths, Australia did at the end of their flu season just before ours unless you think they’ve been massaging their figures too?

There’s a lot less RSV this year too apparently. Much fewer babies being admitted with breathing difficulties.

We aren’t the first country to report a drop in flu deaths, Australia did at the end of their flu season just before ours unless you think they’ve been massaging their figures too?

Yes, it's a global trend:

While the coronavirus has surged, the flu and other respiratory viruses have flickered out. Since early fall, about 800,000 laboratory samples have been tested in the United States for the flu and reported to the CDC, and only 1,500 or so have come up positive—a mere 0.2 percent. This time last year, close to 100 times as many flu cases had been identified from nearly the same number of tests.
www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/02/covid-19-flu-season/617924/

I believe most countries have reported the same, in fact there's some concern that there's not enough flu circulating to identify the dominant strain to develop this year's vaccine.
Hopefully it stays suppressed for longer, until the world has really got to grips with covid-19.

PP who said about global travel has a point. Each year the flu vaccine is updated based on which strains were prevalent in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia and NZ).
If you can't travel to or from these areas, their prevalent strains are not going to get here.

Plus this year the flu vaccination programme was huge.

Plus the masks and social distancing.

Plus the vulnerable groups were staying at home.

Would be nice not to have flu at such high levels ever again. Maybe be like Asian countries and wear a mask if you are under the weather?

They've been gradually increasing the school year groups who get the annual flu nose shot. 12yo DD has followed it up and had a flu snort in Y7. (14yo DS doesn't).
So almost every primary child should have been vaccinated. That presumably reduced the flu passing around those little snotty ones and reduced risk to school staff too.
It must be so much less transmissible than covid though.

@megletsecond

They've been gradually increasing the school year groups who get the annual flu nose shot. 12yo DD has followed it up and had a flu snort in Y7. (14yo DS doesn't). So almost every primary child should have been vaccinated. That presumably reduced the flu passing around those little snotty ones and reduced risk to school staff too. It must be so much less transmissible than covid though.

I am not sure what the take up of the flu spray this year has been as I was on maternity then but normally it is only around half in my primary school

Ha ha call me cynical

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9279767/BEL-MOONEY-dad-died-chronic-illness-hes-officially-Covid-victim.html

www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-94-percent-covid-among-caus-idUSKBN25U2IO

Surely the lack of reporting of flu is because, for instance, like me when I was flu-like with a dreadful cough for five weeks, only 3 weeks after having shakes/fainting/ dizzy/aching muscles, sore throat etc, I did what everyone was doing. I ordered a COVID test. Both times were negative.
But there isn’t a flu test.
And because of the stay at home rules, I did. And self-medicated.
Now, if I had flu (and it sure felt like it), how would that have been reported?

Just to clarify I have a seriously disabled DD and have only been to a shop once since Christmas (last week), kept her out of nursery, only one person visiting (we are his support bubble). My DH works and has been on places with covid but had lateral flow tests (negative) and has had the vaccine

So I reason that whether I had a cold, a flu, COVID or something else, it wasn’t recorded.

Hence... no record of flu doesn’t mean it’s been eradicated

@OliveTree75

I can't get my head around it. I get flu is less contagious and we have social distancing etc but wouldn't it still go round in schools? They always say kids are the main drivers of flu. Was there cases of flu end of 2020 when schools were full?

It's been last 7 weeks figures when most pupils are remote learning so I guess if cases were already low from SD and masks etc they wouldn't have spread in schools whilst very empty?

So if there's not one single case of flu, it's been eradicated? Much like covid could have been with a stricter lockdown?

But that's amazing that no one will die from flu in future or need flu vaccines. I must check to see how many people would normally die annually from flu. That's going to be a huge amount of lives saved, of only we can get covid under control!

What a brilliant and unexpected side effect of covid.

@Buzzinwithbez

So if there's not one single case of flu, it's been eradicated? Much like covid could have been with a stricter lockdown?

But that's amazing that no one will die from flu in future or need flu vaccines. I must check to see how many people would normally die annually from flu. That's going to be a huge amount of lives saved, of only we can get covid under control!

What a brilliant and unexpected side effect of covid.

I can't tell if this is sarcasm? Of course we haven't eradicated flu.