As there’s looking to be an above average flu outbreak this year should fly close contacts self isolate?

[solarlights]

Obviously this is a ridiculous idea, but what is the difference between doing this and what we’re currently doing with coronavirus?

Your question doesn't make any sense.

I assume you mean flu not fly.

And nope.

Seems sensible but it's currently down to individuals. I certainly wouldn't go out if I had flu, or thought I had it. I've had flu, once, & wouldn't want to risk passing it around. I was early 20s & it took me months to feel better.

I’m going to get vaccinated against flu, I’m more worried about that than Covid, especially in children.

Ah sorry I misread. Close contacts - no. Only if you have it, IMHO. Even then a lot of people have some level of immunity so totally self isolating seems unnecessary, not at the level people are required to with covid.

I hope it becomes socially unacceptable to go out and about with cold/flu symptoms and people stop the heroics of going into work with heavy cold/flu being complimented how stoic they are whilst they splutter all over everything.

I hope it becomes socially unacceptable to go out and about with cold/flu symptoms

But should their close contacts self isolate for 10 days?

Close contacts? No. Although i think a bit of extra handwashing and ventilation if you are seeing someone vulnerable wluld be a good plan

@solarlights

I hope it becomes socially unacceptable to go out and about with cold/flu symptoms

But should their close contacts self isolate for 10 days?

Seems a bit excessive. Most people have some level of immunity to flu, unlike coronavirus. And flu doesn't generally leave people with serious & long term deterioration in their health, unlike coronavirus.

However I do think it's pretty poor form not to let people know if you've got flu, if you've recently been in close contact with them. When I had flu I was in a house share at university. I basically confined myself to my room for 3 weeks until I started to feel better. Thankfully there were 3 bathrooms so my boyfriend & I took 1, & he looked after me. He stayed away from everyone else as much as possible.

I had flu for first time a few years ago, and it knocked a few down in our small office as people attempted coming into work still with it. I'd like it to be encouraged that people with flu stay away! Colds are fine, and it doesn't help it's often referred to as 'cold/flu' when flu is way more nasty.

Guess that depends if this year's flu might lead to 150,000 excess deaths in the UK alone...

Plus there is already a flu vaccination that just gets modified each year. It didn't need to be created from very little and trialled from phase 1 trials upwards and rolled to an entirely unvaccinated population.
So not really comparable.

Well flu is much less transmissible than covid for one thing (I believe the R rate is around 1 for flu and 3 for covid), so no I would not expect close contacts to isolate, but I would expect anyone with flu to stay at home as most conscientious people would in any other year.

Some people are still stuck on this idea that Covid is like the flu. It's very tiresome.

Flu is not a respiratory virus as Covid is, so yes one can become very ill, fatality even, with flu, but the pressure on the NHS to provide ventilation and such like isn't as severe.

Different treatments for severe cases.

I’m going to be more mindful around the elderly going forward. I would never have visited with the flu, though I would have with a cold. And I would have thought nothing of being a close contact of flu and visiting elderly relatives. I’ll be more careful in future.

But there are anti viral treatments for flu so it’s not comparable from a public health perspective. We’re it to become necessary to isolate then I’d follow PH guidance.

@frozendaisy
COVID-19 and influenza viruses have a similar disease presentation. That is, they both cause respiratory disease, which presents as a wide range of illness from asymptomatic or mild through to severe disease and death. Secondly, both viruses are transmitted by contact, droplets and fomites. As a result, the same public health measures, such as hand hygiene and good respiratory etiquette (coughing into your elbow or into a tissue and immediately disposing of the tissue), are important actions all can take to prevent infection

Don't look for logical consistency in what was done about covid & what will be done about any other germs. That way madness lies.

@HarrietOh

I had flu for first time a few years ago, and it knocked a few down in our small office as people attempted coming into work still with it. I'd like it to be encouraged that people with flu stay away! Colds are fine, and it doesn't help it's often referred to as 'cold/flu' when flu is way more nasty.

Flu can range from asymptomatic to putting you in hospital. The idea that you can tell just by the severity is a myth.

I think we're going to need to grasp this more than ever this year. I don't see how it can be a great idea for all the flu spreaders to go around thinking they just have a cold. This is the winter we're going to need to learn to stay at home and not drag ourselves into work if we're ill. Got away with a bit last year because of the lockdown measures and isolation. If that's going to go, people will need to learn to take a bit more responsibility for themselves and the communities they live in.

Seasonal flu no, pandemic flu YES.

However more mitigation strategies should be used (better ventilation and lower occupancy in public spaces and schools, testing in hospital and care homes)

There is plenty of bird flu about. It could easily mutate to allow human to human transmission. If it did, we'd need to do contact tracing, school closures and masks for that.

It's not really a ridiculous idea, it's just that from a public health point of view it's not likely to be as necessary (in terms of truly catastrophic, rather than just awful, effects on the health service and society) for flu as it has been for covid, because there's more immunity to flu out there than there has been for covid. Also, people rarely know that they've got influenza, specifically.

From an individual point of view, if say your dh has flu or even a bad cold it actually would be a really good idea to avoid visiting vulnerable people for a few days (the incubation period for flu is much shorter than for covid, so four days would be enough I think).

For any infectious disease, it's worth having an idea of (1) how likely you might be to be incubating it if you're a contact, (2) how likely you might be to be able to pass it on before you're obviously ill yourself, and (3) how long you might be infectious after you've recovered.

Depending on the particular disease, you might then change your behaviour by, say, not visiting your granny in her care home within a few days of your husband going down with flu. Or you might (a revolutionary idea, this!) keep your children away from school for 48 hours after diarrhoea and vomiting. Or you might change to meeting a friend for a walk outdoors rather that going into their house, when you've got a stinking cold - that last one I can imagine people doing in the future when they wouldn't have in the past, thanks to covid.

None of that is ridiculous, it's just not something most people have been in the habit of giving a second's thought to - mostly we act as though diseases strike completely randomly, and don't think all that much about whether we have a personal role to play in breaking or extending chains of transmission. Maybe people will think about that a bit more from now on though.

There was so little flu in the Southern Hemisphere that the predication of strains for the flu jabs must have been extra difficult this year

One issue that is likely to hit is an increase in RSV. This is usually found in primary age DC, and as there was very little last year, we may well see two years worth in one season this winter

Staying home on the first 48 hours of an infection is always a good idea.

If you really can't, then keep away from people and think about wearing a mask (so you don't spread it around so readily - always remember the mask protects others from you, not the other way round)

I've had flu twice in 45 years. So that's what? A 1 in 22ish chance of me having it each year?
Unless I've had it asymptomatically of course.....

@MildredPuppy

I hope it becomes socially unacceptable to go out and about with cold/flu symptoms and people stop the heroics of going into work with heavy cold/flu being complimented how stoic they are whilst they splutter all over everything.

Lots of people won't have a choice. Employers won't take kindly to staff saying they're not coming in because they've got a cold, particularly if it's the third one of the year (I easily get three or four colds every winter). People on zero hour contracts won't be able to stay off work either - if they don't work, they don't get paid.

Are those in jobs like these the next group who are going to be judged for doing stuff they have no choice in?

Lots of people won't have a choice. Employers won't take kindly to staff saying they're not coming in because they've got a cold, particularly if it's the third one of the year (I easily get three or four colds every winter). People on zero hour contracts won't be able to stay off work either - if they don't work, they don't get paid.

Tbf there’s a solution to that. We don’t have to go ‘screw it, it’s just tough luck’. It might just improve conditions for zero hours workers in other ways too.