Since covid19 began, almost all flu deaths have disappeared.

[Amity Island]

Since testing began for covid19 last year, fewer people have being struck down by the flu than at any time in the past 130 years. Experts have yet to explain why lockdowns have worked so well at eliminating flu, but not covid19.

Despite there normally being thousands of hospital admissions during the second week of January, this year the admission rate was zero in England.

Flu is 'almost wiped out' and at lowest level in 130 YEARS

Experts say that the bug appears to have been 'almost wiped out' in the UK after the number of sufferers plummeted by 95 per cent.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Experts have yet to explain why lockdowns have worked so well at eliminating flu, but not covid19.

It's not much of a mystery, is it? They're different infections with differing properties and different levels of preexisting immunity (helped by a better than usual vaccination drive for flu).

 

[Ditto]

I luvs your icon. 🙂 Dunno about the flu, it's like if you had a leg off you wouldn't be mithered about your headache.

 

[Eddy Edson]

Australia reported weeks ago that they didn't have a flu season. They put it down to a big increase in uptake of the flu jab and the measures put in place for covid-19.

Closing borders will have had a big part to play. Viruses with a local Oz reservoir - rhinoviruses etc - made a big come back as domestic population mobility increased after various regional lock-downs early on, but flu never did.

 

[nonethewiser]

No brainer that flu cases would dramatically drop with measures in place.

Chatting with family Friday night we all agreed that some of these measures should stay in place long after covid, things like hand sanitizer at entrance exit to shops pubs restaurants & for screens to remain in place in all eating establishments. Would save lot of lives & savings to nhs would be vast.

 

[trophywench]

I wondered earlier when husband read that same news to me, if a body has happened to be affected whatsoever by the Covid virus, eg like we both were before Xmas when we tested positive and I was about 99% asymptomatic, though we both had sleeping sickness, you know if the flu vaccine had tried to visit us - would it have survived or would the competing Covid virus have killed it off? Or because we were affected enough by it to test positive, and we'd both had the flu jab in September, would our immune systems have been enough to kill it without the Covid virus stabbing it too?

 

[mikeyB]

I wondered earlier when husband read that same news to me, if a body has happened to be affected whatsoever by the Covid virus, eg like we both were before Xmas when we tested positive and I was about 99% asymptomatic, though we both had sleeping sickness, you know if the flu vaccine had tried to visit us - would it have survived or would the competing Covid virus have killed it off? Or because we were affected enough by it to test positive, and we'd both had the flu jab in September, would our immune systems have been enough to kill it without the Covid virus stabbing it too?

Wonder no more, TW. Infection by, or immunised against an illness, your body will only be able to fight that specific illness. There is no cross protection. The viruses causing flu are structurally different to coronaviruses and have a different way of entering the cells in the body to enable reproduction.

And viruses are completely inert, so Covid could no more affect the Flu jab than fly. That's how we have multiple immunisations such as MMR.

None of that, of course, stops you getting one or more viruses at the same time.