The Southern hemisphere practically skipped the influenza season this year. Can we do half as well? Cold case - The southern hemisphere skipped flu season in 2020 | Graphic detail | The Economist
Sorry to say this is not an accessible website hereabouts. Sticking my neck out, it may be that countries in S hemi may have embraced 'mask and spacing' advice more fully. There is plenty of variation in this among N hemi countries, so comparisons can later be made. There is also much variation in influenza vaccination rates. But if hope is for US to do half as well, causes of current covid surges are not helpful.
@bisco may refer to Brazil? They certainly made a home for covid but I don't know if they emit influenza statistics.
Yes. The graphs show several different southern hemisphere countries’ influenza cases for the last several years and overlay that with the current year. Profound reduction. One of several natural experiment things the Southern Hemisphere countries do is show us that even partial mask wearing and physical distancing goes a very long way for influenza. We know influenza vaccination rates among the SH countries did not go up so we have to attribute all of the ~95% influenza rate reduction to the public practices adopted around COVID-19. Hopefully not any significant measurement error. Conversely, that also strongly suggest that had they not implemented any public health measures like mask wearing and physical distancing their COVID infection rates could’ve been something like 20 times higher at this point.
good news for us i guess. i haven't had the flu in quite awhile, but i had two long term serious illnesses last winter. at least i won't be a statistic this winter. (that i know of)
There are states that mask and distance much better than others. Generally unrestricted travel among states may blur the picture.
yeah, the unrestricted thing is frustrating. relying on people to self isolate for two weeks after arriving? dream world
It’s been tough for the over 60 crowd. They want this to be over and done so they can finally get out and live life too, but stay alive. If only the other less aged mortals and numb skulls cared more.
Well, some parts of the U.S., the legend goes, are more fans of this sort of thing. They also tend to have higher rates of COVID transmission. So maybe something there.
Two Greek Goddesses have a role in haha - Thalia and Baubo. Seriously is there anything the internet doesn't know?
Indeed. Guess there’s no limit to what the Internet knows. In hope there may be a god for passwords, maybe Soteria - goddess of safety, salvation, deliverance, and preservation from harm. So says Wikipedia.