Have We Had An Influenza Epidemic

[Tilly2]

at all, this winter?

[fiction-factory]

The season is usually December to March here, so I suppose if it happened at the usual levels it would have been before Covid really took off here and may not have made the news.
I know some countries are now preparing for their flu season now

[fiction-factory]

This may help Tilly. I haven't read it yet- maybe later
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/weekly-national-flu-reports-2019-to-2020-season

[Tilly2]

No mention of influenza at all, this year. Maybe the jabs we had are working well this season.

[Tilly2]

Page 4 of that report is interesting and intelligible, FF. The previous pages are all above my head...graphs and that.

Thank you. It seems that influenza has not been much of a problem this year.

[jno]

the viruses drew straws in November and flu lost.

[Hopkirk]

I doubt if anyone is even catching a cold at the moment.

[pixie374]

It does make you wonder how good everyone's immune systems will be, when finally allowed out...
The majority of people who "die from flu" actually die from pneumonia or other secondary infections, so it does depend what the "cause" is recorded at.
In the end, we all die of heart failure, no matter what... but records aren't always that bothered or accurate.

[jim360]

I think part of the reason you don't hear much is that unless it's a particularly bad season, like the early 2000s, it doesn't make the news. Sadly, flu is endemic now, and flares up in the Winter season, and will continue to do so for a long time to come. It's not news that flu deaths peak somewhat in Winter any more.