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Has anyone noticed that the CDC’s reported deaths by week from ordinary flu and pneumonia have been plummeting while COVID-19 death rise? They are down from th

Has anyone noticed that the CDC’s reported deaths by week from ordinary flu and pneumonia have been plummeting while COVID-19 death rise? They are down from the normal 4.5k+ per week during this period to around 2.3k per week and they are falling parabolically as COVID-19 expands. What could cause this?

hprotagonist 7y ago
your tone is very conspiracist, which i suggest you reevaluate. an innocent answer, of course, is that physical distancing works.
mjul 7y ago
The Danish Serum Institute runs a “sentinel” testing programme for the common flu, and they note in their report about covid-19 last week (available in Danish) that the common flu has mostly been eliminated since the social distancing and lockdown measure were implemented. They interpret this a leading indicator for the reduction in covid-19 since it has a similar transmission mechanism.
- foota 7y ago
  Would be amazing if we managed to eliminate the common flu as a side effect of this :) not likely, but it does seem possible?
  - obituary_latte 7y ago
    There’s an interesting docuseries on Netflix that is partially about a team that is working on a permanent 1-shot flu vaccine: https://www.netflix.com/title/81026143 https://www.netflix.com/title/81026143
cjbprime 7y ago
Social distancing, of course. How do you think people get the flu?
jjeaff 7y ago
Probably partly social distancing. And part misdiagnoses of cause of death from flu to coronavirus.
pbreit 7y ago
I only saw one bit of data on this and it was unclear if the data was reliable. Apparently the data from the CDC on this may take awhile to finalize. Do you have any pointers?
pbhjpbhj 7y ago
Isolation (physical distancing) would cause this. Flu doesn't have a long incubation, and doesn't survive as well (AFAICT, not a medic) outside bodies. Isolation should reduce all virus transmission and so reduce incidence of flu, etc.. We'll need 3 weeks minimum of isolation to reduce Covid19 transmissions, assuming everyone is actually doing it. In the UK (just England I think, might be England & Wales) our Office of National Statistics says there were <500 deaths from flu (ICD codes J10-11, https://bit.ly/39DZPCo https://bit.ly/39DZPCo) in the most recent year of records (2017; from c.60M population).
hamilyon2 7y ago
Washing hands

hprotagonist 7y ago

your tone is very conspiracist, which i suggest you reevaluate. an innocent answer, of course, is that physical distancing works.

mjul 7y ago

The Danish Serum Institute runs a “sentinel” testing programme for the common flu, and they note in their report about covid-19 last week (available in Danish) that the common flu has mostly been eliminated since the social distancing and lockdown measure were implemented. They interpret this a leading indicator for the reduction in covid-19 since it has a similar transmission mechanism.

foota 7y ago
Would be amazing if we managed to eliminate the common flu as a side effect of this :) not likely, but it does seem possible?
- obituary_latte 7y ago
  There’s an interesting docuseries on Netflix that is partially about a team that is working on a permanent 1-shot flu vaccine: https://www.netflix.com/title/81026143 https://www.netflix.com/title/81026143

cjbprime 7y ago

Social distancing, of course. How do you think people get the flu?

jjeaff 7y ago

Probably partly social distancing. And part misdiagnoses of cause of death from flu to coronavirus.

pbreit 7y ago

I only saw one bit of data on this and it was unclear if the data was reliable. Apparently the data from the CDC on this may take awhile to finalize. Do you have any pointers?

pbhjpbhj 7y ago

Isolation (physical distancing) would cause this. Flu doesn't have a long incubation, and doesn't survive as well (AFAICT, not a medic) outside bodies. Isolation should reduce all virus transmission and so reduce incidence of flu, etc.. We'll need 3 weeks minimum of isolation to reduce Covid19 transmissions, assuming everyone is actually doing it. In the UK (just England I think, might be England & Wales) our Office of National Statistics says there were <500 deaths from flu (ICD codes J10-11, https://bit.ly/39DZPCo https://bit.ly/39DZPCo) in the most recent year of records (2017; from c.60M population).

hamilyon2 7y ago

Washing hands