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How do we know that other seasonal viruses don't also "spread fine" during summer, except that the illness is less severe?
by gridlockd 6y ago
How do we know that other seasonal viruses don't also "spread fine" during summer, except that the illness is less severe?
- SketchySeaBeast 6y agoBecause the elderly experience it several regardless, and so would continue to experience a year round "cold and flu season". Or do you mean the viruses properties change?
- tensor 6y agoBecause we don't do anything special in the summer and there is very little flu compared with "flu season." Here is data, just select the US: https://apps.who.int/flumart/Default?ReportNo=1 https://apps.who.int/flumart/Default?ReportNo=1 edit: In fact, take a look at Brazil or India, places that are hot year round. They have very few instances of the flu no matter the time of year. This shows that it doesn't spread much in warm weather. We already know that covid-19 does spread in warm weather.
- gridlockd 6y ago> In fact, take a look at Brazil or India, places that are hot year round. They have very few instances of the flu no matter the time of year. This shows that it doesn't spread much in warm weather. I would argue that it doesn't show that. Nobody is testing for Influenza if it's just a "mild" case. What is being tracked is deaths from pneumonia that are attributed to Influenza. If you look at the mortality in India or Brazil, it's way lower than in countries further from the equator. You also would expect testing capacity to be lower, so there's likely more unknown cases there.