19 ms·

This is just wrong. Vastly more tests were done for the flu during the covid pandemic than have ever been done.

• daddylongstroke 5y ago
  This is absolutely wrong. Labs in all the largest cities in the US, simply stopped accepting samples for anything other than COVID. Source: wife is RN working as triage nurse and interacting daily with the largest testing sites in NY, CA, NJ, IL, etc.etc.etc.
  • travisp 5y ago
    > And the decline has not been because of a lack of testing. Since late September, 1.3 million specimens have been tested for influenza, more than the average of about one million in the same period in recent years. Source: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/22/science/flu-season-coronavirus-pandemic.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/22/science/flu-s... My wife is also an ER doctor and agrees that there were times that they didn't perform many/any flu tests--mostly in the spring of 2020 and after none of the flu tests were returning positive for a while. But this past winter people have definitely been tested for the flu. Rapid influenza tests are also usually performed first, only sending to labs when confirmatory testing is desired.
    • daddylongstroke 5y ago
      Hmmm, interesting. Wonder what the source of this 1.3 million flu tests is. It makes no sense. Why would doctors send off flu labs to such a statistically higher degree, in a year when they're not seeing any flu?