Serious Question: Are You Hearing About Anyone With The Flu Anymore or A Cold?

by minimus 135 Replies latest jw friends

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  jwundubbed

  Most people I know have been self-quarantined and taking safety measures... so of course they aren't getting sick nearly as much as they used to. Schools aren't in session like they used to be and hospitals are still social distancing to a heightened extent. So most places that act like flu and cold incubators aren't providing the germs with room to grow, expand, and infect... or act like the contagions that they are.

  In the US flu shots are typically given around October. I got my flu shot last year and there is still a while yet before flu season starts for this year.
• 

  Disillusioned JW

  I haven't had a flu since I first started getting flu shots 3.5 years ago. Prior to that I would get the flu at least once in every 2 year period if I had a steady job indoors around many other people. I haven't had a cold since I started wearing masks and maintaining social distance since about March of last year. Though I am now fully vaccinated against Covid-19 I still wear a mask around people (except while eating), but now I primarily wear the mask to avoid getting a cold.
  
• 

  Jeffro

  minimus:

  So if you take the jab and you socially distance, you really shouldn’t get the flu or possibly a cold.

  A COVID vaccination won’t stop you getting the flu, which is why there is a separate flu vaccine, and neither would prevent you getting a cold. A person who is vaccinated for either condition may still be infected with the corresponding virus but would generally experience only very mild symptoms, if any. Vaccines don’t prevent a person being exposed to a virus, so it is asinine to expect that a vaccinated person can’t be infected at all.

  But obviously if someone is isolated from other people, they won’t get any virus that is contracted by exposure to other people.
• 

  Diogenesister

  Yes I got my first bad cold, which turned into a chest infection, for almost 2 years. My kids got heavy colds, husband was fine. It's the first thing any of us have had since social distancing/lockdown's began.

  Of course we all got Covid last year, which was like nothing I have ever had before. It was awful - felt so ill - but the lack of taste/revulsion toward food and even water was completely bizarre. We had +ve tests of course.
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  minimus

  So you believe the isolation is what is preventing people from getting the flu or colds.
• 

  Jeffro

  It’s fundamentally obvious that a virus transmitted by exposure to other people won’t be transmitted to people who aren’t near other people (or recently contaminated surfaces). It’s interesting that you feel the need to frame that as a ‘belief’. Isolation will indeed prevent people contracting viruses that are spread by exposure to other people, which also reduces the total number of vectors for infection in a given community, but aside from that, it is not the case that people are otherwise ‘prevented’ from getting the flu, though vaccination for the flu would go a long way to preventing flu symptoms, particularly if they’re unavoidably exposed to stupid people who flout regulations because they don’t understand how viruses or vaccines work.
• 

  Anony Mous

  @jeffro: yet, despite the measures, COVID continued spreading. The measures did nothing but aggravate the situation in most cases, the states and countries with the strictest measures had the most spread.

  If you want to know what happened to the flu, look at the CDC statistics. The COVID published numbers and tests (https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/lab/multiplex.html) INCLUDE the cases of flu and pneumonia (https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm).

  Whereas before, we had literally hundreds of people dying monthly from flu, and over 1000 during flu season, we now have zero or single digits dying from flu, because they get lumped in with COVID. Simple reason, as COVID care is 100% paid for by the government, this is turning into government run healthcare.
• 

  Jeffro

  COVID keeps spreading because stupid people keep flouting regulations, as well as the more infectious Delta variant in recent months. That’s not to say that no regulations go beyond what is necessary. But reckless stupidity is more harmful than being overly cautious. Also, the US flu season hasn’t begun yet.
• 

  fulltimestudent

  minimus: (quote): "Funny thing, my girlfriend at the end of 2019 developed what the doctors called “the flu”. She had respiratory issues suddenly and they prescribed an inhaler."

  It's impossible (without tests) to identify the respiratory problems experienced by your girlfriend.

  However, it may have been covid19. The USA based journal The Scientist published this report, under the heading. "New Evidence Shows COVID-19 Was in US Weeks Before Thought." (The Scientist-21/17/2021)

  Here's more from the article: "In a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases June 15, researchers analyzed blood collected between January 2 and March 18, 2020, and found antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in samples from nine people in five US states, meaning that the virus was likely present in the US in late 2019.

  “We suspected that there were probably cases that preceded the ones that were diagnosed and confirmed. This is very suggestive that there were probably multiple exposures prior to those initial cases,” says Ashley St. John, an infectious disease researcher at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore who was not involved in the study. "

  Link:

  https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/new-evidence-shows-covid-19-was-in-us-weeks-before-thought-68906?fbclid=IwAR2Ev_4aqkPDIZcjM20qqbBPUXMdF22npRTcapNDzOsTWvp5KTQliv8yC_8#.YM2GzOCQiZM.facebook

  
  
  
• 

  fulltimestudent

  Some may find this discussion in The Scientist informative:

  Link: https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/the-pandemic-crushed-the-flu-what-happens-when-it-returns-68951

  Titled: The Pandemic Crushed the Flu—What Happens When It Returns?

  It discusses the so-called disappearance of flu and possible implications/\.