re: Trump has cured the entire world of the flu virus...He’s amazing...

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we are talking about dozens of cases... dozens

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And in South Africa, surveillance tests picked up just two cases at the beginning of the season, which quickly dropped to zero over the following month – overall, a 99 per cent drop compared with the previous year.

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In the UK, our flu season is only just beginning. But since Covid-19 began spreading in March, just 767 cases have been reported to the WHO compared with nearly 7,000 from March to October last year.

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'But for Covid, at present we think only 15 to 20 per cent of people in hard-hit places like New York have been exposed. Most places will be a lot lower than that.

'That's not enough for Covid to prevent flu by interference and certainly not enough to account for the huge drops in flu we've seen in the statistics.'

Viral interference, typically, would also not have caused such a sudden drop in flu cases, adds Dr Strain.

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The incubation period for flu is also lower. After being infected with flu, it typically causes illness within two days, compared with five days on average for Covid-19.

That means it's far more likely that individuals will be going about their business while unknowingly infecting others with Covid-19 than they will if they come down with flu.

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Common colds probably shore up our defences against other viruses. If we completely shut down transmission of these with lockdown measures, and then open things up again, will we see bigger peaks of coronavirus and other viruses?

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There is also the danger that, in the absence of testing flu cases in this country and elsewhere, flu cases could be mistaken for Covid-19.

The picture for flu is therefore 'muddied', Prof Stewart says.

What happens as we move into flu season is still unknown. Some point out flu deaths might be reduced because many of the vulnerable and elderly have already succumbed to coronavirus. But flu remains a very real risk.

Prof Stewart says: 'We need to maintain or increase flu vaccination as there will be flu circulating, and if the vulnerable are co-infected then the consequences could be much worse.'

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