re: Flu Has Disappeared Worldwide during COVID (updated: back)

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Do viral strains compete against each other?

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No

The reasons why there is no flu this year are as follows:

1. A lot more people got vaccinated against the flu this year compared to previous years. I do not know about other countries and I do not always trust their data so I am going to stick to the USA. ~60% of the population in the USA got vaccinated against the flu during the 2020-2021 flu season as compared to ~50% in the 2019-2020 flu season. So the USA was able to achieve herd immunity against the flu (~55% of the population being vaccinated) for the first time in over a decade.

2. The flu spreads like crazy through schools and then to parents especially in urban areas where a larger percentage of the population uses mass transit. Virtual school and working from home and social distancing helped.

I do not know if the negative effects from kids missing a year of in person school as well as the economic effects of social distancing and lockdowns are worth eradicating the flu. However we can achieve the same effects if >60% of the USA population gets the flu shot every year.

Side bar: The reason why the flu shot has not worked as well as it should in years past is because not enough people got it. This just goes to show that if you anti-flu shot retards actually get the shot then it will work and we do not have to worry about the flu. Same thing applies to the covid vaccine. Get the shot and the virus goes away.