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StillKpaidy t1_j2c8nwi wrote

There was a huge drop in influenza infections, and I suspect RSV as well given the recent resurgence now that most people have largely gone back to normal and kids are back in the classroom. Now, separating the effects of social distancing versus masks can be difficult, but since both are spread by respiratory droplets I'd imagine masks were a large part of it.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/past-seasons.html

Note in the link above that for 2020-2021 they can't even give you an estimate because numbers were so low.

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shimmeringships t1_j2c8r30 wrote

Yes! An entire strain of flu (Influenza B/Yamagata) appears to have gone extinct due to COVID safety measures. It could come back if there are reservoirs of it somewhere, either in human populations that are not being tested or in non-human populations, but no one has reported a positive test for it since 2020.

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Doleydoledole t1_j2ch0di wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,213,394)

>The flu is much less contagious. It spreads only through droplets.

This has long been accepted wisdom, but isn't true. There was a misreading of a study decades ago, so public health folks thought aerosols were much smaller and less numerous than they actually are (was long thought they were 5 microns. They're more like 100). Our public health guidance has been misguided for a while.

The pandemic helped bring this to light, but unfortunately it seems that the message was 'covid is uniquely airborne!' and not 'aerosols are far larger and more numerous than we'd wrongly believed, and aerosol transmission is more important than we've thought - for all respiratory viruses.'

Here's a good summary of what we relearned during Covid:

https://www.wired.com/story/the-teeny-tiny-scientific-screwup-that-helped-covid-kill/

And you can find plenty of older studies that point to more aerosol transmission.

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DoomGoober t1_j2cizrp wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,213,394)

>The flu is much less contagious. It spreads only through droplets... Droplets also fall to the ground quicker than airborne particles

This is not confirmed. Flu is also known to spread via aersols: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/influenza-general/study-confirms-flu-likely-spreads-aerosols-not-just-coughs-sneezes

However, flu does appear less contagious than SARS-CoV-2 but there are many possible reasons why (fewer days of infectiousness, flu is more susceptible to the body's defense, more viral load needed to induce infection, etc.)

Flu being spread mainly through "large droplets" and "large droplets" not being airborne, was the result of a medical community mistake where droplets above 5 microns were labeled as large and unlikely to remain airborne. The actual size is closer to 100 microns before a droplet readily falls out of the air. Thus many, many more droplets are actually airborne than first considered. Thus even if flu requires larger droplets it turns out those droplets can actually behavior as airborne. https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/five-micron-mistake

Overall flu is less contagious but probably not because flu transmitting droplets are not airborne. They probably are.

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ameliahorror t1_j2cpiat wrote

I stopped wearing a mask in public places other than work this last 5 months and I got the flu, and then, and also, then, I got Covid again. I’m wearing masks everywhere again cause since pandemic started. Other than my first Covid stint, I haven’t even been minorly affected.

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oblivious_fireball t1_j2cudw0 wrote

Replying to StillKpaidy (#1,211,582)

in my state, illnesses that were generally labelled as the common cold also dropped off massively along with the flu and other contagious respiratory illnesses. which have since promptly rebounded with the end of health protocols.

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stalphonzo t1_j2cwfeh wrote

As others mentioned, there was a marked drop in influenza infections. The most annoying part is the conspiracy adherents (diplomatic phrasing) believed that to be proof of fudging numbers in favor of covid. Whereas, of course, it was proof that basic preventive measures were very effective. Heads they win, tails you lose.

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harpejjist t1_j2cyxo3 wrote

Yes. Rates of flu went WAY down in schools last year. (This is in schools where mask and hand sanitizers were the norm) Far fewer absences.

Now I will say that in Dec 2019/Jan 2020 there was a nasty flu going around and a school I work for implemented masks and hand washing/sanitizer regimens. This was before we ever heard of Covid. But for the first time EVER, I didn't get sick, and neither did most students. It was eye-opening. Covid hit just a few months later and we were already totally used to masks and hand washing and so on by then.

People in general but kids in particular now know how to wash hands properly and regularly. School absence rates are lower than expected even now.

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djinbu t1_j2cz7c0 wrote

Replying to shimmeringships (#1,211,607)

So... In theory... We could dramatically reduce infection rates by making all jobs that could be work at home, work at home? And for those that can't be, rotating working shifts month by month?

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shep2105 t1_j2czdzs wrote

The flu and associated deaths from the flu was virtually wiped out. I never understood the truly ignorant people that kept insisting masks do nothing or that it was some sort of government conspiracy. Especially since I would bet 100% of those people would NOT want a surgeon operating on them with no mask.

That's why we are in the middle of a major flu epidemic. Nobody is wearing masks anymore. You think people would have learned something.

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JDS150k t1_j2d660z wrote

Replying to shimmeringships (#1,211,607)

Isn't this a very bad thing? Children will be growing up without developing immunity for this strain, and probably many other(?) virus strains. You mentioned reservoirs in untested populations. What percentage of the global population is regularly tested for this "extinct" strain of flu? I assume it's nit many, leaving huge potential for reservoirs of strains thought extinct, making it most likely that the strain will come back. Or come back from a non-human organism. And when it comes back, people would have less immunity to it and if you compound that with the fact that it would come back as a wave, with everyone getting it at once (as happens with the flu virus) then surely that is a bad thing. Or am I missing something?

This reminds me if a metaphor from Nicholas Nassim Taleb's book Antifragile. If you want to fight forest fires, your instinct might be to ride out and and extinguish every small forest fire, to prevent it becoming a big one. But in doing so, you save more and more tinder from being burned away, leading to a very easily flammable landscape.

In the case of covid protocols, I worry that preventing the small viruses from barraging our immune systems might create an easily infectable population.

I'm way out on a limb here intellectually so I'd appreciate some discourse on this.

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r2k-in-the-vortex t1_j2d6z7z wrote

Replying to JDS150k (#1,220,316)

You grow up without immunity to many non-existing diseases, one more in not a problem. Flu is not training wheels for immunity, it's battle of Somme. Anything that makes you actively sick is not a good thing, even though you recover and the consequences are minor, they are there and they add up to significant problems in your old age. So extinction of infectious diseases is absolutely a good thing.

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TheMikman97 t1_j2d808y wrote

Technically yes as long as restrictions were in place, but apparently bacterial respiratory infections skyrocketed lately in both numbers and severity due to the fact that 2 years of reduced contact seems to make people's immune system less prepared against them once said restrictions are lifted.

Tho this theory is controversial

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Tough_Oven4904 t1_j2d9lni wrote

Replying to [deleted] (#1,213,394)

>It’s not surprising. The flu is less contagious than COVID.

And...I got the flu a (Easter 2022) before I got covid (a month ago) 😩 flu was worse initially but covid is still hanging around driving me nuts

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Figueroa_Chill t1_j2dg2f2 wrote

Replying to Doleydoledole (#1,214,031)

Or could it be that during the Pandemic anyone who was ill just got put down as having Covid, so it disappeared purely by not being classified properly. I live in Scotland and virtually everything was put down as Covid. People started joking that you could go into the hospital with an axe embedded in your head - and it would be Covid.

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r2k-in-the-vortex t1_j2dqcdl wrote

Replying to MarredCheese (#1,225,397)

All the usual stuff you see in old age, cardiovascular problems, lung capacity, neurological problems, lifetime of being sick over and over again makes it all worse down the line. It accumulates same as mundane injuries, health damaging work environment and all that.

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