THREAD ON FLU:
Just an attempt to start a conversation about annual flu.

I'm not an expert on this at all and welcome people's thoughts and insights...

Basic question is: how many annual flu deaths are acceptable? 1/7

In a "normal" year there might be c. 10,000 deaths from flu in England & Wales, mostly in people over 65.( https://www.greenwichccg.nhs.uk/News-Publications/news/Pages/Around-10,000-deaths-are-caused-by-flu-each-year-in-England-and-Wales.aspx),

Timing & number varies depending on flu strain, how good that year's vaccine is & vaccine uptake.

Flu is also LESS infectious than Covid. 2/7

And the measures that work against Covid, work against Flu -> so this year we've seen HARDLY ANY flu.

The chart below compares English hospital flu admissions - but same picture for GP swabs, 111 calls etc.

Same across Europe ( https://flunewseurope.org/ ) 3/7

So... this means that presumably we could, if we chose, prevent a majority of the 10K annual flu deaths with the sorts of things we've done for Covid.

Most people would say the cost (lockdowns/social distancing) is too high. I agree. But is there a middle ground?? 4/7

Should we just go back to normal entirely & accept 10K deaths a year?

Or should we try to prevent some by e.g. wearing masks in shops & public transport Oct - Feb, making hand sanitiser available in every shop/train station/workplace, not going to work with flu symtpoms etc 5/7

I don't know how much impact these things would have on flu transmission.

I don't know if it could make things worse by making us all more susceptible to a big flu pandemic when it comes.

There are 100s other things I've not thought of. 6/7

I just think that we should be thinking about it at some point.

Can some simple preventative measures make flu less deadly every year? (and some of the annual winter NHS pressure).

What measures are acceptable? If the answer is "none" - then why is that ok? 7/7