TWINDEMIC UPDATE THREAD (Remember who said we'd skip flu season and who didn't!)

United States Influenza testing, MMWR week 5.

CDC flu view. https://cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm

Five-year average: 10,501 cases; 23.30% positive
Last year: 17,240; 31.12%
This year: 22; 0.05%

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1JXUW_6CF4e04iAWyC_MU23SY6scEYUo4GKEXmQUhHbo/edit?usp=sharing

United States Influenza testing, season to date (19 weeks, MMWR 40 to 5)

Five-year average: 90,791 cases; 14.33% positive
Last year: 154,400; 19.68%
This year: 1,553; 0.18%

Season-to-date flu hospitalizations down 98.4% from last year.

Flu hospitalizations total (19 weeks) in FluSurv-NET is 165. Through week 5 last year (18 weeks) it was 10,314.

Rate last year: 35.5 per 100K
This year: 0.6 per 100K

Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) continues to track well lower than the mild 2015-16 and 2011-12 seasons, and is now declining when it was rising in those years.

Still just one U.S. pediatric flu death this season.

Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) Map

Week 5: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018

Sweden week 5. No masks, no lockdowns, no school closures -- and also no Flu A, Flu B, RSV, or HCoVs.
https://karolinska.se/globalassets/global/2-funktioner/funktion-kul/klinisk-mikrobiologi/epidemiologi/rapport-influensa--och-rs-virus-och-andra-luftvagspatogener.pdf

The global flu chart from WHO.
https://apps.who.int/flumart/Default?ReportNo=10

Reminder: with flu and RSV down 98%+ globally and replaced by COVID, this is literally the mildest respiratory illness season for children in recorded history.

This short article by @m_soond is the best explanation I've seen, for the curious: https://medium.com/illumination-curated/the-unexpected-case-of-the-disappearing-flu-64fd1fa5e909

Latest U.S. non-SARS-CoV2 syndromic data from BioFire. Rhinoviruses increasing again. Some adenoviruses, and a sliver of HCoVs. Nothing else.
https://syndromictrends.com/metric/panel/rp/percent_positivity/organism/main