Trying to find a silver lining....

[jane01jp]

I caught an absolutely vicious flu my first year of teaching 20 years ago: lungs so filled with fluid that I couldn't safely lie down, not able to eat for a week, severe body pain (not just "aches"). It took me a month to fully recover. Since then, I have never gotten the flu again. I get colds from my students annually & even got strep once, but never again the flu- I don't even bother with the shot anymore. I think my immune system never forgot that battle.

That's rough.

I haven't gotten sick as much since retiring, but got sick upon returning from France/Belgium in late January of 2020, and then again shortly after returning from DL California in late February.

 

[o&smom]

OK. But, my question remains. If compliance with mask and distancing stops the flu, wouldn't that indicate that most people are doing it?

Or, perhaps there is another answer as to why documented flu cases are so low.

The CDC announced months ago that they stopped recording flu deaths for this “year”.

 

[jane01jp]

The CDC announced months ago that they stopped recording flu deaths for this “year”.

That's interesting. It seems like everybody has COVID Funnel Vision.

 

[DCLCrazy64622]

OK. But, my question remains. If compliance with mask and distancing stops the flu, wouldn't that indicate that most people are doing it?

Or, perhaps there is another answer as to why documented flu cases are so low.

I believe I read somewhere that the cdc has stopped counting the flu spread this season. Which would make more sense than masks stopping the spread of flu but not Covid.

 

[mevelandry]

So, I was thinking about it today and I guess the one good thing about all of these cancellations is that by the time we sail, I will have been paid in full for *at least* a year and a half...which means that, by the time I'm on the ship, it will kind of feel like i'm cruising for free, lol!!

Grasping for ALL the straws to make this situation less awful, haha!

Absolutely! It gave us time to save money for little extras like booking cabanas, etc.

 

[mevelandry]

The CDC announced months ago that they stopped recording flu deaths for this “year”.

Here in Canada, they are still recording flu deaths and outbreaks. Flu is extremely low this year and most of the very rare outbreaks started in kindergarten and school, where masks are not mandatory. On top of all the measures, the flu shot has been extremely popular this year... It must have played a role.

 

[jlwhitney]

I believe I read somewhere that the cdc has stopped counting the flu spread this season. Which would make more sense than masks stopping the spread of flu but not Covid.

Plus many people aren't being tested for the flu, yes some are but not everyone. Know quite a few locally that got sick and were covid negative but they never did flu swap, claiming they are reserving the swabs for covid tests.

 

[BadPinkTink]

As a first time cruiser, I have nothing to compare the new Disney Cruising experience with. Everything will be a new experience. I will not be sad or angry at changes as I never experienced DCL pre Covid.

Due to my original September 2020 cruise being cancelled, and the 125% FCC I received, I was able to book a longer more expensive cruise with a better itinerary.

 

[Starwind]

The CDC announced months ago that they stopped recording flu deaths for this “year”.

Not true.

They are still tracking flu deaths.

What happened is

Finally, NCHS collects death certificate data for all deaths occurring in the United States, and these data are aggregated by the week of death occurrence. In previous flu seasons, the NCHS surveillance data were used to calculate the percent of all deaths occurring each week that had pneumonia and/or influenza (P&I) listed as a cause of death. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, COVID-19 coded deaths were added to P&I to create the PIC (pneumonia, influenza, and/or COVID-19) classification. PIC includes all deaths with pneumonia, influenza, and/or COVID-19 listed on the death certificate. source: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/season/faq-flu-season-2020-2021.htm

So the primary coding used to count "flu deaths" [which is actually deaths by P&I] this year was changed to include P&I&covid-19. A statistics coding problem.

The P&I&C is still being tracked, as are other flu statistics: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/index.htm#ILIMap They are using both automatic and manual coding to track flu deaths.

Note that if you click on the mortality info box and go to that section of the page they do break out the cause of death info; this is the text at the start of that section, it continues with more info and there are graphs as well; I added the bold:

Based on NCHS mortality surveillance data available on January 7, 2021, 14.5% of the deaths occurring during the week ending January 2, 2021 (week 53), were due to pneumonia, influenza, and COVID-19 (PIC). This percentage is above the epidemic threshold of 6.9% for week 53. Among the 2,150 PIC deaths reported for week 53, 1,496 had COVID-19 listed as an underlying or contributing cause of death on the death certificate and two listed influenza, indicating that the current increase in PIC mortality is due primarily to COVID-19 and not influenza.

See also https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...acking-flu-deaths-2019-20-typical/3044888001/

 

[Starwind]

We'll be pushing our Alaska 2021 cruise into 2022 which means it will also serve as a celebration of a milestone birthday for one of us.

And I am hopeful that some of the public health measures will remain in place on board [eg buffets not self serve] and be normalized for the public/guests [eg more hand washing!] that will end up with less germs going around. We have yet to have a WDW/DCL vacation where we did not come home sick with an Evil Respiratory Thing, so I here's hoping those thing will reduce the chances of that happening. Plus, I will be wearing a mask more often then I did before covid.

SW

 

[jane01jp]

I believe I read somewhere that the cdc has stopped counting the flu spread this season. Which would make more sense than masks stopping the spread of flu but not Covid.

Thanks. I guess they have COVID Funnel Vision!

 

[jane01jp]

Plus, I will be wearing a mask more often then I did before covid.

I think I'll wear one the same amount as before.

 

[jane01jp]

These folks found a silver lining. I'm a Gamecock, but Roll Tide!