Some good news on the virus front. Authorities have not detected a single case of influenza in England this year despite testing 685,243 samples.

According to Dr Vanessa Saliba of Public Health England,

“The decrease in flu cases this year is likely due to changes in our behaviour, such as social distancing, face coverings and handwashing, as well as the reduction in international travel.”

So much for the hysteria regarding COVID-19 combined with flu causing a healthcare apocalypse. Of course, there is the possibility that flu has been misdiagnosed as COVID-19.

Now for the bad news:

Such trends have raised the need to reconsider the country’s approach to dealing with influenza, according to Christina Pagel, a professor of operational research at University College London.

“There’s been no flu season anywhere in the world this year, including the UK,” she told The Independent. “Flu is one of the big reasons that the NHS struggles every winter. But what I think is really interesting is that people say we live with flu deaths every year and kind of assumed they were unavoidable. Yet clearly they’re not.

“If we wanted to, we’ve shown we can reduce flu deaths to pretty much zero.”

The authorities are enjoying the coronavirus overreaction too much to let it end. Mandatory masks forever will keep us safe from flu.

COVID-19 and the flu also prove that we need more equity:

“The other thing Covid has highlighted is how big the impact of inequality is on health,” she said. “We’ve seen it with Covid in BAME and deprived communities. They have much more exposure to Covid and get sicker when they get it. Flu has a very similar gradient. The more deprived you are, the more likely you’ll get sick from flu.”

BAME = black, Asian, and minority ethnic. These people will need more special favoritism on a permanent basis for the same reason that we will need to keep our masks on.

On a tip from Wiggins. Hat tip: Summit News.

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