And roughly three-quarter of infections are asymptomatic[2], so ~120 million total cases annually.
[1]: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/past-seasons.html
[2]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S221326001...
Lots of estimates, I usually see it as around one-third of cases having no symptoms: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2646474/
I’ll take a slight leap and guesstimate this means a lot of flu infections are around the symptom level of a mild or bad cold as well.
When you know you have the flu, it’s probably the flu, but it’s much harder to self-determine that you don’t have the flu.
When people exaggerate a common cold into "the flu" I respond with equal exaggeration by insisting I take them to the hospital.
Adults catch real flu about once every five years, scientists calculate, based on a field study in China.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-31698038
on average, about 8% of the U.S. population gets sick from flu each season, with a range of between 3% and 11%, depending on the season.
Yeah, this is 100 percent not the reason people think covid isn’t real.
The flus not hard to avoid, and might have gone extinct with the lockdowns
EDIT: i dont take the flu vaccine
How do you tell the difference between a terrible cold and flu? Doctors can't tell the difference from symptoms alone, do you have yourself tested each time you have a cold?
might have gone extinct with the lockdowns
That's not likely, and with fewer people exposed to the flu and gaining natural immunity, there may even be a big spike in flu cases if social distancing and mask wearing are relaxed next flu season.
This is unlikely as humans aren’t the only hosts for influenza. Almost all can infect birds and most can infect pigs. Probably some other humans too. And jump between eachother and humans.
We might have the same issue with COVID: vaccinating all humans may not eradicate it if some animals serve as natural reservoirs (mink maybe? Ferrets?).
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3...
Whereas colds are more congestion with drowsiness.
But you're totally right, symptoms alone are hard to use for accurately knowing what you had, there are so many types of cold virus and bacteria out there too.
I guess for me, I had never had the symptoms I describe in the former, until a few years ago I did, which I thought of as getting the flu. Had it been early 2020, I might have wondered if it was Covid, given the description of symptoms.
If you develop symptoms abruptly and you have a fever and/or body aches it's almost certainly the flu.
The difference is quite significant and a doctor should know the difference.
I was 40 the first (and only) time I caught flu. I went to the doctor. I don't go to the doctor for a bad cold.
Maybe there are light flus. I don't know - but I don't want the real thing again.
I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you.
If anything, the fevers, coughs and congestion caused by covid 19 are fairly mild, even though covid is quite lethal. That's why you have people who are dying of covid but think they aren't very sick, or even think the virus isn't real at all.