Ask HN: Why did US flu cases plummet US from 38 MM to less than 2k this season?

Re:Ask HN: Why did US flu cases plummet US from 38 MM to les... by hammock on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @12:36PM (#30430814)

Does that reasoning hold up in the face of states like South Dakota or Florida which barely had any covid measures? Would you expect that lightly-enforced, intermittent and barely-present covid measures would drop a state like Florida from millions of flu cases down to a couple hundred at most? And why do we already have 40k flu cases so far this year, when we had only 2k all of last year?

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Re:Ask HN: Why did US flu cases plummet US from 38 MM to les... by PaulHoule on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @12:47PM (#30430941)

(1) People in red states have still changed their behavior. In particular if people with flu symptoms are staying home instead of going out that can make a big difference.

(2) I bet a lot of flu is spread by people who go to conferences, travel a lot, etc. These activities are greatly curtailed and often happening in places that are taking precautions so that stops it from entering red states.

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Re:Ask HN: Why did US flu cases plummet US from 38 MM to les... by hammock on Tuesday February 22, 2022 @01:05PM (#30431178)

Does the flu typically spread at home or only outside the house? #2 is an interesting idea. Florida had a record number of visitors last year (118 million), would it be so accurate then to say travel was curtailed there?

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