[RobertG (OP)]

I was shown a chart the other day that flu stopped happening the day Covid started:
https://twitter.com/kilkelly/status/1320439987951849478/photo/1 [nofollow]
My cynical view of this was that flu was getting lumped in with Covid 19 to keep the panic going.
But there are those suggesting that Covid19 has all but wiped out flu. Is that really possible?
I'm no scientist but that sounds like sci-fi to me.
Any thoughts anyone?

[Bored chemist]

Covid (probably) won't wipe out the flu.
But lots of hand washing, face covering and keeping away from anyone who is sneezing certainly will massively reduce the incidence of flu .
It will also reduce the number of people getting other diseases.

I'd like to know what has happened to the sales of diarrhea medication.

[set fair]

The antiCovid measures in Hog Kong virtually wiped out flu quite dramatically. Here it's more a question of will it. If masks were compulsory in public places, that would pretty well wipe out the flu, I think. As it is, my betting would be pretty much.

[alancalverd]

Robert's hypothesis is based on an old joke. Bloke is arrested trying to carry a bomb onto a plane. Asked why, he says "The probability of there being one bomb on a plane is one in ten million. So the probability of there being two bombs on the plane is negligible. So I always carry my own."

[RobertG (OP)]

It's not my hypothesis. It's fact. Did you look at the chart I attached?

[alancalverd]

"Influenza specimens" plotted against "COVID deaths" doesn't tell us much about either disease. You might as well plot apples against oranges to make an inference about bananas.

I've explained elsewhere about the validity of COVID death statistics, and in the wise words of Trump, more testing just means more cases

Faced with an oncoming train, you might ignore the flies. Having plenty of warning about COVID, UK GPs put up the shutters fairly early and requested that anyone with flu-like symptoms should not attend their local surgery, so the number of flu tests decreased very quickly even though the number of cases may have followed its normal seasonal pattern. At the same time the government decided to infect care homes by discharging COVID patients from hospitals, so COVID-related deaths increased rapidly.   

It has very little to do with epidemiology and a lot to do with politics and incompetence.

"Seasonal flu" is anyway included in the baseline figure against which we measure excess deaths - the only credible statistic of an epidemic with such a variable cause of death.

[likehumansdo]

Well it might be the case, that more testing results into more cases and clearly that is a valid point we should take into consideration whenever we talk about the topic of covid 19. However the testing does not explain the higher general mortality which has significantly risen above the average in March and April. If the whole world increases safety measurments for diseases drastically, it does obviously have an impact on the development of other deseases as well.

[alancalverd]

Yes, but....

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/causesofdeath/articles/leadingcausesofdeathuk/2001to2018

is interesting. Figure 1 shows that heart disease, cancer, cerebrovascular disease, chronic respiratory diseases, influenza, pneumonia and alzheimer's disease account for almost all the non-accident deaths in the UK in recent history, with influenza and pneumonia the least significant of these causes. Fact is that we don't die from other infectious diseases in any significant numbers, and most COVID-related deaths involve pneumonia  or cardiovascular insufficiency, so the anti-COVID measures to control infection actually haven't had much effect on death from other diseases because other infections aren't significant anyway!

As an aside, it is interesting to note that Alzheimer only appeared in that graph in 2011, and flu/pneumonia completely  disappeared between 2011 and 2016, which rather underlines the assertion that registered cause of death is influenced as much by fashion as by pathology and is not a good indicator of current success or failure in managing COVID.

[likehumansdo]

Firstly: As far as I can see figure 1 only represents the male death rate of the leading causes of death. Figure 2 provides the data for the female population. There you can see that the role of influenza and pneumonia is bigger than in figure 1, only accounting for males.
Secondly: These are the Top 6 of the leading causes of death in the U.K. Even the fact that pneumonia and cardiovascular disease are on the list shows that they are indeed significant.
Thirdly: The authors do explain that alzheimer / dementia numbers have increased due to an update in 2011. Scientist aren't perfect and measurement is gradually improving.
However I do concur with the statement, that certain numbers should be taken with a grain of salt. For instance in Germany we se a rise in the infections, much higher than in the death rate. In total being sceptic is good, however the pandemic is serious and safety measurements actually help.

[Bored chemist]

As an aside, it is interesting to note that Alzheimer only appeared in that graph in 2011

Reported incidence of Alzheimer's disease prior to 1906 was zero.