Quote:There hasn’t been a single flu death reported in 2021, and there were less than 40 in 2020. This compares to more than 800 in 2019, a particularly bad season.
There were just nine cases of the flu confirmed in the first week of this month, according to the Immunisation Coalition. So far this year, there have been just 60 notifications of influenza in Victoria and 32 in NSW. Queensland has seen the most cases – at 171.

(06-13-2021, 01:38 AM)Mav link Wrote:Interesting article in the Age today in which medical people note that the Covid response has crushed seasonal flu in Australia.

I guess we have to say Covid measures have saved around 1500 lives that would have been lost to influenza. And a few people vying for the Darwin Award have been saved from themselves as well: fewer people falling off cliffs while taking selfies or having their heads splattered by trees while sticking them out of trains to feed pictures to their instagram accounts.

(06-13-2021, 03:25 AM)Mav link Wrote:Sorry. I should have realised that only negative side-effects of the Covid response are to be considered. Let’s speculate about suicides instead.

You note I referred to side-effects. That’s because the goal was to reduce deaths and serious harm from Covid. And we’ve hit it out of the park so far. No doubt we’re all very happy about that.

(06-13-2021, 06:42 AM)PaulP link Wrote:Sometimes these things are annoying at the start, and then just become habits that you no longer really think about. Speed reductions around school zones were introduced in 2001. There was of course the usual outrage about impracticality, inconvenience etc., but now it makes perfect sense. And speed limits for cars in urban areas have tended to come down, not up.