FLU: It didn’t take a vacation

The Press published not one but two bits of ‘information’ in the Tuesday 12/28/21 issue that seem to presume that the folks can’t think.

A small paragraph on page 3, an Associated Press ‘report’ states that “Flu took 2021 off” and the headline of the day states: “First Flu Death in Idaho of 2021” has occurred. Does your staff really believe there were no flu deaths in Idaho in 2021 until this particular one?

OK, maybe there were no ‘reported flu deaths” but are we to believe this virus, which has occurred in some variant every year for many previous years, suddenly took a vacation from infecting humans? Maybe 2022 will see headlines that the “reinvigorated from vacation flu is back and worse than ever?”

Maybe, just maybe, someone or some organization(s) is manipulating statistics that made the flu ‘vanish’ for a year?

HOWARD BURNS

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