Thread by @greg_travis

1/Understanding Influenza in the USA

Deaths in the USA from influenza, by month, from 2013 to 2023

I've circled "big" influenza years in red. They are 2015, 2018 and 2023

Also plotted here is the historic prevalence of influenza deaths, based on a 2013-2019 timeline

2/Couple of things to notice

Even in the worst months of the past decade, no month saw even 5,000 deaths from influenza

The influenza season normally runs from December to April every season but sometimes it starts earlier/later

In 2023, for example, it started and ended early

3/Influenza deaths are overwhelmingly concentrated in the older (OAF) demographic (up to 5 deaths per 100K)

While the younger (YAH) sees few, if any, deaths from influenza every year (0.5 deaths per 100K max)

4/Let's compare that to COVID

COVID has not killed fewer than 5,000 people in any month for the entire pandemic

Remember on the influenza charts 5,000 deaths was the WORST monthly death toll over an entire decade

5/How about in the two demographics, OAF (0ld and feeble) vs. YAH (young and healthy)?

No surprises in the OAF demo

But, hell, what's going on in the YAH demo?

That's right.

COVID in the YAH demo is as deadly as influenza is in the OAF demo