The BBC ‘Superflu’ Contradiction
In response to the ‘Superflu’ story, Helen McArdle pointed out the stark contradiction between the position of the BBC and its commentators on November 9th and December 20th.
James Gallagher, BBC News
New flu virus mutation could see “worst season in a decade”. These are not Covid-style lockdowns, but short-term measures the country uses to disrupt the spread of the virus.
But a “broadly typical flu season” is probably not the sense you’d get from watching or reading the news. Statistical artistry was used to compare an early flu season to one that started much later, allowing claims of flu cases being “an incredible 10 times higher” than in 2023.
Professor Chris Fraser, Pandemic Sciences Institute at the University of Oxford
It’s highly likely it’s going to be a bad flu season, and it’s going to happen quite soon – we’re already well into it. … There are indicators that this could be worse than some of the flu seasons we’ve seen in the last 10 years.
It was basically spreading at a very similar speed to previous years, it was towards the upper end, but it wasn’t an outlier. … I don’t think [super flu] is a helpful term, there isn’t a particularly unusual set of symptoms, there’s no indication of it being associated with exceptional severity, exceptionally rapid spread or exceptional health impact.
Professor Nicola Lewis, Director of the World Influenza Centre at the Francis Crick Institute
“We haven’t seen a virus like this for a while, these dynamics are unusual.” … “It does concern me, absolutely,” she adds. “I’m not panicking, but I am worried.” … “We’re miles ahead,” says Prof Lewis. “I think it’s going to be a strong flu season.” … “H3 is always a hotter virus, it’s a nastier virus, it’s more impactful on the population.”
The virus was “not particularly unusual” and that she saw “no evidence” the virus was “particularly different” and superflu “wouldn’t be my description”.
“Meanwhile, NHS hospitals are still requiring staff to wear masks, with all the predictable adverse effects on dementia patients. Absolutely shameless reporting, as if there are no consequences of irresponsible fear messaging other than they’ve twigged that this particular strategy might backfire if overused,” commented Helen. Indeed, Helen, why let the facts get in the way of a good story?
This post, based on Helen’s list, was edited by the two old geezers while singing “flip flip flop flop, flip, flop…”
Dr Carl Heneghan is the Oxford Professor of Evidence Based Medicine and Dr Tom Jefferson is an epidemiologist based in Rome who works with Professor Heneghan on the Cochrane Collaboration. This article was first published on their Substack, Trust the Evidence, which you can subscribe to here.
source dailysceptic.org
Tom
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Come on stupid-flu…make your predicted entry. You are boring me with your empty threats. I am 100% prepared since I have not been vaccinated in over 50 years.
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