Quick bump: Mystery flu

According to the United Nations, influenza basically didn't exist for two years. That's obviously wrong. It seems flu was reported as COVID instead. Regardless, it's more evidence why the pandemic damaged trust in government.

Data published by the United Nations' World Health Organization (WHO) shows almost zero influenza detections in 2021, and abnormally few in 2022:

This data is obviously incorrect. WHO has been tracking this data since 1995 and there has never been a year without a flu season. There were definitely flu seasons in 2021 and 2022, they just aren't represented here. That's probably because flu was being reported as COVID instead, because many governments paid compensation for treating COVID patients.

During 2021 and 2022, government authorities around the globe insisted COVID and flu were different. They said COVID was so much more dangerous that it justified massive government interventions like lockdowns and stimulus. Not everyone agreed.

Many people resisted government interventions, saying COVID was basically severe flu. These people were widely condemned by government authorities as ignorant, reactionary, or even selfish. However, the WHO data supports those people.

WHO shows governments were treating COVID and flu interchangeably, and reporting flu as COVID. Further, WHO accepted that reporting, treated COVID and flu as functionally identical, and knowingly over-reported COVID. In other words, WHO supports the narrative that COVID was over-blown by government. It reinforces the idea that governments abused the public trust, and should not be trusted in the future.

Data

You can interact with the the WHO data by going to the WHO Global Influenza Programme "Influenza surveillance outputs" page, then clicking "Virus detection graphs".