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EricHiggin on 13 October 2020
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JRPGfan said:
EricHiggin said:

What will a direct comparison covering the same time frame show when it comes to flu deaths vs covid? Odds are beyond unlikely that the U.S. is going to end up with around 60,000 flu death's again, plus 220,000+ covid death's. The point being, it's all but certain, that some of those unfortunate souls, who would've statistically died from the flu, are going to have died from covid instead. How many that is exactly who knows? How does that apply worldwide?

Actually in Denmark because of all the handwashing, people keeping distance to one another, we've had unsually mild flu cases/deaths.
So much so that we re currently on a 6 year low, in terms of avg deaths pr year. Also doctors have warned about flu + corona, and highly recammended the elderly to go get their flu shots (which more than usual have done).

Mild Corona cases (fatalities) and unsually low Flu year numbers = lowest death rates in 6years+ time.

Hopefully it stays like that, as we re heading into the flu season.

There was actually a article about it, I read today, which made me reply to this question of yours.

https://www.bt.dk/samfund/danmark-har-det-laveste-antal-doede-i-seks-aar

Another good point. A greater focus on everyday health and follow through is another thing to take into account. Not all countries would be directly comparable for many reasons.

Torillian said:
EricHiggin said:

What will a direct comparison covering the same time frame show when it comes to flu deaths vs covid? Odds are beyond unlikely that the U.S. is going to end up with around 60,000 flu death's again, plus 220,000+ covid death's. The point being, it's all but certain, that some of those unfortunate souls, who would've statistically died from the flu, are going to have died from covid instead. How many that is exactly who knows? How does that apply worldwide?

The 2019-2020 flu season in the US looks like it was about a middle of the road kind of season when you look at hospitalizations so there's little reason to think deaths will be notably off the average.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm

60,000 deaths is not a standard flu season btw. Deaths from Flu has been as low as 12,000 in the 2011-2012 season to as high as 61,000 in 2017-2018 but just last year was notably better with 34,000 deaths in the 2018-2019 season. I think the idea that 60,000 deaths is standard came when covid deaths were in that ballpark and people wanted to claim that it was no worse than a standard flu season when in reality they were already comparing it to the worst flu season in 10 years. 

Right now the estimate is that the 2019-2020 season had 22,000 flu deaths which is pretty reasonable and I'd be hard pressed to make the claim that that is lower because they died from Corona before flu could get them. 

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/past-seasons.html

How many people stayed away from hospitals because of covid? Lockdowns enforced to stop the spread of covid would surely have a noteworthy impact on the spread of the flu. If you're weak enough to die from a case of the flu, then you're certainly weak enough to die from covid. If covid is taking a bunch of susceptible people out, there's less weak hosts for the flu to kill or pass through.

There's a ton of questions as to the exact hard numbers and how covid impacted everything. While we would obviously like solid answers now, it's the kind of thing that will take time to hash it all out.