That said, if you're going to claim that all of these things we have done have eliminated the flu, you should take at least a few moments to reflect on the fact that they have done ~nothing to rhinovirus.
Sources: https://www.qps.com/2020/10/05/covid-19-versus-the-seasonal-... https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S246804271... https://www.bmj.com/content/369/bmj.m1891
This literature review has estimates of R0 for flu running from 1.06-3.4, and rhinovirus running from 1.2-1.83:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.02.04.20020404v...
Given the uncertainties involved, these ranges are effectively identical, with flu maybe being a bit more contagious.
In the particular conditions we created in 2020, the Rhinovirus was better able to spread than the Flu. Why?
Because people were on the lookout for fever (and other things like continuous cough etc). Flu causes fever, and anyone who got a fever and was sensibly-minded would self isolate at least for a few days until they got test results or until symptoms abated. Whereas Rhinovirus is much less likely to cause a fever, so people twig that they've 'just got a cold' and carry on going about their day.
Especially for schoolkids - if they've got a fever, they're kept at home. If they've just got a snotty nose then they're likely to still go to school.
So Rhiniovirus was able to fly under the radar whereas Flu wasn't.
Why do you keep saying these measures have done nothing to rhinovirus?
The link you've shared does not support that. It shows relative percentages - and you're confusing that for absolute infection counts.
Unless you also believe that 60% of the population has a stomach virus on a daily basis (data from their other chart).
Because they haven't.
> The link you've shared does not support that. It shows relative percentages - and you're confusing that for absolute infection counts.
I am not confusing it. It shows you the percentage of samples they test that come up positive for rhinovirus (and other things. They test for all of the things listed, in parallel.)
Influenza A & B, RSV, and some other viruses have been virtually eliminated across their sampled population. The rate has dropped to zero. Rhinovirus has not -- the rate of detection is unchanged.
To use some simplified numbers to explain it - consider that normally 100,000 people are infected with some form of respiratory virus on a daily, basis and 20% of those are rhinoviruses, then that means there are 20,000 daily rhinovirus infections. And let's also say that strains of influenza are another 20% and 20,000/day.
Now what is happening, is in a covid world, due to masks and distancing, the number of people infected on a daily basis drops from 100,000 to 10,000. Rhinoviruses are sill 20% of that, but they are now down to 2,000. Masks and social distancing has had a drastic affect on them.
Influenza drops down to only 2% so only 200 cases daily. Masks and distancing have an even more drastic effect in influenza.
As a result, we're seeing exactly the graph you've linked.
Rhinovirus is 20% rate, but of a much smaller pie. And you're mistaking that as masks and distancing having little or no effect.
