What is the truth about flu deaths?

[Under The Radar]

Even the CDC isn’t consistent with last years numbers giving 16,000 to 61,009 in one publication, 12,000 to 59,000 in another that Dr. Redfield said last week that last years number was 80,000 deaths from the common flu in the USA. Then there is Bill Bennett claiming on Fox that it is 61,000 deaths.
12k to 61k? From a renowned infectious disease doctor? That is worse than asking a kid about how many fish he has caught. There should be some semblance of truth, with an official number.
I am not qualified to call them liars, but sure seems odd that in my 60 years I have never heard of anyone dying from the flu, unless they also refer to that as “natural causes”.

[Squinch]

1. Flu deaths are not reported. The CDC number is a wild guess

based on the total number of deaths due to respiratory causes.

They have no idea. As your numbers show.

[safeinOhio]

2. Any count on how many times

the Brooklyn Bridge changed hands this year?

[Recursion]

3. Nobody knows. For that matter a single "cause of death" is often impossible to fix

Let's say somebody has emphysema and then gets the flu, gets pneumonia, and dies. What's the "cause" of that death? The emphysema? The flu? The secondary pneumonia? Lots of deaths have flu as a factor but there's not a solid definition of what is and isn't a "flu death".

[Under The Radar]

4. So the reason for the highest inflated version is to placate Trump

[SheltieLover]

5. No doubt!

Arkansas seems to have had a lot of "flu" deaths the past 2-3 months. I am not tracking stats, just a casual observation of news headlines.

[Recursion]

9. Well also to convince people to get flu shots

Column A, column B

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. Look at excess mortality. Flu season is OVER. Excess deaths now are all Covid-19. . . nt

[tblue37]

7. Usually they died of pneumonia because of flu. nt

Last edited Wed Apr 15, 2020, 07:34 AM - Edit history (1)

[Squinch]

10. Or pneumonia because of a fall and hospitalization. Or viral

pneumonia unrelated to flu. Or bacterial pneumonia unrelated to flu. Or pneumonia caused by aspiration.

Pneumonia has many, many causes, most if them unrelated to flu.

Yet the flu numbers we are given are actually just a wild guess based on the numbers of deaths from respiratory issues.

[Ms. Toad]

8. In 2017 (the last year for which final data is available):

55,672 died from influenza and pneumonia (no distinguished)

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr68/nvsr68_09-508.pdf

[Mariana]

11. The CDC explain how and why they estimate flu-related deaths here:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/how-cdc-estimates.htm

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/why-cdc-estimates.htm

Here are the estimates for past seasons, which is where the people you mentioned are probably getting their numbers:

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

[Squinch]

12. IOW, it's a total dart throw.

[ProfessorGAC]

13. It's Not A Good Comparison

Last edited Thu Apr 16, 2020, 09:13 AM - Edit history (1)

No matter the number. The flu deaths, no matter the number, is projected over A YEAR!
CV19 has killed 29,000. The first confirmed death was February 29. So, using the mid point, it's 36,000 deaths in 365 days vs. 29,000 in 48 days.
Making the comparison, like the idiot Bennett did, actually argues against the very point he was trying to make!
Even if we use the high figure, it's 175/day, compared to 600/day.
It's still 3.42 times worse than the flu using the high water number for flu. WITH SOCIAL DISTANCING & SHUTDOWNS!
And, we're not done yet!