Several reports on social media share the false claim that low flu activity during the coronavirus pandemic is proof that the flu is incorrectly labeled as COVID-19.
One version of the claim indicates (here) a graph from the World Health Organization (WHO). It reports the “number of samples positive for subtype flu” in the UK for each week of 2020.
The graph shows that inflation fell to a minimal level in early April, a few weeks after the UK closed for the first time.
Unlike previous years, where flu activity would decrease in summer and then increase again in winter, it has remained constant in April since April.
This led some users to believe that cases of flu were incorrectly labeled as COVID-19, leaving comments such as: “Is it because they used flu numbers and turned it into covid” and “flu eradicated or covid re-labeled?” .
However, there is a reasonable explanation for why flu activity remained low during the pandemic.
“Influenza and corona viruses infect the lungs after inhaling environmental droplets,” Tracy Hussell, a professor of inflammatory diseases at the University of Manchester, told Reuters in an email.
“As they use a similar transmission route, the measures currently being taken to delay the development of severe COVID-19 disease (social distance and mask wear) are likely to be responsible for reducing influenza virus infection in the current 2020 season. / 2021.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes that this also happened in the United States when ‘flu virus circulation declined sharply within two weeks of the COVID-19 emergency declaration and widespread implementation of community mitigation measures, including the closure of school, social distance, and mask wear ”(here).
Another contributing factor may be that millions more people in the UK got the flu (here) this year.
The extensive flu vaccination program has been created to ease the pressure on the NHS during the pandemic.
Influenza viruses cause flu, while a type of coronavirus leads to COVID-19. Reuters reported earlier that the specific nature of the tests used to diagnose COVID-19 makes it highly unlikely to give a false positive response in someone with the flu (here).
VERDICT
Untrue. Low flu levels during the pandemic are likely due to coronavirus measures such as wearing a mask and social distance, not because they were incorrectly labeled COVID-19.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.