[Red State] What exactly are we to make of the stunning decline in influenza cases we’re seeing this season?
Phil Kerpen has been compiling the CDC’s data, and remarkable doesn’t even begin to describe it.
By the sixth week of last year, around 32% of the roughly 57,000 flu tests reported to the CDC had come back positive. And these numbers are in line with those from the previous four years as well:
In 2019, around 40,000 influenza tests were reported by week six, with roughly 26% positive.
From 2016 thru 2020, an average of around 44,000 influenza tests had been reported by week six, roughly 25% of which were positive.
Yet, by the sixth week of 2021, CDC figures show that only 17 of the over 40,800 reported flu tests reported to the CDC this year were positive, which comes to a minuscule .04%!
If these numbers are to be believed, influenza cases have declined by a factor of over 600 this year compared to the previous five-year average.
For all intents and purposes, the flu appears to have vanished. |