Let’s talk about…the looming flu “crisis”

A school in Caerphilly is shutting down after 250 students and staff were diagnosed with flu. A school in Northern Ireland has got 170 students off sick.

“It’s worse than Covid”, said one headmaster, to the likely delight of headline writers everywhere.

This is all because of a very serious illness outbreak, and is not even slightly the knock-on effect of Christmas-eager kids and overly cautious parents taking advantage of official recommendations that anyone with flu-like symptoms should stay home.

Meanwhile, the NHS is “bracing” for an “unprecedented” flu season.

The flu of concern is H3N2 “Subclade K”, apparently. It’s “unlike any strain of flu I’ve ever seen”, according to a “virus-hunter” in the Daily Mail.

They don’t actually explain precisely HOW it’s “unlike any other flu”, but they do point out something that will doubtless sound very familiar:

‘Unfortunately, you can’t distinguish H3N2 from other flu strains based on symptoms alone—they all look and feel very similar.

Another delightfully vintage line doing the rounds is that “vaccines will save lives”, but also they might not. It’s a contradiction constructed as a byproduct of the diverse objectives of propaganda.

Internationally, mask mandates are back in Spain, Japan is bracing for an “early flu season” and the US is at panic stations.

It’s all very retro…and a little bit funny. Especially when you actually read what the Japanese Institute of Health Security actually says about “Subclade K” [emphasis added]:

The risk of developing severe symptoms from Subclade K is no higher than other strains, according to JIHS. The institute also added that the new strain is not necessarily more contagious.

So, for those keeping score at home, the current flu variant of concern:

• Is symptomatically identical to other flus
• Is no more dangerous than other flus.
• Might not be more contagious than other flus.

All of which rather begs two questions.

1. So what’s all the fuss about then?

2. …they’re not actually going to try this again, right?

Just one last thing to mention. Two months ago, the UK government completed “Operation Pegasus” its largest ever pandemic preparedness exercise.

Make of that what you will.