'Flurona' in the North…
It's been warned about since November, and now it's here--welcome to this January's crazy season
Editorial prelim: according to Substack, this ‘post [is] too long for email’—please read it online or in the app.
This post serves as a follow-up to the below-linked postings:
As always, translations, emphases, and bottom lines mine. Enjoy, if you will.
As in Central Europe, so in Northern Europe, although you’ve gotta give it to these Branch Covidians and their willing executioners in legacy media: once a Covidian, always a Covidian, no matter how many absurdities result from the staunch refusal to face the facts.
Yesterday, we learned the following cross-reference by one Dr. Krauter, Head of the Austrian Health Insurance Fund:
Krauter now warns: ‘The Nordic countries of Europe are already reporting increased influenza virus activity. So far this has not yet reached our neighbouring countries or Austria, but an increase is expected in the coming week.’
Well, since I’m in one of these ‘Nordic countries’ why shouldn’t we check in with ‘them’? Sigh.
Influenza Rises, Covid is on its Way Back
By Kari Pedersen, Bergens Tidende, 4 Dec. 2023 [source]
The curve for influenza is on the way up, while the number of Corona cases is falling.
‘We seem to be steering towards an influenza peak closer to Christmas’, says Øyvind Kommedal, section chief at the microbiology department at Haukeland University Hospital.
That was in early December 2023. So, in a way, Dr. Krauter is correct, Nordic countries have been reporting an increase in flu cases for some time, in fact, for a month or more.
Speaking of more, here’s a snippet of wisdom (sorry, couldn’t resist) from Professor Rebecca Cox, MD, at the very same Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen who, as ‘early’ as 26 Nov. 2023, was featured in Bergens Tidende saying the following:
Corona and flu are on the rise: ‘It could be a tough season. There are a lot of respiratory viruses out there. It won't be a boring winter’, says flu expert Rebecca Cox.
No worries, I won’t add another (earlier) example of the same message. So, Dr. Krauter was correct, the Nordics—exemplified here with reports from Norway—have been banging this particular drum for quite some time. Let’s move on.
Fast-forward to Christmas, and state broadcaster NRK, always at the ready for public health officialdom, was warning increasingly shrill (see here for ‘latest news’ about the flu); see if you can spot the, shall we say, idiosyncrasies here?
21 Dec. 2023: IPH expects significant flu activity through Christmas
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (IPH) writes in the latest weekly report that the flu wave is underway. At the same time, there are still many people who are ill with Covid-19.
‘The incidence of influenza has been increasing for several weeks and the seasonal flu outbreak is now underway. There will probably be increasing and significant influenza activity before and throughout Christmas, and it is expected that an influenza peak will occur in late December or early January’, writes the IPH [on 21 Dec., no less].
People over the age of 65 or in risk groups are recommended to take a vaccine [what else?] against both influenza and Covid-19.
‘It is still important that the elderly and people in risk groups who have not yet been vaccinated take both the flu and Corona vaccine as quickly as possible’, says Are S. Berg, department director at the Institute of Public Health.
A new variant of Covid-19 can increase the spread of infection.
‘These (new) variants have a clear infection advantage in Norway [could it be perhaps because the ‘booster’ targets the XBB.1.5 variant that no longer exists?] and it is not unlikely that the infection will increase again with the emergence of the variants, as seen in Denmark’, writes IPH.
The incidence of RS virus has seen a slight increase in recent weeks.
The number of admissions with respiratory infections is at the same level as at the same time last year [oh, wait, say again?!], but significantly higher than in the seasons before the pandemic.
Intermission: Say What?
For what was going on a year ago, we turn to this piece:
That particular situation—with ERs overflowing—did not start in autumn 2022, as documented here:
And it didn’t subside in 2023, as documented by this piece:
So, there you go. Lots of receipts, but I doubt those journos will ever read this.
Back to NRK’s ‘latest news’ we turn.
28 Dec. 2023: IPH expects a flu peak around New Year's Eve
We are approaching the peak of the influenza outbreak [quick, shit your pants, an ‘outbreak’, you know, like in that movie], says the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (IPH). They believe that the peak of this infection curve is reached around the New Year celebrations.
It is both corona and flu that people are getting sick from now, and many have been admitted to hospital:
‘There are far more admissions than we saw in the years before the pandemic, but a little less than we saw last year’, says Trygve Ottersen, infection control director [what an awesome job title; also, note the ‘a little less than we saw last year’ admission] at the IPH to NRK.
The outbreak started at the crossing point between weeks 49 and 50. Since then there has been increasing and significant flu activity, writes IPH.
‘We are in the middle of a flu outbreak, and expect that the peak may still be a few weeks away [remember, two paragraphs earlier, IPH—heck, that same person—stated that the peak is expected around New Year, written on 28 Dec., i.e., three bloody days before the expected peak]. Then, unfortunately, we could hit another flu peak during the winter’, says Ottersen.
But it means that it can still be a good idea to take the flu vaccine and the corona vaccine [what else] for those groups for which IPH recommends it.
And thus the pandemic/vaccination circus continues.
This is, by the way, where we leave the state broadcaster’s ‘latest news’, which turn out to be extra stale, borderline contradictory, and stupefyingly moronic, and turn to NTB, which has an extra gem for the Branch Flurona cultists.
The Creed according to IPH’s Preben Aavitsland
Winter is peak season for respiratory diseases. Previously, IPH had predicted that the peak of influenza could be reached in the New Year's weekend, but now it seems that the infection will continue to wreak havoc for a few more weeks.
‘We are close to the top now, but it may not turn around until later in the month’, says Preben Aavitsland, dep. director at the IPH.
Aavitsland believes that the flu infection will slowly decrease in January, February and March [I wonder if he ever encountered the notion of ‘seasonality’ of respiratory viruses, but I digress]. Nevertheless, he believes that there are still several hundred thousand Norwegians who will be infected by the flu before the season is over [service reminder: if you haven’t wetted your pants yet, there’s still time to do so now]
‘The holidays tend to dampen the spread of infection, but then it will be at full speed again in January’, says Aavitsland [also, don’t come back to work, you know, to be on the safe side].
There are also a lot of Corona infections society-wide, but Aavitsland believes that we have already reached the peak of the winter's corona wave.
In the future, it is expected that a new virus will spread rapidly [alas, he didn’t specify which virus].
‘We expect the winter epidemic of RS virus infections to begin in earnest now. Then there will probably be a few hundred admissions of small children who need some help breathing’, says Aavitsland.
Bottom Lines
As you can hopefully see, public health is broken.
I doubt it can—and also don’t think it should be—’fixed’, lest such mediocrities like these IPH critters run roughshod over everyone yet again.
In case you haven’t seen it yet, the ‘creed’ is particularly funny (laughs maniacally about my own joke) because Preben Aavitsland is a devout—nay: militantly obnoxious—atheist who spends his spare time helping out in abortion clinics.
True story, by the way, and if you can’t believe this, please read the following piece:
I’m quite disgusted by now, and I hope to publish the above-linked account of Norway’s 2009 Swine Flu ‘Pandemic’ (true story) in a fully transparent academic way before too long (I already know how and where). Until then, here’s a teaser from the Pandemrix piece:
‘This is an editorial I wrote for the Journal of the Norwegian Medical Society where I am the one of the editors. It is difficult to maintain support for vaccination programs when the disease appears a distant memory. No child born in the 1980s has heard of measles or polio, and yet the authorities recommend that people get vaccinated. Rumours that the MMR vaccine leads to autism have been persistent, even after the allegations have been refuted. But when we are inflating a threat that no-one knows about for sure, and when people claim that vaccines are dangerous, this combination becomes problematic. How does one deal with an invisible disease and a cure [sic] that can have serious adverse effects?
When asked if he considers this a growing problem, Aavitsland answers in the affirmative.
‘It is probably easier to spread such myths today via the internet, plus there is a kind of anti-intellectualism out there. A distrust of the authorities, of academia, and of [expert] knowledge in general, really. There we can observe the emergence of alternative medicine, for example.’
So, Dr. Aavitsland was shit-talking everyone who was a wee bit cautious about vaccines back in 2009/10, and since then, he didn’t change. If anything, he and his ilk quadrupled down.
Perhaps public health officialdom in Austro-Covidistan shouldn’t invoke ‘the Nordic countries’ as paragons of virtue here, for otherwise they might end up in a cul-de-sac with tons of angry people blocking their only exit.
I found the article both very funny and very sad.
Once again Epimetheus, thanks for brightening my day.
Worked in full in my email.
Just so you know...
Thanks..