eugyppius

(How are we in the middle of a pandemic if nobody is sick. I mean how does that work according to any reasonable definition of the term.)

Laid off employees can't take sick leave. Those left need to justify their work on a pure cost basis = more likely to just work through it, especially if at home Majority being forced to WFH/not at all = less likely the usual bugs hit critical mass, which most sick days are for.

It's pretty much the same here in Australia; common cold basically evaporated here because of mask mandate and (over)zealous use of hand sanitiser. Along with less physical movement of people on transport and less people at work, this all folds in without contradiction.

Alright, this is compelling stuff. Seeing how well this would map onto periods of lockdown or not would be the next real step, as my very cursory Wikipedia search tells me our German friends are not the most compliant for this (to their credit!) Red flu seems to model that curve.

Lockdowns don’t seem to have any effect on rhinovirus (light blue); what you see with the dip after Christmas and the rise in March/April is the ordinary dual Fall-Spring season that Rhinoviruses have. The red is actually non-SARS human Coronaviruses. We know of 4 different ...