The COVID-19 pandemic has seen some Asian countries employ sophisticated mass-surveillance technologies normally employed to gather intelligence for domestic security purposes to contain the spread of infection in their populations. There has also been an intrusion of military and allied national security actors into the traditionally civilian domain of public health, in the
These charts show the startling picture of a very abnormal Bay Area flu season
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The “twindemic” of influenza and coronavirus feared by public health officials has so far failed to materialize.
The flu typically kills tens of thousands of Americans and can account for hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations during the winter season. But this year, it’s fizzled almost entirely in the Bay Area a stroke of fortune needed as coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths surge uncontrolled statewide.
“The flu is essentially not present in Northern California at this point,” said Dr. Randy Bergen, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at Kaiser who is also the clinical lead for Northern California’s flu vaccine program. “Our hospitals are always filled during the winter, and in normal years, it’s because of influenza. This is a very abnormal year, but it’s because of a different respiratory virus.”