Let’s start with the first question: what do they mean by using the F word, “flu”? 

“Flu”, the F word, could mean anything and is purposely used by those who know better to confuse and obfuscate and by the ignorant because they know no better. “Flu” usually means an acute respiratory infection with its concomitant sequelae. However, the word “flu” used in that sense is a syndrome, not a disease. Here’s the difference:

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Patient A reports a 3-day history of fever, cough, aches, pains, and fatigue. A is told to rest at home and take an antipyretic. That’s a syndrome. Let’s call it influenza-like illness or ILI.

Patient B reports a 3-day history of fever, cough, aches, pains, and fatigue. The GP or nurse either does a rapid test or takes a swab and sends it to the lab. B is told to rest at home and take an antipyretic. Depending on the test carried out, the result returns positive for bocavirus a while later. That is a bocavirus acute respiratory infection, a specific disease. 

Bocavirus is a member of the respiratory virus galaxy. You can substitute bocavirus in our example with a long list of agents; the substance is the same. There can be one or multiple agents at play. The most popular “companion” seems to be rhinovirus, but the circulation of any agent goes up and down over the months, as our snapshots show.

Patient C reports a 3-day history of fever, cough, aches, pains, and fatigue. The GP or nurse either does a rapid test or takes a swab and sends it to the lab. C is told to rest at home and take an antipyretic. A while later, the result came back negative depending on the test carried out. That, again, is a syndrome, an ILI episode with no obvious cause.

In media and political parlance, A+B+C are usually lumped together into the F word. However, within this nebulous communication, if the message is “do something specific,” then influenza gets separated from A and C because it is the only acute respiratory infection with a well-established vaccination programme and licensed medicines called antivirals. However, politicians, media and ignorant people may still be using the F word as synonymous with influenza. 

So next time, listen carefully to how the F word is used and start asking questions as simple as: What do you mean by “Flu”?

In February, we asked our readers if they could spot the implications of the public use of the smokescreen F word.

So here is the first point. “Flu” could be used in any manipulative way to mean anything you want, as it is such a vague and unscientific term that you can make it mean whatever you wish. The situation is equivalent to the expression, “Heads I win, tails you lose”.

The second point, manipulation of taxpayers, former taxpayers and taxpayers, is profoundly unethical as it leads people to make decisions without really knowing what they are doing.  Oh, and pay for those decisions out of their own present, future, and former pockets. Taxpayers live in a government and media-created world, but is that world real?

In the next post, we shall try to clarify what the evidence tells us about deaths associated with influenza.