Viral competition! Two respiratory pathogens slug it out on the boxing ring of humanity and one comes out a victor.

Are you signed up yet? Get the deets. Get the data. Join the team.

We’ve been trying to convince Team Apocalypse that the flu was crowded out (not snuffed out by masks) for over a year or more! Low and behold—they knew this already. Our RG colleague Stinson Norwood (@snortman1776) uncovers all the key players saying the same thing over a decade ago! Viruses compete! They’ve always known. Did they forget? Or did it diminish “the narrative” so they dismissed it.

Here’s the thread from Stinson reproduced. See the whole thing here.

It's odd to see people refusing to give up the ghost since all of this has happened before. Even Tony knew it. 'Fauci said pandemic flus such as H1NI tend to push out seasonal flu strains. "If we get deluged with H1N1 flu, there is a good chance it will crowd out seasonal flu,"'

link to Fauci quote from 2009 article

And here's Fauci discussing how you might know if you have H1N1 or the seasonal flu. "it generally overwhelms and crowds out the seasonal flu" (relevant part starts at 1:23

Others knew it, too. 'In one of the biggest surprises, the pandemic virus made seasonal viruses do a vanishing act this past winter,...'

Stison continues his thread:

Experts love trying to take credit. But elbows aren't as sexy as masks. “Another theory...is ... campaigns urging people to wash their hands regularly and sneeze into their sleeves has stymied seasonal flu. But there is no evidence to back that one up.” Clinics were empty of seasonal flu and doctors didn't know why.

This had happened before & we didn't understand why. This time, instead of studying it, we gave credit to cloth & sprouted a religion. "The new virus doesn't appear to have completely muscled out other flu viruses, as some past pandemic viruses have."

WSJ article from 2010.

Lipsitch also makes an appearance a year earlier on this topic:

A Christmas bonus from 2009: 'Marc Lipsitch, an epidemiologist at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, said he thinks the seasonal strains will be crowded out this year, citing historical precedent.'

Even the great Paul Offit knew back in 2015 that masks were “silly”

Mask mandates are "a silly half-way measure that really doesn't serve any useful purpose other than to identify a person as a healthcare worker who is choosing not to get vaccinated -- selfishly," Offit said. "You might as well wear a scarlet letter for all the good it does."

In short - masks did NOT stop influenza… it was a knock-down throw-down of epic viral proportions and Covid came out on top.

Oh look - the flu is back!

Rational Ground by Justin Hart

Why did the flu disappear? Hint: it wasn't…