The CDC and the press want us to believe that we are in the midst of a “flu emergency.” The scary dark-colored flu map of the 2022-23 season, compared to previous seasons, seems to be clear proof of the flu nightmare unfolding in the USA right now:

The media is also joining the fear porn chorus, repeating CDC’s call to take the flu vaccine:

CDC Now Counts EVERYTHING as Flu!

It turns out that a year ago, the CDC changed the definition of “Influenza-Like Illness:”

As of now, any illness with “fever AND (cough OR sore throat)” is counted as influenza and would darken the map!

The CDC would count the following as influenza for the Flu map displayed at the beginning of the article:

• Cold

• Flu

• COVID-19

• RSV

How Bad is This Double Counting?

Look at the utilization data and outpatient (E.R.) visits from a large hospital near me:

Of all outpatient E.R. visits — due to broken bones, poisonings, heart attacks, gunshots, influenza, Covid, etc. — consistently about 40% of E.R. visits come with a POSITIVE COVID TEST! (By the way, the only time the above number of “E.R. visits with Covid” exceeded was January 2022. This is how bad Covid is right now.)

Such visits qualify for counting towards “influenza-like illness” colors displayed on the CDC map. Any astute reader would realize that if 40% of all E.R. visits involve having Covid, then Covid incidence would severely distort the count of “outpatient visits with influenza-like illness” that include Covid!

So, keep in mind that when you see scaremongering about the flu, it is based on purposely inflated “influenza-like illness” numbers that include Covid cases, RSV, and much more.

That’s the backdrop of alarmism and fear porn upon which they build up the case for “flu vaccines,” which cannot possibly help against Covid or RSV.

Do Flu Vaccines Work?

It would be great if the influenza vaccines were known to be safe and effective. If it were the case, lives would be saved. Then, I would join the line of people taking the jabs.

Sadly, they are not “safe and effective.”

Last year, the effectiveness of the flu vaccine was statistically indistinguishable from zero for ALL ages and even negative (and still indistinguishable from zero) for older people who actually would benefit from such protection: