incidentally, the following two years barely got a mention in the FakeNewsMSM in Australia:
2017 Australian flu season - 1,100 deaths;
2019 Australian flu season - 900 deaths.
2020 flu season to date: 79 deaths (incl 24 cruise ship passengers/crew).
the only time I recall the 2019 flu season attracting media attention:
27 Mar 2019: Brisbane Times: Queensland health authorities say system working despite logjam
By Stuart Layt
Queensland Health authorities claim the health system is working, despite the logjam in south-east’s Queensland’s hospital emergency departments.
The Chief Health Officer, Jeannette Young, activated the state health emergency centre on Tuesday to meet the “unprecedented” demand, with all hospitals across Metro North, Metro South and the Gold Coast districts stretched to capacity.
That situation in a hospital is called a “code yellow” and all hospitals across the region were at that status with the exception of the Queensland Children’s Hospital...
Health Minister Steven Miles said there were still some patients in “non-bed treatment spaces” but the number was reducing...
The 30 additional beds were opened at the Mater private hospital, funded through a $3 million emergency injection of funds from the Queensland government.
Other private hospitals, including Greenslopes and St Vincent’s, have also opened their doors to public patients during the current situation...
Mr Miles said while many of the region’s emergency departments had been running near-full capacity for some time, there was still no way they could have foreseen the current situation.
“What was not predictable was the level of demand, peaking yesterday,” Mr Miles said...
https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/queensland-health-authorities-say-system-working-despite-logjam-20190327-p51871.html
nothing like the above has occurred with COVID-19.
written just before COVID19 panic took hold:
11 Feb 2020: ABC: Flu season which struck down 310,000 Australians ‘worst on record’ due to early outbreaks
ABC Sunshine Coast By Tara Cassidy
Last year, Australia experienced its worst flu season on record, with more than 310,000 people presenting to hospital and health services nationwide.
The figure is seven times greater than Australia’s previous 18-year average...
World Health Organisation (WHO) influenza researcher, Ian Barr, said such aggressive seasons were generally a “one-in-every-10-year occurrence”, but early flu outbreaks had seen Australia go through two in just three years.
He said it is an issue that is hard to predict and one difficult to address with vaccines.
“Definitely in terms of influenza seasons 2019 was the biggest Australia has had … it was very unusual,” Dr Barr said...
He believes international travellers played a significant role, but said other factors were also at play.
“The whole business of influenza is a numbers game, so if you get enough people coming back to Australia with infections from overseas, that can happen,” Dr Barr said.
“We put it down to higher tourist numbers, more Australians travelling overseas, climate conditions...
Hospital beds full and staff sick
Queensland Health Minister, Stephen Miles, said the intense season put a major strain on hospital and health services nationwide, which would have to incorporate early outbreaks into future planning.
“Certainly the levels we saw, it took a very high toll on the community and the health system,” he said.
“We had a record number of summer cases and that elongated the impact on our hospitals through more months of the year, as well as many of our own staff ended up catching the flu...
“That itself has an impact on our ability to cover rosters and increase staffing when we really need to, it makes the job of running hospitals even harder.”...
“There’s a lot of mysteries still about the flu and that’s why we have a lot of people allocated to researching and working on it.
“Every year the virus is different and the way it impacts us is different, we do our best to predict it.”...
But WHO’s Dr Barr said he does not believe vaccinations would have much impact where early outbreaks of influenza are concerned, stating 2019 was one of their most successful vaccination years to date.
“I wouldn’t say the vaccine had too much of an impact on that [severe season last year], the season was already in the starter gates and running before most vaccines were even given out,” he said.
“Given the significant number of cases in March and April — the vaccine isn’t even available during that time, and it normally takes a couple of weeks after being vaccinated to reach peak immunity.
“I wouldn’t say this was a vaccine issue.”...
While 2019 saw the highest number of influenza cases across the country, 2017 still holds the record for the highest number of flu-related deaths, with over 1,100 cases.
Last year there were over 900 influenza linked deaths in Australia.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-11/early-outbreaks-to-blame-for-worst-flu-season-on-record/11949320
many Australians would not have noticed. people returned from Hong Kong every day suffering from this particular flu.
there were no daily updates. no lockdown.