No. The RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 triggers on the specific genetic bits that differentiate SARS-CoV-2 from all other viruses, including SARS-CoV-1. They're literally the parts of its genome that make SARS-CoV-2 SARS-CoV-2 and NOT something else.
Further, Influenza and SARS-CoV-2 are radically different viruses. They're as closely related as humans are to snails. Genome size of SARS-CoV-2 is 29,903 bases. Each SARS-CoV-2 virion is 50–200 nanometres in diameter. Genome size for Influenza viruses is 10,000–14,600 bases. In other words, 1/3 to 1/2 the genome length, depending on the strain. They’re 80-120nm in diameter. The chances of confusing the two are exactly zero.
"There’s no way that there have been zero confirmed cases of the flu."
Since September 30th, there have been 524,037 flu tests in the United States with 1,276 coming up positive. There's some flu around, but it's having a very difficult time spreading this year. Most likely explanation is that since it spreads similar to how COVID-19 does but is far less contagious (R0 of 1-1.3 for Influenza vs 4.3-5.7 for latest COVID-19 variants), the control measures in place (e.g. masks and social distancing) that have had limited effect on COVID-19 have been absolutely crushing Influenza's transmission rate.
“There’s some flu around, but it’s having a very difficult time spreading this year”
Total BS conclusion. The conclusion is that even the flu is guessed at every year and this past year the guesses went to COVID instead. Period. End of story.
Your posts tend to include a lot of technical data. Would it be possible to include links to the sources of that data? I think it would help a lot of people struggling with these debates to get a better feel for what is going on.
‘The chances of confusing the two are exactly zero.’
perhaps true, but only in a sane world; we are dealing with a government-media-healthcare triumirate which is incentivized to produce covid cases to bolster its control over the populace...
or are you saying that our leaders are above such ethical manipulations, and that they would never count flu positives as covid...?