The Week in Numbers (to Feb 15th)

Finally, some good news - well, nearly

13.4%

TTE (and William Farr) says what goes up must come down. Influenza positivity in week 6 was 13.4% compared with 13.9% in the previous week. Despite a complete lack of NPIs, these pesky viruses do what they do - notably our ubiquitous friend rhinovirus - positivity increased slightly to 11.6%, with the highest positivity in those under 5 years at 33.9%.

Three

Tyrrell’s rule of 3 says, “In any given year, a third of upper respiratory infections will have no known cause. A third will be caused by a mixture of agents: this third consists of all known agents, with the exception of rhinoviridae, which cause the remaining third”.

Tyrrell’s rule of three.

200

The daily number of influenza-like illnesses has dropped to nearly 200 from a high of 600 in January. The pressure is off for now, but don’t concern yourself with any good news coming from the Mainstream Media, whose job isn't to inform but to scare the pants off you.