Fact Check: Did the US have no deaths due to the flu in 2020?

While the coronavirus pandemic seems to be un-dislodgable in the daily lives of the people, there has been a huge breakout of fake claims and misleading information. There is a bunch of fake information and news that one can find on the internet that can prove to be very harmful as well. One of the most recent posts shared by American users was the fact that 2020 did not see anyone die from flu, and it happened for the first time in history.

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Origin:

The message was first shared by a user on Facebook. The post talked about how there were no deaths due to the flu of any American in the year 2020. The post further claimed that it is the first time in history that something like this has occurred. The post says that even after this, 80 thousand people died from Coronavirus. Using foul language, he asked if people are really believing everything that's being ‘shoved down your throat’. Here is the screenshot of the post:

(Source: John Formato Facebook)

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The claims in the post were also made on Twitter. People started tweeting about how there were no flu cases in 2020 in America. The tweet questions if the coronavirus deaths are happening as it is taking all the flu recipients as well. 

The news shared by this misleading tweet is fake. The Centres of Disease Control and Prevention tracks an estimate of the number of flu cases and deaths that have occurred in the US. According to its official website, around 24,000 to 62,000 flu deaths have occurred between October 1, 2019, through April 4, 2020.

(Source: CDC's official site)

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The first two weeks of 2020 show that there have been 887 deaths due to flu in America

National Center of Health Statistics also collects estimated weekly information of flu deaths, based on death certificate data. The estimates by the NCHS show that more than 7,500 Americans died from the flu between January 5 and May 9, 2020. Below is the screenshot of the first two weeks of the year 2020 and the number of deaths in the US due to influenza.

(Source: CDC's official site)

Week 1 shows that 422 deaths were recorded due to influenza in 2020. Week 2 shows that 465 deaths occurred because of the flu. This proves that the claim of there being no deaths due to flu in 2020 is fake.

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Google Trends Analysis

Looking at the multiple posts being shared on social media, many people searched for facts related to flu death toll and flu death rate on Google as well. An analysis of Google Trends shows that there has been a constant increase and decrease in the searches. It saw its peak on May 24, 2020, around 6.30 PM. Below is also the related queries done on Google.

(Source: Google Trends)

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