And "Snowmagedon" is also an imaginary media creation

There is No Such Thing as Flurona, So Stop Trying to Make It Happen

Jennifer Van Laar, Red State:

CBS’ terrible wording claims that there’s a new variant, a combination of COVID and influenza. Obviously that must be so much worse and DEADLY.

I regret to inform LA County Public Health Director Not-a-Doctor Barbara Ferrer that the CBS report is fake news.

…

The not-new phenomenon is called coinfection, and according to a study published on the NIH website in June 2021, it was already happening with COVID and influenza as of September 2020. Up to 4 percent of those infected with COVID in Asia were simultaneously infected with influenza, but true worldwide numbers couldn’t be determined because the data wasn’t available. And why wasn’t the data available? Because we weren’t testing for it. Now we are in a somewhat limited way (if the government can’t get COVID tests to testing sites currently, expecting them to get dual tests out is a ludicrous proposition), and obviously the number of people coinfected will increase.

For now, expect most coinfection cases to be reported in hospitalized patients, since that’s where dual testing is most likely to take place. That’s already happening in Los Angeles, further proof that CBSLA’s BREAKING story about “the first ‘Flurona'” case in Los Angeles is fake news. They report it in their own article. Dr. Otto Yang, an infectious disease expert for UCLA Health, told the outlet that there are several people currently hospitalized with both influenza and coronavirus. He added:

If it’s a bad virus season and a lot of virus is circulating, it’s not unusual to be exposed to more than one because they all travel the same.

As testing increases we’re sure to hear of more coinfected patients, but there’s no need to be any more concerned about it than one would during any other bad virus season.

Sorry, fearmongers. Despite WaPo’s big explainer on the “phenomenon,” Flurona is never going to happen. Stop trying to make it happen.