Originally Posted by k0nr4d

Not my gut feeling, but given that the flu and covid transmit in the same way and the influenza virus is smaller then the covid virus (making masks even less effective), one would logically have to deduce that the anti-covid measures, which didn't stop covid, even more-so would not stop the flu.

As for the convenience - if I wanted to portray that the flu is less deadly then covid for children, then I would use the flu statistics of 2020 because it was a substantially weaker flu season (almost non-existent). If they took the flu stats from an earlier year prior to covid existing at all - it would come out that the flu is deadlier for children then covid. It's a simple manipulation of statistics while saying "oh well we compared year to year so it's fair!". It's not.

Statistics can also be manipulated by only testing or polling specific groups, or using loaded questions. I could take a poll of people who played Russian Roulette and declare that it has a 100% survival rate because I'm polling only those that survived.