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https://theconversation.com/how-flu-overtook-covid-as-australias-deadliest-respiratory-virus-284077>
"Many Australians have stopped worrying about respiratory viruses. The pandemic
has passed and attention has shifted. COVID no longer dominates the headlines,
and influenza is often dismissed as a routine winter illness.
But the latest provisional figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics
(ABS) suggest otherwise.
In 2025, there were 1,455 deaths in Australia due to influenza. This is the
highest number the ABS has recorded in this series of data in modern times.
This is more than in previous peak years, such as 2017 (1,276 deaths) and 2019
(1,072 deaths).
COVID continued its long decline as a cause of death. In 2025, there were 1,718
deaths due to COVID, down from 3,908 in 2024 and 4,613 in 2023.
These figures count deaths directly attributed to each virus.
The charts below also include deaths where the virus contributed but was not
the main cause.
More importantly, between August 2025 and January 2026, influenza was the
underlying cause of more deaths each month than COVID, a pattern we have not
seen since the pandemic began.
None of this means COVID has disappeared. Far from it. But it means the mix of
respiratory viruses is changing.
There’s also a third respiratory virus that often gets overlooked – respiratory
syncytial virus, or RSV."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
