I believe influenza was very vulnerable to this change of behavior given its seasonal nature, shorter incubation period and generally weaker virality.
In that winter after the lockdown we had an absolutely ferocious amount of colds and flus all of a sudden.
I had 6 back-to-back. It was 12 weeks of hell. Every other person I know had at least 2. Parents (such as myself) all had 4+ colds/flus in a 3 month period.
There was a lot of speculation that the spread was significantly worse because it got into a population entirely made of people who had not been sick for a while.
So you might have that to look forward to.
They literally said "flus and colds" why do you have to suggest this person's experience isn't what they say it is.
Have you had the flu before? Do you know what it is?
Do you know how absolutely fucking annoying it is to be gaslit when you know you've had the flu and no it wasn't just a bad fucking cold?
This actually keeps me up at night...shutter
They all got this cold/flu that was pretty bad, but thankfully it was not covid. (associated with coughing, and upper congestion, but nothing serious, and it cleared within a week).