Yes, and a brilliant point too. Agreed.
Oh my, I see in my absence a debate has gone down and ended on a modern urban myth that I find highly irritating.
Well done skeptics.
I never believed the claim that cold temperatures have NOTHING to do with the flu (call me woo-ish for believing it despite the lack of evidence and based on my own intuition, for a while), and when that linked article came around a while ago I almost leapt for joy that it’d finally been proven. I’ve been trying to correct people ever since, however it’s an uphill battle.
Personally, base on current research and the anecdotal experiences of living in Norway for many years, the “people spending time inside together a lot” and “colder temperatures = low humidity” theories are the most plausible to me. That doesn’t mean I don’t think there are other factors; just that I don’t believe they are very significant.
My anecdotal observation is that flu is no less prevalent in winter rainfall areas than in summer rainfall areas. This would suggest that temperature, rather than humidity, plays the predominant role in infection rate.
This comment has been preying on my mind for a while now. Please elaborate on whether it is meant as acid sarcasm or genuine affirmation – or something else altogether. In each case, an explanation of how the thread’s change in direction marks a downturn, presumably towards something that should, according to your phrasing, supposedly be below the dignity of sceptics.
EDIT: Could it be as simple and as polar as the difference between “a debate has gone down” and “the debate has gone down” (with different meanings to “gone down,” depending on the bolded article)?
'Luthon64
If you are referring to areas within SA I think the geographical distances and frequency of travel would render any local humidity variability moot. If you consider a forest-fire analogy: once the fire has gotten started in a dry area (reaches critical mass) and is spreading with the wind the only way you’re going to stop it is with a large enough fire break. Pockets of damp trees will not stem the blaze.
That’s what I would imagine anyway… ;D
Perhaps the sparsely populated Great Karoo is such a fire break, but I do not wish to push the point based on anecdotal observation.