The ABS number of 17K deaths. This includes both influenza and pneumonia. I note the author of the article is an economist so really knows bugger all about how to diagnose influenza or pneumonia. You cannot compare the number of covid deaths versus those from influenza and pneumonia pooled together. From my clinical experience, I would treat maybe 4-5 influenza patients in a hospital each year versus the same number of pneumonia patients per day. Most admitted patients with respiratory infections get a panel of tests done for influenza, parainfluenza, legionella, RSV, Pertussis and so on. So it's not hard at all to pick up flu cases. Hence you are comparing covid (apple) versus influenza + pneumonia (almost all other fruit).
