I never said mask and social distancing would stop flu or covid...

I never said mask and social distancing would stop flu or covid dead in its track, no wonder you have strange ideas you make up your version of what people say.

Flu deaths vary from year to and if have a look at the figures you would know that.
The Flu come to Australia from Europe each year during covid travel was curtailed, this with covid measures kept the infection low, we have much more worldwide travel today and that played a big part in the spread of covid from China.