System Complexity in Influenza Infection and Vaccination: Effects upon Excess Winter Mortality.

Unexpected outcomes are usually associated with interventions in complex systems. Excess winter mortality (EWM) is a measure of the net effect of all competing forces operating each winter, including influenza(s) and non-influenza pathogens. In this study over 2400 data points from 97 countries are used to look at the net effect of influenza vaccination rates in the elderly aged 65+ against excess winter mortality (EWM) each year from the winter of 1980/81 through to 2019/20.

Trends in Excess Winter Mortality (EWM) from 1900/01 to 2019/20-Evidence for a Complex System of Multiple Long-Term Trends.

Trends in excess winter mortality (EWM) were investigated from the winter of 1900/01 to 2019/20. During the 1918-1919 Spanish flu epidemic a maximum EWM of 100% was observed in both Denmark and the USA, and 131% in Sweden. During the Spanish flu epidemic in the USA 70% of excess winter deaths were coded to influenza.

Mechanisms of geomagnetic field influence on gene expression using influenza as a model system: basics of physical epidemiology.

Recent studies demonstrate distinct changes in gene expression in cells exposed to a weak magnetic field (MF). Mechanisms of this phenomenon are not understood yet. We propose that proteins of the Cryptochrome family (CRY) are "epigenetic sensors" of the MF fluctuations, i.