Dumbass article is from Aug 6, 2021, it's more than a year old and considerably out of date.

The flu has not disappeared. It was considerably smaller the past season for the obvious reason that it got crowded out by COVID:

• The overall burden of influenza (flu) for the 2021-2022 season was an estimated 9 million flu illnesses, 4 million flu-related medical visits, 100,000 flu-related hospitalizations, and 5,000 flu deaths (Table 1).

But apparently the flu has picked up again this season:

• "So far, this flu season is more severe than it has been in 13 years" https://archive.ph/Jgyo9

• "CDC’s first full FluView report of the 2022-2023 flu season shows that while flu activity is relatively low overall, there are early increases happening in most of the country. This increased activity could signal an early start to flu season."