The Flu Vanished During Covid. What Will Its Return Look Like?
This makes sense, our immune systems have some experience with influenza and steps like social distancing and masking further mitigate the spread. In contrast, coronavirus is new to our bodies, so it spreads far more easily.
I wonder if it might be beneficial to treat flu season as a masking season, that would likely put a tremendous dent in the yearly flu season.
There have been fewer influenza cases in the United States this flu season than in any on record. About 2,000 cases have been recorded since late September, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In recent years, the average number of cases over the same period was about 206,000.
As measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus were implemented around the country in March 2020, influenza quickly disappeared, and it still has not returned. The latest flu season, which normally would have run until next month, essentially never happened.
This makes sense, our immune systems have some experience with influenza and steps like social distancing and masking further mitigate the spread. In contrast, coronavirus is new to our bodies, so it spreads far more easily.
I wonder if it might be beneficial to treat flu season as a masking season, that would likely put a tremendous dent in the yearly flu season.