The Pandemic Might Make the Next Flu Season Worse


I recently heard an interview with Dr. Emily Landon of the University of Chicago medical school. She was clearly astonished at the low rate of flu this year. "At the University of Chicago, we just registered our third flu case of the season. Usually at this time of year we have over a hundred each week."

Great, I thought. At least one good outcome of the pandemic is that all the mitigation measures we've taken for the coronavirus are knocking down the flu as well. 

But to prove that there is nothing whatsoever good about the pandemic, public health people are saying there is a problem. Because so few people got the normal illnesses like the flu this year, more people will be susceptible in coming years. This could lead to large outbreaks and also off-season outbreaks, according to a study by Princeton epidemiologists, just as soon as we back off of coronavirus mitigation measures.   

It seems this is already happening in Australia with a common respiratory virus called respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). It is especially dangerous to infants and the elderly. According to an article in Science News, medical personnel in New South Wales

observed a more than 85 percent reduction of positive RSV tests during the peak of their season, between April and June, the team reported in the Lancet in September. But now, after beating back COVID-19 and lifting stringent protective measures, they have a record-breaking offseason RSV outbreak on their hands. In the last two weeks of December 2020, NSW reported more than 6,000 positive RSV tests — during a time they typically have a few hundred.

So, we have that to look forward to.

Image by Mojpe from Pixabay

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