(Newser)
– It may be difficult to understand, but the pandemic also seems to have an advantage: the flu is almost non-existent this year. Popular science provides remarkable statistics: in 2019, the US registered 65,000 cases from the end of September to the end of December. In 2020, this figure has dropped to 1,000. It seems that all the precautions that people take to remove COVID – masks, social distancing, avoidance of inner social activities, etc. – works to keep care at bay. In addition, flu vaccines are on the rise. Researchers are also studying the theory that there is a kind of complex interaction between COVID and the flu. As in, the virus behind COVID could increase people’s immunity to the flu, depending on the Wall Street Journal. However, more research is needed to understand this possibility.
“This is an extremely confusing phenomenon,” says pediatrician Norio Sugaya, who is on the World Health Organization’s flu committee. “We are in an incredible historical situation.” It’s not just in the US: the number of flu is similar worldwide. The trend began in Australia and the rest of the southern hemisphere, where flu usually peaks between June and August. Smithsonian. The big question is what happens when COVID disappears. As Science explains, one fear is that the flu will return strong next season because so few people have received it this year. But this could be mitigated if people adapt COVID safety protocols more permanently or can make more of a point to get their flu shots. The flu usually kills hundreds of thousands of people worldwide each year, and “we have to wonder if we will continue to allow it in the future,” says virologist Tetsuya Mizutani diary. (Read more flu stories.)