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A nurse waits to administer the flu shot during a combined COVID-19 testing and flu vaccine event at the Tacoma Dome on November 28, 2020 in Tacoma, Washington.
(David Ryder / Getty Images)
- The drop is linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
- Experts warn flu cases could increase further.
- Vaccination is the best protection.
On New Years week, 44 people tested positive for the flu in the United States.
More than 11,400 tested positive for the flu during the same period last year, before the coronavirus pandemic set in.
“It’s crazy,” Lynnette Brammer, who heads the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s home flu surveillance team, told the Washington Post. “This is my 30th flu season. I would never have expected to see such low influenza activity.
For the week ending Jan. 2, the CDC reported low or minimal influenza activity in every state and territory.
Last year, influenza activity was high in 33 states that week, as well as Puerto Rico, New York and the District of Columbia. Only one state, New Hampshire, had minimal influenza activity.
(MORE: It’s not too late to get the flu shot)
Doctors and health experts say the large number of people who got their flu shots ahead of this year’s flu season, combined with social distancing and other measures designed to help slow the spread of the flu. COVID-19, are the main reasons for the sharp drop.
A record number of flu shots were distributed before and during the current flu season, according to the CDC. The ramp-up of production was aimed at avoiding a double pandemic of influenza and COVID-19.
But experts warn flu cases could increase when more people resume normal activities. The same is true of other endemic viruses – those that have been around for years – like norovirus and RSV.
“We may see an increase in outbreaks of endemic infections,” Ben Lopman, epidemiologist at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, told the Post. “If people haven’t been infected this year, because of the measures taken to prevent COVID-19, there is a real risk of larger outbreaks when we get back to normal.”
Bryan Grenfell, epidemiologist and population biologist at Princeton, explained it this way: “The best analogy is that of a forest fire. For the fire to spread, unburned wood is needed. For epidemics to spread, they require people who have never been infected before. So if people don’t get infected with these viruses this year, they probably will be later. “
They also say that the absence of a flu case is not a sign that we should let our guard down.
“Just because it’s been low so far doesn’t mean it will be low in the future, and getting the vaccine is the best thing you can do to prevent the flu,” Dr Susan Rehm, vice chair of the Cleveland Clinic’s infectious disease department. illnesses told to USA Today. “It’s not too late to get the flu shot.”
Meanwhile, more than one million people in the United States tested positive for COVID-19 from December 27 to January 2, according to data tracked by Johns Hopkins University.
Dr David Hooper, chief of the infection control unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, said the stark contrast between the influenza data and COVID-19 shows just how different the two viruses are.
“He says (the coronavirus) is more contagious and he is less forgiving of breaches of these types of prevention measures,” Hooper told USA Today.
Also, because the strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 is new, immunity does not exist.
“COVID is a new infection caused by the SARS coronavirus, and no one has innate immunity against it,” Rehm said. “So the population is probably more sensitive to the flu than maybe to the flu.”
The flu has killed between 12,000 and 61,000 people each year in the United States for the past decade, according to CDC estimates. The number of patients ranged from 9 million to 45 million, with up to 810,000 people hospitalized in a single year.
More than 381,500 people in the United States have died from COVID-19 in just under a year, according to Johns Hopkins. More than 23 million have been infected.
For the latest information on coronaviruses in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions about the disease, see our dedicated COVID-19 page.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on the latest weather news, the environment and the importance of science in our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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