Thursday, May 6, 2021

The Decrease in Influenza Cases- A Silver Lining

    I got my flu shot this past season but couldn’t help but wonder if I even really needed it. At the time, I remember there being all this buzz about a double whammy COVID-19 plus Flu season mega-pandemic going around, but so far I haven’t really seen or heard any news regarding this year’s Flu season as we normally do. Perhaps this is because COVID-19 news generally overshadows everything these days, or perhaps this is because the Flu is far less severe this year than it has been in previous years. In order to find out, I decided to do some research into this year’s Flu.

Apparently, there’s been a 98% decrease in Flu cases this past season, where between October 1st and January 30th, only 155 people in the US were hospitalized with the Flu whereas around 8,500 people were hospitalized during the 2019-2020 Flu season during the same months. One relatively obvious thing is that since the Flu is transmitted via droplets the same way that COVID-19 is, any measures taken to prevent against COVID-19 would also be efficacious in reducing the incidence of Flu cases. Mask-wearing, physical distancing, limiting gatherings, hand washing, and more has largely decreased Flu cases, prompting me to wonder why we didn’t implement more Flu prevention measures in the past (perhaps because the Flu is just not nearly as bad as COVID-19). Another reason for the drop is the closure of schools and offices- these spaces are typically where large gatherings occur on a daily basis, and so the shutting of these venues also meant that the Flu could not hop from person to person. 

This then begs the question- if Flu cases are going down, shouldn’t COVID-19 cases also be going down? This could be because first of all, COVID-19 is far more contagious than the Flu and has a much longer incubation period. A longer incubation period means people may be spreading the virus for a while before they feel symptoms, whereas for the Flu people would be isolating themselves almost right away. However, this difference is also partially because human beings have had years to build up partial immunity to Influenza, whereas virtually no one on earth had antibodies and immunity to COVID-19 prior to the pandemic. I’m glad that the “twindemic” fears that many people had did not end up coming true and that the decline in Flu cases this year remains one victory we can all celebrate (safely, from our own homes)!

-Komal Kumar, 3/27/21

3 comments:

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