#42: Flu Season During the Covid Pandemic

With the hyper-focus on the COVID-19 virus this past year, has anyone noticed how low our Influenza numbers have been?  The infamous “twindemic” that infectious disease experts predicted for this past winter, never materialized.  From the start of the current flu season in September 2020 clinical labs in the US reported that 1,766 specimens tested positive for flu out of 931,726-a rate of just 0.2%.  Comparing this to 250,000 specimens out of 1.5 million tested during the 2019-2020 flu season the difference is drastic.  No one has ever seen a flu season this low.  According to one source, one child has died from the flu this year compared to 195 deaths last year.  Why is this?  Scientists and “experts” have come up with three likely reasons. 

-The precautions people take to avoid COVID transmissions such as masking, social distancing, and handwashing.

-Tremendous reduction in human mobility.  In other words, very little extended travel, especially international.

-Higher than normal flu vaccination rates.  Isn’t that interesting?

This is just great news, right?  Well, before you drink the cool-aid let's think through this.  The greatest distributors of the flu are children.  With the severe social restrictions we have incorporated upon our youth this past year it is indisputable that we have succeeded in reducing the flu, but at what cost?  There have been reported delays in speech and language development as well as learning social skills, like sharing, in children.  Learning to read facial expressions has been affected due to masking.  Mental health has been affected along with an increase in obesity due to inactivity. 

So, is the great reduction of flu cases along with the decrease in child deaths worth the cost?  Is there a happy medium?  I think most people would agree that life, as we knew it before COVID, has changed forever.  To what extent is to be determined.  As a person who views life as a glass half full, perhaps this is an opportunity to teach our youth, and many adults, how to thrive and be resilient in challenging times.  Although I will never find myself voting to mask forever, this pandemic has also shown the value of good hygiene. 

After the 1918 flu pandemic, our country ran into the roaring ’20s.  People congregated, mingled, hugged, and kissed.  Everything they had been deprived of during the pandemic.  They attended church, went to theaters, stadiums, and other social events.  Is the Influenza virus sitting in the bushes waiting for this to happen now?  Only time will tell. 

Thank you for trusting ILDP to be your lab.

 

Lance Benedict

President/CEO Industry Lab Diagnostic Partners