One child died of the flu this year in the United States. Or, in the 2019-20 flu season, there were 199 deaths from influenza in children in the United States and 144 in the previous season. Flu cases, usually numbering in the tens of millions, were only a few thousand in the 2020-2021 season in the United States.
“The flu has gone nowhere, except for reasonable activity in West Africa,” says Richard Webby, a doctor at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
“No one has seen it, neither in countries with total restrictions, nor in countries without restrictions, nor in countries that have done a good job of controlling the pandemic, nor in countries that have not,” he said.
It’s not clear why, CNN comments. Many experts believe that measures to control coronavirus have also had an effect on preventing the spread of the flu. Or, some believe, the coronavirus somehow outperformed the flu virus.
In any case, Webby and other experts are convinced that the break in flu activity is only temporary. They fear that she will return in the fall with revenge.
“The worst flu season I’ve ever seen,” Webby said.
“When he returns, it will be an extraordinary season,” said Aubree Gordon, an epidemiologist with the University of Michigan Public Health Shock.
One reason will be people’s behavior. Tired of isolation, of wearing a mask, of staying away from others, people will celebrate the freedom offered by vaccines and may overdo it.
Trips will increase, restaurants will fill up, and schools will reopen in the fall with students in the classrooms.
But while people rush into vacations, bars, and family reunions that are much more immune to coronavirus, they have no protection against the flu and other respiratory viruses that spread just like coronavirus: through the air, into splashes. and surfaces, CNN points out.
“I am confident that eliminating coronavirus control, returning children to school, and resuming travel, especially internationally, will give all respiratory viruses new opportunities to spread,” Lynette Brammer, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Domestic Influenza, told CNN. Surveillance Team.
There is another theory, not very well documented, that our immune system response is stimulated by repeated, annual exposure to influenza viruses. These exposures are not enough to make us sick, but they remind the immune system to remain vigilant, CNN reports.
Allison Aiello, who is studying the spread of infectious diseases at the University of North Carolina, estimates that many children will face a two-year exposure to a range of viruses in a single season. “When a person has not been ill for a while, they may have more severe symptoms,” she says.
One thing is certain, namely that the activity of the flu is unpredictable. “I do not know what to expect. We are waiting and we will see “says Lynette Brammer.
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