Public health experts and leaders are bracing for a worst-case scenario this winter: a flu outbreak in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. But there is hope that viral tsunami won’t happen.
Let’s connect the dots.
Flu returns during second wave
It’s a frightening scenario that health officials have been warning about since this pandemic went global, a second wave of coronavirus during the winter months while we are already battling the flu.
In the winter, conditions tend to be better for the transmission of viral diseases. Now leaders like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott are urging everyone to get a flu shot early, so we can deal with one problem at a time.
Less flu in Australia due to coronavirus prevention
There is some evidence that the flu won’t be quite as bad this year. It’s actually winter right now in Australia thanks to that whole southern hemisphere thing. It reports a big decrease in hospitalizations for non-coronavirus infectious diseases.
A top autoimmune disease expert told CBS that is thanks to all of our efforts to stop coronavirus. Between the mask wearing, the hand washing and social distancing we are actually stopping other viral outbreaks as well.
But that doesn’t mean we should not be worried about the flu. In fact that same expert says we all should get flu shots this year.
While coronavirus is proving more deadly, the flu still kills an estimated tens of thousands of people in the U.S. every year.
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