The flu season is off to a slow start. COVID-19 precautions may help | News

With the proliferation of coronaviruses in many parts of the United States, another virus that is beginning to worry during this time, influenza, is slowly beginning to invade each year. There have been some cases in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but as in most countries, the numbers are still small.

This may be because preventive measures such as masks, social distance, and hand washing to prevent coronavirus infections also make it difficult for the flu to spread. Perhaps Americans have listened to the call to get the flu vaccine this year. That way, the hospital will not be flooded with influenza and COVID-19 patients at the same time. Or it could be the normal tranquility before the storm.

Influenza usually begins slowly in October and November, speeds up before and after Thanksgiving, speeds up after the December holidays, and peaks in January and February. But it’s hard to predict. It may start late or have multiple peaks.

“Influenza is capricious,” said William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

The Southern Hemisphere has given us several reasons to expect a mild flu season, Schaffner said. New Zealand and Australia, which have the flu season in the summer, had far fewer cases this year than usual. Their residents were also vaccinated against the flu much more than usual and did a very good job of following social distance recommendations.

America is far more divided in terms of social distance. Public health officials have strongly encouraged vaccination against the flu this year, which may have affected it. CVS said it has already given more shots than last year’s entire season. We are ready to manage 18 million shots, twice as much as last year. Walgreen Co. said it had vaccinated 60% more flu this year than it did during the same period last year. Demand for Rite Aid is also increasing. Emergency health care provider PatientFirst said demand for shots was two to three times higher than last year in the first two weeks of vaccination. After that rush, it’s about the same.

Meanwhile, Kimberly Mazur, medical director of the Federally Certified Health Center for Atlantic Care in Atlantic City, said vaccine hesitation is increasing among patients. She said they were affected by the anti-vaccine movement and were concerned about the rush to develop a coronavirus vaccine. Gemma Downham, director of infection prevention at the AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center, said some employees have questioned the need for shots when wearing masks to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Downham tells them that masks are not absolutely certain and are often worn incorrectly and are not usually worn at home.

Schaffner said some Americans have to work harder to get the vaccine this year. Vaccination campaigns in large workplaces are less common. People at high risk of evacuating at home do not meet their doctors in person as usual. “To be vaccinated, we need to depend on individual initiatives,” he said.

Nationally, almost all of the United States is green, the color used by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to indicate the “minimum” infection rate. The outliers in the latest report were yellow Iowa, which has low influenza activity.

Tina Tan, a state epidemiologist at the New Jersey Department of Health, states that influenza is currently less active in New Jersey. “This is what we expect at this point in the flu season,” she said.

In Pennsylvania, where there were 365 cases confirmed so far this fall, Ray Balishansky, Deputy Secretary of Health Preparation and Community Protection, said there were slightly more cases than last year. He said there are still few.

However, one of the problems with flu data that is noteworthy is that only a small percentage of people with the flu have been tested for the disease.

Public health leaders say it’s more important than ever to get a flu shot this year for a variety of reasons. One is that healthcare providers can be overwhelmed with cases of COVID-19. The other is that influenza and COVID-19 share many symptoms. If you don’t have a shot, that means you need to take more tests, and if you have a fever or cough, for example, you can endure more anxiety.

In rare cases, you can get both influenza and COVID-19. “What we are worried about this year is that if people receive both at the same time, it can really be overwhelming,” Downham said.

And Mr. Tan said that influenza can also be a dangerous illness. The CDC estimates that 400,000 people were hospitalized and 22,000 died last season. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. Influenza tends to attack children more strongly than the coronavirus.

She said coronavirus prophylaxis is likely to reduce the flu this year, but that’s not enough. “Everything we do to prevent COVID helps prevent the flu, but the difference from the flu is that there is a vaccine.”

Influenza vaccination is recommended for everyone over 6 months.

Copyright 2020 Tribune Content Agency.