https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/03/02/children-flu-deaths/
So many needless flu deaths prevented.
Post this COVID-19 pandemic. I do wonder how much public mask wearing will be apart of the new normal, or if everyone will just go back to 2019 behaviors.
In the shadow of the past year's coronavirus surge came a less noticeable, but more positive infectious-disease trend: Influenza and other common viruses have nearly disappeared.
The flu is circulating at such low levels that officials know of only one child in the United States who has died of it this flu season, a striking deviation from the dozens of pediatric deaths in other recent years.
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"I think that that obliteration of the flu epidemic, which was seen globally, tells us that the way that influenza is transmitted from one person to another might really have been impacted by the use of masks, more than anything else," said Flor Munoz, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics' infectious-diseases committee.
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Widespread mask-wearing may be particularly helpful because face coverings limit the spread of the droplets that carry influenza, Munoz said.
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Adults are also experiencing a dramatic drop in influenza deaths, with about 450 so far this season, compared with roughly 22,000 last year.
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But flu infections and deaths could stay low next season if mask-wearing and social distancing remain common, either because of the coronavirus or because people choose to apply the same measures to influenza prevention.
"I think this has clearly shown that masking, distancing, hand-washing — all these things clearly work," said Aaron Milstone, an epidemiologist and professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University. "So I think the question will be, how much appetite do people have for all that to prevent influenza, instead of just covid."
So many needless flu deaths prevented.
Post this COVID-19 pandemic. I do wonder how much public mask wearing will be apart of the new normal, or if everyone will just go back to 2019 behaviors.
