Beating the Flu

 I read an article in scientific American this morning that made an interesting point.

The public health measures that were implemented to stop coronavirus work really well on the flu.

That is actually the subtitle of the article:

Flu Has Disappeared Worldwide during the COVID Pandemic

And it makes sense. The flu spreads through person-to-person contact and through unclean hygiene. 

Here is the dramatic part. During the most recent flu season, the U.S. saw only about 600 deaths attributed to the flu when the previous two seasons saw 22,000 and 34,000 respectively. Wow.

Of course people were dying from COVID-19, but the double-whammy everyone was expecting apparently did not materialize. Thankfully. 

I'm not going to call it a silver lining in a dark cloud. But, it is something to be thankful for.

-- Bob Doan, Elkridge, MD