NEW YORK: February is usually the peak time of the flu season, with medical offices and hospitals full of patients suffering. But not this year.
The flu has virtually disappeared from the United States, with reports reaching levels far below those seen in decades.
Experts claim that measures taken to defend against coronavirus (mask wear, social distancing, and virtual schooling) were an important factor in preventing a “twindemia” of influenza and COVID-19. A push to vaccinate more people in the flu probably also helped, as they say, fewer people traveling.
Another possible explanation: the coronavirus basically has musculature apart from the flu and other more common insects in the fall and winter. Scientists do not fully understand the mechanism behind this, but it would be consistent with the patterns seen when certain flu strains predominate over others, said Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu expert at the University of Michigan.
Nationwide, “this is the lowest flu season we’ve seen,” according to a surveillance system about 25 years ago, said Lynnette Brammer of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.