COVID-19 Update

Could be a double whammy coming our way.

WaPo: (freebie)

Flu practically vanished last year. Now doctors are bracing for potential ‘twindemic’ of flu and covid-19 spikes

Health officials are urging Americans to get their flu shots, warning the flu season that didn’t materialize when most of society was shut down last year could come roaring back and strain hospitals in the months ahead.

Survey data released Thursday found slightly more than half of American adults plan to be vaccinated against influenza. That’s not much of a change from pre-pandemic surveys conducted by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, but health authorities are alarmed because some evidence points to a potentially more severe flu season. Experts say Americans have built up less natural immunity against influenza because so few were infected in 2020.

“This low flu activity was likely due to the widespread implementation of covid-19 preventive measures like masks, physical distancing and staying home,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said in a Thursday briefing announcing flu vaccination efforts.

“Because of so little disease last year, population immunity is likely lower, putting us all at risk of increased disease this year,” she added.

The United States already saw a similar pattern with the spring and summer resurgence of common viruses including respiratory syncytial virus, known as RSV. Hospitals reported surprisingly high numbers of toddlers coming in with severe cases, likely because they were not exposed as infants in the early months of lockdown.

Flu viruses may also roar back with more opportunities to spread this fall and winter in reopened schools, workplaces and businesses, especially where masks are not mandated. Hospitals already battling simultaneous pediatric spikes in covid-19 and RSV fear oxygen and staffing will be stretched thin if flu and coronavirus admissions surge together in the months ahead — a dreaded scenario they avoided during the last winter surge.

Covid cases among children are soaring. In Tennessee, kids are largely unmasked

The fears are especially acute after hospital systems, especially in the South, struggled to manage the summer wave of covid-19 admissions, said Nancy Foster, vice president for quality and patient safety policy at the American Hospital Association.

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And then up jumped the devil.