flu season

The flu is back with us, but not quite as predicted.   Katelyn Jetelina and Lauren Leining comment.

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We don’t have a good sense of the interaction of circulating respiratory pathogens. I’m hoping that when Omicron recedes, we won’t see increased influenza activity, especially since the more severe influenza strain is circulating. But we are keeping an eye on it. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, influenza placed a large burden on our healthcare system. The CDC reports influenza was responsible for up to 41 million cases, 710,000 hospitalizations, and 52,000 deaths annually between 2010-2020. Influenza during the 2017-2018 year was particularly detrimental, contributing to an increase in excess deaths in the United States. To say the least, a “twin-demic” would be less than ideal, especially for our exhausted, depleted, and thin healthcare and public health workforce and infrastructure.

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