The Pandemic Crushed the Flu--What Happens When It Returns?
During the annual flu season, many people experience the usual symptoms: a runny nose, sneezing, body aches, and fever. Flu can also be deadly. In the United States alone, influenza viruses cause hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of fatalities each year. During the pandemic, however, a drastic change occurred: there was a precipitous drop in infections with influenza and other respiratory viruses—and in some parts of the world, some of these pathogens are nowhere to be found.
“It’s really dramatic how the flu disappeared this year,” says Ellen Foxman, an immunologist at Yale University. At Yale-New Haven Hospital, where Foxman works, there were around 3,000 confirmed flu cases in the first three months of 2020, Foxman tells The Scientist. “This year, from the first of January until now, there’s zero.”
Mask wearing, social distancing, and other restrictions implemented to stave off SARS-CoV-2 are thought to be the primary culprits in the decline in other respiratory pathogens in circulation. As such measures are lifted, though, scientists are expecting the missing viruses to return—and are pondering what will happen when that occurs.
Scientists suspect that the lack of exposure to influenza over the course of this pandemic means that people’s immune systems are now more vulnerable than usual to infection. At the same time, not being able to circulate has led to a striking reduction in the genetic diversity of circulating influenza viruses, which are constantly undergoing mutations—but it’s not yet clear what implications this has for human health.
“I think everyone appreciated not having colds and flus this year,” Foxman says. “It would be really nice to keep that going. The question is, what is it going to take?”
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/the-pandemic-crushed-the-flu-what-happens-when-it-returns-68951
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