ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (KDVR) — As we approach the one-year mark of the pandemic, another infectious disease has seen a dramatic drop.
“Typically, we see these viruses begin to be active around November and sometimes we’ll see a peak in December,” said Dr. Dylan Luton at Swedish Medical Center.
But that spike didn’t happen.
“There is influenza out there, but very little of it, and we’re just seeing a tiny fraction of what we typically would at this time,” Luton said.
Luton points to the pandemic for low flu rate.
“This year is quite unique for many reasons obviously, but due to the social distancing measures, masking and so on, to suppress the COVID-19 virus, really the influenza virus hasn’t had an opportunity to transmit and spread like it normally would,” Luton said.
Still, he says, getting the flu vaccine this year is important.
“You can get COVID-19 and influenza at the same time. They are both respiratory viruses, but they are very different, and our immune response doesn’t overlap,” Luton said.
Luton warns that coinfection of the flu and COVID-19 can be significantly more serious than having either one alone.
Even after the pandemic is over, Luton says there is a possibility that flu seasons will continue to shrink going forward.
“I don’t know how much appetite people will have for social distancing in the very long term, although we’ve clearly learned some important lessons about how to do it and that we can do it,” Luton said.
The trick will be to not forgetting about social distancing.
“In the future, I don’t think we’ll tolerate people coughing around us or coughing in the movie theaters or restaurants or an airplane,” Luton said.