It’s flu season in the US, but seasonal flu’s cousin, COVID-19, and its variants are getting all the press. It might be worth considering whether all those precautions we are taking concerning COVID-19 are spilling over into other health issues.
seasonal flu
The return of our old friend, the seasonal flu, is just around the corner. As our thoughts move from picking pumpkins and apples to Trick or Treating (the “holiday,” not the election), the uptick in cases will begin to appear.
As we continue to try and “open up,” much is made of herd immunity. Herd immunity was the putative, underlying rationale for some countries to forgo quarantine and lockdowns. But what exactly do we mean when we talk about herd immunity?
The general belief is that COVID-19’s harms fall disproportionately upon the frail, as well as the classes and groups that often find themselves holding the short end of the stick: the poor and minorities. What makes these groups so susceptible? Let's take a look.
There is a persistent belief that COVID-19 is "like seasonal flu." While there are similarities, the clinical course is very different.
At the current time, influenza remains the far bigger threat to global public health than COVID-19. Though COVID-19 has a higher case-fatality rate, influenza infects far more people. Of course, that could change.