Cases of the flu are down dramatically from previous years, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. | Unsplash/Brittany Colette
Cases of the flu are down dramatically from previous years, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. | Unsplash/Brittany Colette
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began last year, influenza cases are barely registering, according to Bridge Michigan.
The novel coronavirus has brought endless suffering to Michigan residents. However, the pandemic has produced safety precautions that have nearly eliminated the majority of flu strains. Additionally, the safety precautions have appeared to reduce some other respiratory ailments as well.
Amid the peak of an average flu season, the state’s monitoring network of labs affirmed just four new cases of influenza for the last week in February. That number pales in comparison to the 488 new cases reported at this time last year. There were 284 cases reported in 2019 and 536 cases reported in 2018 during the same week.
Parents and teachers know that the colder months always bring a seemingly endless cycle of common colds and other less deadly viruses. However, since the COVID-19 pandemic, those, too, seem to be on the decline. Experts reveal that this year was the first year that they haven't experienced any flu symptoms.
“This is the first winter that I haven't had the sniffles, even for a day,” Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, a public health doctor with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), told Bridge Michigan. "It has been delightful.”
Though health departments do not generally track cold or other respiratory symptoms that are less severe, three health experts interviewed by Bridge Michigan repeated Bagdasarian’s observations.
Doctors at John Hopkins University School of Medicine also confirm that flu case numbers are down dramatically this year.
“Though caused by a different virus from the one that causes COVID-19, the flu is also a respiratory viral disease, so everything we are doing to slow transmission of COVID-19 -- such as wearing face masks, frequent handwashing and physical distancing -- should also reduce transmission of flu,” says Eili Klein, PhD, associate professor of emergency medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, according to the Johns Hopkins Newsroom.
After warning signs in the fall of a likely “twindemic,” a wave in coronavirus cases in the middle of this year's flu season, experts can now breathe a sigh of relief as spring approaches.
Alerts Sign-up