The flu season is virtually non-existent this season – with the lowest number of hospital admissions since those records have been recorded.
According to recent information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 165 flu-related hospital admissions were recorded between October 1 and February 6.
That’s compared to about 400,000 people who were hospitalized during the 2019-2020 flu season, which also killed 22,000.
“This is below average for this point in the season and below rates for any season since routine data collection began in 2005, including the 2011-12 low severity season,” the CDC said.
With many schools closed, more schoolchildren are staying at home during the global health crisis, which likely helped stop the spread of the flu, NPR reported.
“COVID is very easily transmitted among adults – very contagious – but I think influenza really needs kids to spread it among themselves and then, if you want to, seed the adults in their homes and their neighbors,” Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, told the station’s “Weekend Edition”.
“It is generally believed that children have the distribution franchise for the flu virus,” he added. “They produce a lot more viruses, they spread more virus for a longer period of time.”
Last year, a record number of people got the flu shot – amid warnings from health experts about the unprecedented combination of the flu season and the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
Nearly 52 percent of people 6 months and older were vaccinated, a 2.6 percent increase from the previous season, the CDC said.
The mild season was also supported by COVID-19 safety measures, including wearing a mask and social distancing.
“Flu is essentially non-existent” this season, Schaffner said.
But he also warned that the flu could return with vengeance in the fall.
“Many of us haven’t gotten a boost from the flu virus this year, so we haven’t had a chance to build our antibodies,” he said. “All the more important to be vaccinated this fall.”