“The silver lining is that we do not see flu. The flu is almost absent,” said Dr. Andra Blomkalns, director of emergency medicine for Stanford Health, said.
“There is no doubt that this year is an extraordinary year,” said Mr. Randy Bergen, Kaiser Permanente flu expert, said. ABC7 News said California would see a serious increase in flu cases in early January, but not this year.
“We are still testing thousands of people in our emergency room and in our hospitals for a combination of COVID and flu tests, and we are not really seeing any flu. Some weeks we have no cases, others we may have one or two cases.”
Some believe that all the precautions taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19 keep flu cases at stake. But if they are so effective with one virus, why not the other?
“This is a wonderful question,” said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, global professor of health at Stanford, said that explaining part of the answer may lie in coronavirus studies in recent years that reveal a strange kind of competition among viruses.
“It could be something about the infection with one virus, which can somehow reduce the risk of infection with others,” Maldonado said. “Whether it’s immunity or that it just suppresses the growth of another virus, it’s not really clear, but there’s definitely an idea from a few years ago that viruses can compete.”
Another contributing factor – many more people have received flu shots this year.
Many children are not at school and do not meet with friends nearly as often as usual.
“Flu always starts in schools. It starts in children,” Bergen said.
Experts warn people not to watch. There is still plenty of time for flu to return this winter.
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