Brace yourselves for a twindemic this winter

COVID has a way of monopolizing the news cycle. Because of this, it’s easy to forget that the health threats of old are still around and kicking.

Medical experts are encouraging people to take necessary precautions to avoid contracting the flu this year while the novel coronavirus is circulating around the country. Brace yourselves for a twindemic.

The flu is back… with a vengeance

Last year the pandemic indirectly reduced our overall risk for influenza infection because of the increased emphasis on public health guidance; we wore masks, stayed socially distant, and so on.

“As the flu — like COVID-19 — is a respiratory disease, experts suspect that the prevention measures that people took to avoid SARS-CoV-2 infections also proved effective in preventing the flu,” Medical News Today reports.

“Wearing masks, practicing physical distancing, washing the hands regularly, disinfecting surfaces, reducing travel, and closing schools all served to limit the flu’s ability to infect people.”

This year may be different.

For a start, many Americans are slacking on countermeasures because they’re vaccinated (or not vaccinated for personal, political or religious reasons).

We are also seeing reduced immunity.

“We saw an extremely low level of influenza last year, which is fantastic. However, that means that there are fewer people in the population that are relatively protected due to natural infection, and the virus may have an easier time spreading among the unvaccinated. On a population level, both vaccinated people and people who have immunity after having recovered from previous infections help to limit the spread of the virus,” said
Dr. Patrick E. H. Jackson, infectious disease and international health expert of the University of Virginia.

Experts warn of a Twindemic

Twindemic is a term coined last year that referred to the potential of a severe flu season occurring alongside an increase in cases of COVID-19 during the fall and winter months. Research that indicated those who were sick with COVID and the flu simultaneously experienced more serious symptoms as a result.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Trusted Source report that in the United States, there were fewer confirmed cases of hospitalization due to flu than in any other year since the collection of such data.

“Co-infection would also complicate treatment for hospitalized patients,” Jackson continued.

Steroids are instrumental in COVID-19 relief, while being harmful to the recovery of flu patients. Also, hospitals are overwhelmed as it is without an influx of flu patients.

How to stay protected

Influenza viruses spread in the same way the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) spreads: Infected droplets disperse when a carrier coughs, sneezes, breathes, or talks. Unlike SARS-CoV-2, these droplets cannot remain suspended in the air.

Experts recommend getting vaccinated for both illnesses to avoid developing severe manifestations of either. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the different vaccines will not induce any adverse health effects.

“Some practices — like washing your hands frequently and avoiding exposing other people when you’re feeling ill — just make good sense and should continue indefinitely. I also think that wearing a mask in public when rates of influenza or COVID-19 are high continues to be a good idea — particularly for medically vulnerable people,” Dr. Jackson said.