A leading expert on autoimmune diseases said the flu could be “non-existent this fall,” as the U.S. enters the colder months while still dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
“We may not have the flu at all, but we’re all vaccinated,” Dr. Bob Lahita, president of the St. Joseph Health System Medical Department, told CBSN presenter Anne-Marie Green.
The World Health Organization estimates that there are approximately three to five million cases of severe influenza in the international year and up to five million deaths consistent with a disease-like year.
The United States, the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis, has recorded more than 150,000 coronavirus-related deaths and more than four million have shown cases since March. Medical experts are involved in what the growing number of cases can mean when students return to school and the annual flu season begins.
A former U.S. fitness official, Dr. Rick Bright, testified at a Congressional hearing that the country could face “the darkest winter in fashion history” if the pandemic is controlled.
However, efforts to mitigate the coronavirus would possibly bear fruit in other ways.
Countries such as China, Canada and the United Kingdom have recently reported a drop in influenza cases as a result of global social estrangement measures to involve coronavirus, according to a Reuters report.
The report also indicates that the maximum number of recent weekly infectious diseases in South Korea has noted “a minimum of 83% in cases compared to the same time a year earlier.” In Australia, which is recently wintering, experts find that they are in particular minimizing hospitalization rates for non-COVID-19 infectious diseases by the time of year. However, WHO warned in a recent report that influenza figures should possibly be viewed with “caution” due to the pandemic that hinders the reporting capacity of some countries.
Dr. Lahita predicted a minimum of cases of influenza in the United States “because of our masking, hand washing and social remoteness.”
“It will be very attractive to see that, ” he said.
Some experts are concerned that the absence of influenza infections this year may have a negative effect on immunity in long-term influenza seasons.
“Possibly if we don’t have infections this season, there will be other more vulnerable people next season, that’s definitely something we’ll have to keep an eye on carefully,” said Ben Marais, an infectious disease expert at the University of Sydney. Reuters.
According to Dr. Lahita, the immunity factor for coronavirus and influenza may have an undeniable solution in the future, once a vaccine is developed.
“The new coronavirus will be with us for many, many years,” he said. “However, there is hope that in 2021, for example, we will have the two vaccines combined together, so that when vaccinated against influenza, it will be vaccinated against COVID-19.”