Flu Vaccination Is More Important Than Ever This Year Henry I. Miller
https://issuesinsights.com/2020/09/29/flu-vaccination-is-more-important-than-ever-this-year/
This year’s influenza (“flu”) season, which should kick off sometime in October, rev up in November, and last until spring, will be made more treacherous than ever by the concurrent COVID-19 pandemic (cases of which are currently surging in many parts of the nation). The coincidence of infections by the two viruses in the population has the potential to be a perfect storm.
There have been more than 7 million confirmed cases and about 210,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. this year, and public health experts are expecting an uptick in cases as winter approaches and people tend more often to be in crowded, poorly ventilated, indoor spaces.
The morbidity of flu varies significantly from year to year. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that it has caused millions of deaths, hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, and tens of thousands of deaths every year since 2010. As shown in the figure below, the morbidity and mortality vary significantly from year to year. If this flu season is at the high end of the range, hospitals contending with large numbers of admissions for flu, in addition to COVID-19 patients, could well be overwhelmed.
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