Last year, almost 200 children died of the flu
Last year, we applied face masks and practiced social detachment in an attempt to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. And while we have tragically lost almost 525,000 Americans to COVID-19, we have considerably reduced the number of flu-related cases and deaths, especially among children. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), only one child has died of influenza this season in the United States. In previous years, hundreds of children died of the flu.
“No new pediatric deaths associated with influenza were reported to the CDC during week 8. The total for the 2020-21 season is one,” says the CDC’s weekly report.
5. And almost not #the flu it means almost no children dying of the flu. There was only one pediatric influenza death reported to @CDCgov so far this season.
Hallelujah. pic.twitter.com/lBlgJKQS70– Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 5, 2021
During the 2019-20 flu season, 195 children died of the flu, according to the CDC. But due to mask use among adults and children last year, the flu virus is infecting fewer people. According to Lynnette Brammer, leader of the CDC’s home flu surveillance team, only 0.1 percent of flu tests were positive this season; whereas, at that point, in the last few years, 20 to 30% used to return positive.
4. More context. This year, the cumulative rate of hospitalization for #the flu disease for the season so far is 0.7 per 100,000 people.
At that time, last year, it was 57.6 per 100,000 people. Wow. pic.twitter.com/BHN1zalOCD– Helen Branswell (@HelenBranswell) March 5, 2021
“I think this obliteration of the flu epidemic, which has been seen globally, tells us that the way the flu is transmitted from one person to another may actually have been impacted by the use of masks, more than anything else”, Flor Munoz, a member of the infectious disease committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said The Washington Post.
For comparison, the 2018-19 season saw 144 pediatric flu deaths and 188 during the 2017-18 season.
Adults are also experiencing a drop in the number of influenza deaths this season, from about 450 so far this season, up from about 22,000 last year.
“I think it clearly showed that mask, distance, wash your hands – all of these things work clearly,” says Aaron Milstone, an epidemiologist and professor of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University the Washington Post. “So, I think the question will be: how much appetite do people have for all this to prevent the flu, instead of just Covid?”
Experts warn, however, that the next flu season may be worse, as scientists have had a hard time determining which strain is most dominant this year, making it difficult to predict which strains to develop vaccines for next year.
“They may not guess the right strains to make the vaccine,” says Andrea Kovacs, head of the pediatric infectious disease division at the University of Southern California.
Kovac adds that it is not too late for the flu to rise it is season, especially if coronavirus restrictions are relaxed across the country.
“We may have a flu season that may be small, but late,” says Kovac. “It is very difficult to say.”