The flu season has been virtually non-existent this season – with the lowest rate of hospitalization since the data was recorded.
Only 165 flu-related hospitalizations were registered between October 1 and February 6, according to recent information from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
This is compared to about 400,000 people who were hospitalized during the 2019-2020 flu season, which also saw 22,000 deaths.
“This is less than the average for this point in the season and less than the rates for any season since routine data collection began in 2005, including the 2011-12 low gravity season,” said the CDC.
With many schools closed, more schoolchildren stayed at home during the global health crisis, which probably helped to stop the spread of the flu, NPR reported.
“COVID can be easily transmitted between adults – very contagious – but the flu, I think, really needs children to spread among themselves and then sow, if you like, adults in their homes and their neighbors”, Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University, told the station’s “weekend edition”.
“Children are generally considered to have the flu virus distribution allowance,” he added. “They produce a lot more viruses, they spread more viruses over long periods of time.”
Last year, a record number of people were vaccinated against the flu – amid warnings from health experts about the unprecedented combination of the flu season and the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
Nearly 52 percent of people aged 6 months or older have been inoculated, an increase of 2.6 percent over the previous season, said the CDC.
The mild station was also aided by COVID-19 security measures, including wearing a mask and social detachment.
“The flu has been virtually non-existent” this season, said Schaffner.
But he also warned that the flu could come back in full force in the fall.
“Many of us didn’t get an impulse to find the flu virus this year and therefore we didn’t have a chance to build our antibodies,” he said. “It is even more important to be vaccinated this fall.”