NEW YORK – February is often the peak of the flu season, with doctors’ offices and hospitals crowded with suffering patients. But not this year.
The flu has virtually disappeared from the United States, with reports reaching much lower levels than anything seen in decades.
Experts say that the measures put in place to prevent the coronavirus – mask use, social distance and virtual schooling – were a big factor in preventing a “twindemia” of flu and COVID-19. An effort to vaccinate more people against the flu probably helped, as well as fewer people traveling, they say.
Another possible explanation: the coronavirus basically eliminated the flu and other insects that are more common in autumn and winter. Scientists do not fully understand the mechanism behind this, but it would be consistent with the patterns seen when certain strains of flu predominate over others, said Dr. Arnold Monto, a flu expert at the University of Michigan.
Nationally, “this is the lowest flu season we’ve had on record,” according to a surveillance system that is about 25 years old, said Lynnette Brammer of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.