Flu cases went from 200,000 to less than 2,000. Here's why they could skyrocket.
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Flu cases went from 200,000 to less than 2,000. Here's why they could skyrocket.
More than a year after the pandemic started, Covid-19 is still ravaging parts of the world, but now scientists are warning that another virus could be a serious threat in the coming months: influenza.
This season, the flu virtually disappeared, with less than 2,000 lab-confirmed cases in the United States to date, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a typical flu season, the U.S. could see more than 200,000 lab-confirmed cases by this time of year, a tiny fraction of the true number of cases, estimated to range from 9 million to 45 million annually.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
Scientists and public health experts say this year, Covid-19 mitigation measures, like social distancing and masking, most likely stopped flu transmission.
But according to scientists like Dr. Andy Pekosz, a professor of microbiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, a year without much flu could lead to a year with a whole lot of flu.
“We’ve gone over a year without a significant portion of the population getting infected with flu and getting immunity because of that,” Pekosz said. “That could mean that the susceptible people in the population to flu are going to be increasing.”
When someone gets the flu, they usually develop some immunity to the virus. That’s why young children and babies are often the most susceptible to getting infected, because their immune system hasn’t seen the virus yet. But since there was such little influenza circulating this year, the number of people without any prior immunity could double.
“With low level population immunity, that could bring about more cases,” said Scott Hensley, a microbiologist at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. “We could see more pediatric deaths and, concurrent with that, a rise in cases within the whole community. That’s because overall population immunity is predicted to be low.”
Scientists say another aspect of this unusual flu season is that there doesn’t appear to be many flu strains circulating.
The Daily BeastIndia’s COVID Nightmare Is Now Officially Africa’s Problem
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The money-manager also opened various “nonprofits” over the years to steer millions to his friends’ projects and to fund research at institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. 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It seems as if that was on the agenda, and that’s for both of them.”Melinda Gates Warned Bill About Jeffrey EpsteinBill Gates may have had the prize on his mind in March 2013, when he and Epstein reportedly visited Jagland’s home in Strasbourg, France.The rendezvous was revealed by Dagens Næringsliv, Norway’s largest business newspaper, in an October 2020 report. At the time of the meeting, Jagland was chair of the committee which awards the Peace Prize, and Gates was a potential candidate for the honor.The meeting also included members of the International Peace Institute (IPI)—a think tank run by former Norwegian diplomat Terje Rød-Larsen that Epstein’s secret charity lavished with a $375,000 donation in 2017. 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Researchers have continued to piece together clues about the expedition’s failure as artifacts have been found throughout the years. Gregory’s remains were excavated in 2013 on King William Island, about 50 miles south of the site where the ships had been deserted. He most likely died within a month after leaving the ships, Stenton said — a journey that “wasn’t necessarily an enjoyable trip in any sense of the word.” Gregory was between 43 and 47 years old when he died. Stenton said it was a relief to finally put a name to one of the sailors — and a face, as researchers were able to create a facial reconstruction of what Gregory may have looked like — because details about the expedition have “remained elusive for, you know, 175 years.” For the past eight years, Stenton said, researchers on the team were “very hopeful” that they would be able to match a sample from a living descendant to a sailor from the pool of DNA they had collected from remains. The first 16 samples they received failed to produce a match, making the Gregory pairing “very gratifying,” he said. Although the identification has not changed the narrative of the expedition, Stenton said that “the more individuals we can identify, there might be some useful information that could come up that might help us better understand” what happened to the explorers. He said he was grateful for the families who had sent in DNA, whether they were matched or not, adding that he was pleased to be able to provide Gregory’s family with details about the sailor’s final years. He informed them that Gregory was not alone when he died, as the remains of two other sailors were found at the same site. “There’s an eerie feeling about it all,” Gregory said, “but at the end of the day, I suppose it’s closure.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company
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