Severe flu alert as coronavirus weakens medical systems
- American respiratory expert warns of a tougher influenza season ahead as the pandemic stretches resources
- Hong Kong cut flu transmission by 44 per cent last winter in part through social distancing and changes in public behaviour, researchers find
In an editorial published in Science magazine on the weekend, Benjamin Singer, a pulmonologist from Northwestern University in the United States, said that as medical resources were stretched thin by the pandemic, the coming flu season could increase in severity.
He said four factors had to be addressed to prevent a severe influenza season, including social distancing measures, which reduced transmission of both the flu and the coronavirus.
More people also needed to be vaccinated against the flu and the risk reduced of patients with one pathogen being infected with the other, he wrote.
Another challenge was the differences in health outcomes for marginalised or minority communities, who were “over-represented among Covid-19 cases and deaths”.
“Humans have suffered from influenza for millennia, and we can expect that the new reality of Covid-19 will only complicate the next influenza season,” he said.
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