Measures to prevent the spread of covid-19 have also fended off flu
As the world begins to reopen, will it see a resurgence of influenza?
IN SEPTEMBER 2020 doctors and public-health officials in the northern hemisphere were on high alert. They did not know how covid-19 would behave in the first winter of the pandemic. Respiratory viruses tend to surge during cold weather. And there were the usual concerns about influenza, the shape-shifting virus that sickens and kills many people every year. At worst, doctors feared they would see simultaneous outbreaks of covid-19 and flu which would overwhelm hospitals and send deaths soaring—a “twindemic”.
This article appeared in the International section of the print edition under the headline “Northern exposure”
International September 25th 2021
From the September 25th 2021 edition
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