The flu season is officially here in the United States and it’s come back with a vengeance after taking a break last year due to COVID-19 mandated social distancing and mask wearing.
With that being said, new reports have been claiming that hospitalizations are on the rise and that, sadly enough, the flu has already made some victims, killing two children.
As mentioned before, the 2020-2021 flu season was the least concerning in decades, ironically enough, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic!
In fact, the numbers overall were so low that some cities even registered zero cases!
According to experts, this happened thanks to COVID-19 prevention measures that were taken at the time, including the closing of schools, social distancing, wearing masks and limiting or even canceling travel.
While the measures were meant to flatten the COVID curve, they also contributed to less spreading of the influenza virus as well!
However, a year later, now that the COVID measures taken are less strict due to the emergence of vaccines, the flu wave is back and stronger than ever.
Lynnette Brammer, who tracks flu like illnesses for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, stated that “This is setting itself up to be more of a normal flu season.”
Brammer went on to say that the child deaths are “unfortunately what we’d expect when flu activity picks up. It is a sad reminder of how severe flu can be.”
Sure enough, last year, a single child death case happened which was a huge contrast from the 199 children who passed away from the flu in 2019 and the 144 child deaths from 2018.
In the last few years, the flu has been associated with 600,000 to 800,000 hospitalizations yearly as well as with 50,000 to 60,000 deaths.
The newest data about it shows that the most flu cases are happening in Washington, D.C., and that the number of states with a high influenza activity has risen from 3 to 7!
According to the data that the CDC released earlier this week, the states with the highest flu activity are: Kansas, New Mexico, New Jersey, Indiana, Georgia, Tennessee and North Dakota.
