Just happened upon a video by Mayim Bialik which I was looking at Passover stuff, where she talks about he own vaccine hesitancy, suggests without saying anything definite that her kids might have needed a different vaccine schedule due to allergies or other conditions, and denies that she is “anti-vax.”
She then goes one-- this is the relevant part-- to say that she is getting a flu shot this her, and her kids are getting their first ever flu shots, because the last thing an immune system seeking and destroying COVID needs is a side trip to battle the flu. FF to about 7:15.
I’ll bet there are a lot of people like her-- people who do not doubt that the flu vaccine works, but just don’t think there’s a good trade off, and the flu “is a manageable illness,” who nonetheless, this year want their immune systems doing nothing but looking for COVID.
I didn’t see anyone cite that was much the case. If we’re talking anecdotes, this was the first time in years I haven’t gotten the flu shot. Usually just do it when I’m in a place with a pharmacy and no wait involved. Never happened this year what with fewer store visits and every damn thing requiring a wait.
So about 18% higher vaccinate rate than last year at the same point. That’s an improvement, but that alone doesn’t seem like enough of a difference to account for the drop in flu cases. I would guess that social distancing and mask wearing contribute much more significantly preventing flu.
As well, there’s a reason we look at the Southern hemisphere to guesstimate the Northern hemisphere flu season*: it travels from there. Lot less traveling this year.
The flu vaccine is notoriously unreliable. Some years it hardly works at all. The increased rate of vaccination is about the last place I would look to put the credit for the nearly-nonexistent flu season.
Overall, the flu vaccine reduces the risk of getting influenza by about 40-60% every season. In addition, it can reduce the severity of the disease for those who get it despite the vaccine. Annual flu deaths in the US have ranged from 12k to 61K since 2010. So anything that can cut the rate in half and reduce flu severity is a good thing.
I do tend to think that masks, handwashing, and social isolation were the big contributors to the decline, but given how much covid transmission went on despite that, I feel sure that flu vaccine played a significant role in driving the flu rate to its lowest level yet.
I also suspect that innoculations, social distancing, increased hygene, and mask wearing have had a large effect. Whether this season’s flu variant was just lesser in it’s effects is something I’ll leave to the experts. The argument that flu was knocked out in the typical countries of origin before it could spread - is VERY interesting.
Sigh: And now I see people on social media claiming the the “flu numbers” were just rolled into the “covid numbers”. See? The flu cases were not so low. It’s just that flu cases were counted as covid cases.
That’s more than a pity - it means we’ve learned about a possible way to prevent future flu seasons. But some people refuse to learn their lessons - because (handwaving).
If the way to stop future flu seasons is worldwide travel bans, school closures and social distancing then its not a lesson that would ever be implemented anyway.
It may turn out that Capitalism Gone Wild pushes toward expanding WFH wherever practicable, now that the owners have noticed that 1)it doesn’t hurt productivity and may actually increase it and, most importantly, 2)reducing the need for office space frees up money for more important uses, such as expanded executive bonuses and stock options.
Also, I don’t think we can overlook the possibility-- or even probability-- that higher vaccination rates mean that there is a greater proportion of a- and low symptomatic flu cases, which never get diagnosed as the flu, particularly since no one wants to go to the doctor or a clinic and risk COVID exposure there. So lots of genuine flues have passed for colds this year. More than in most years.
Seriously. I got actual influenza (confirmed by nasal swab) a couple of years ago from one of the lawyers in my office, who damn well could have worked from home. I gave it to my husband, but because he went with me to the doctor as soon as I suspected what was going on, we both were treated with Tamiflu and stayed home with fever for 3 days so we didn’t infect anyone else. (His symptoms were about 36 hours behind mine.)
People who go to work sick when they have other options should be throttled. Luckily between the Tamiflu and the flu shots, we didn’t get that sick, but what if we infected someone more vulnerable? I should have chewed out my coworker, but decided not to after he confessed that he knew he was likely the reason that his elderly mother was in the ICU.
All the time, we get kids coming to school a little glassy-eyed an spacey, but no fever, no cough, no runny nose, but we have our suspicions…sure enough, right about lunch time, they’re crying, don’t want to eat, want their mommies, and will go straight to nap, if offered, but we really try to get something into them, even if it’s just milk or yogurt (or the soy versions thereof).
If they are lucid enough to talk, it nearly always turns out that “Mommy gave me the feel-better medicine this morning.” Sometimes they ever ask us if we have it, and if they can have more. “It’s pink,” they tell is, which pretty much means it’s Children’s Tylenol cold medicine: Tylenol, a cough suppressant, and a decongestant. Some parents even give them a little weak tea so they aren’t sleepy.
Anyone working with little kids for the first time can expect to miss two to three weeks the first year to illness, until you build up antibodies. I don’t get viral respiratory illnesses, but the first year I was teaching, I had two bacterial sinus infections, one that needed a long course of two antibiotics, two bouts of a nasty stomach virus, one where I got too dehydrated to nurse, and the boychik got PediaSure from a bottle from Daddy (boychik was 16 months, it was for comfort; he’d just had the stomach thing too). Also, got such a nasty case of Pinkeye, I had to lie in bed in the dark with ice packs on my eyes. Horribly painful.
Last fall, I thought: why would I bother with a flu shot this year? My wife and I are working from home, and the Firebug is attending middle school virtually, so we’re not going to pick it up from work or school. We’ve been homebodies except for buying groceries and the occasional doctor’s appointment.
Whatever our chances of the flu were in a normal year, divide that by 100, and that was our likelihood of getting it this past winter. So I didn’t get one.
In the fall, the kid will be back in school, and I’ll be back to getting my annual flu shot.
I guess the thinking was two fold. It was SOMETHING people could do. And having the flu isn’t without risk, you can end up in the hospital with it. If there are no ICU beds, then you are in trouble.
This was it for me to get the flu shot, and the reminder by the symptoms of the current pandemic that the common flu can get me into trouble with my cardiac issues, too.
I had little contact with people all year, but I got the flu vaccine so that if I had to get gas, pick up a prescription inside, see a doctor non-virtually, go inside the bank, or similar, I’d be protected.