health
Prepping for Flu Season Learn how you can tell the difference between a common cold, the flu, and COVID-19—and stay as safe as possible By Barbara Russo
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his year’s cold and flu season is a lot more complicated due to the current COVID-19 crisis. In 2019, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 39 million cases of influenza (a viral disease that attacks the nose, throat, and lungs). Most adults will get the common cold about twice a year—though children get it more often. This begs the question: What will cold and flu season be like during the pandemic?
PREDICTIONS IN A PANDEMIC How bad will flu season be in the U.S. this year? Kelly Fradin, M.D., author of Parenting in A Pandemic: How to Help Your Family Through COVID-19, looks for clues from Australia— where the flu season occurs before ours. “What we’ve seen in Australia is that there has been ninety-eight percent less flu than normal,” she says. “It’s been attributed to all the precautions that have been in place for coronavirus.” 38
October/November 2020 | nymetroparents.com
Sharon Nachman, M.D., chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, says the severity of flu season in the U.S. will depend on the individual—and what safety precautions they take. “Among populations that are not going to be wearing masks, the flu season has good potential to be bad. We have a lot of people indoors, the weather’s getting colder, and it catches easily in households,” Dr. Nachman says. “However, among those populations that are being very careful by wearing masks and washing their hands, the potential is that we will have low transmission in those settings.”
THE FLU SHOT Doctors strongly encourage adults and children ages 6 months and older get the flu shot. Although there are no guarantees that the shot will prevent the flu, the illness won’t be as severe.
