‘Get your flu shot’: Experts warn of impending influenza wave amid COVID-19
Global News
Flu cases had previously dropped to record lows in North America and Europe during the first year of the pandemic.
Public health experts are urging Canadians to get their flu shots before, during or even after getting their COVID-19 vaccine jab, warning that the rapidly-approaching flu season could spike back again “with a vengeance” following a record low year.
Flu cases had previously dropped to record lows in North America and Europe during the first year of the pandemic, and countries in the southern hemisphere reported lower than usual numbers.
In Canada alone, detections of the flu were so low over the last year that it didn’t even pass the threshold set by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) normally used to declare the start of the fall flu season.
In the 2020-21 season, PHAC reported 69 detections of influenza during its final report on Aug. 28. Around 52,000 cases are detected normally.
“When you have a low year, usually the following year is a bad year and when you look around the world, there’s a lot of influenza and RSV occurring,” said Dr. Anna Banerji, an epidemiologist and pediatrician at the University of Toronto.
“So absolutely people should be getting their flu vaccine,” she said.
According to Banerji, getting your jab to protect against the flu has greater urgency during the COVID-19 pandemic, with both being respiratory illnesses.
“When we still have COVID, no one really wants to get a viral respiratory illness with body aches because you’re going to think it’s COVID and until you can prove that, it will cause a lot of anxiety for people,” she said.