NO DOWNSIDE, ALL UPSIDE:

Despite the pandemic's impact on all of us, sick and healthy, we've actually seen a record-breaking low amount of another icky, highly-contagious respiratory virus--the flu. Just to put it in perspective, from late September to late December in 2019, we faced over 65,000 cases of the flu. In that same chunk of time in 2020, only a smidge over 1,000 cases were reported. [...]

In addition to vaccination, the precautions the country is taking as a whole to prevent the spread of COVID-19, such as staying home, wearing masks, frequent hand washing, and limiting social contact, are also helping us to not catch and spread the flu says Elizabeth Lee, an epidemiologist specializing in infectious diseases at the Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health. Normally in the fall and winter, we start heading back to school and shifting our social activities indoors, but not this year.

"Since that isn't happening, there's definitely a trickle-down effect to other respiratory viruses circulating at this time," Lee says. Following hygiene rules and not breathing on each other is a surefire way to avoid catching contagious respiratory diseases, no matter if it's a common cold or a new strain of COVID-19.

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