The flu shot is different this year, thanks to COVID
The flu shot is different this year, thanks to COVID
This year’s flu shot will be missing a strain of influenza it’s protected against for more than a decade.
That’s because there have been no confirmed flu cases caused by the Influenza B/Yamagata lineage since spring 2020. And the Food and Drug Administration decided this year that the strain now poses little to no threat to human health.
Scientists have concluded that widespread physical distancing and masking practiced during the early days of COVID-19 appear to have pushed B/Yamagata into oblivion.
That's really cool. Glad to know we stopped the spread... of something.
Imagine if we didn't have some meaningful percentage of the population being jackasses having Covid parties and more deciding that covering their face in public during a pandemic was some kind of politics bullshit...
Not thanks to Covid, but rather to the brief period in which masking and social distancing were widely enforced.
I remember getting into arguments with people about what germ theory is and how it works because they couldn't understand stats and graphs. They were saying "see masks and social distance doesn't do anything. Literally nothing. Look this charts shows that the regular flu went down during covid-19. Doesn't that mean something?"
Like "yeah, it means social distancing and putting on masks slow the spread of germs. That was why we were wearing them remember? That whole flatten the curve thing."
"No I thought it was to not get sick at all."
"Nope, just to slow the spread. I'm not sure where you get your news, but it seemed clear to me."
" Well so and so did whatever and got sick so nothing preventative worked."
"If nothing preventative worked then we wouldn't have seen this spread staring to slow down when compared to other countries that didn't implement x, y, or z. Also it slowed the spread of the flu because that's how germs work."
Imagine if the world could get its shit together for a planned 4 week lockdown, everyone has ample time to prepare, get supplies and set up for the lockdown, then we simultaneously all hunker down except for the most vital people running essential services (hospitals, water plants, power plants, etc).
We could wipe out so many transmissible viruses, even wiping out the common cold alone would pay back the entire cost in lost business hours.
Im not saying we wipe out things to be able to work more, but wouldn't you rather be at work than feeling terrible in bed? (It's about the quality of life improvement.)I love the thought, but the reality is there are enough actually essential services (though much fewer than the owner class defines as essential) that we wouldn't wipe out viruses that easily. Not to mention the impossibility of getting other countries to do anything similar.
STDs, on the other hand...
A huge number of viruses have both human and non-human vectors and jump back and forth between us. Many dog owners can tell you about how both they and their dog once got sick at the same time. I doubt it would actually stop as much transmission as you think.
That's actually super cool. I will gladly celebrate the Win.
Let's do it more often?
Just had my flu shot a week ago, but also had to get a whooping cough vax as well (last time I had that vax was when I was 10) ... thanks to all the anti-vaxxer parents.
That's the trade-off I guess.
For those saying we should do it again or more often, that isn't always a good idea. Doing it when you're sick or when there is a new and novel outbreak makes sense. But the idea that prolonged masking and distancing could eliminate illness overlooks how human immunity and viral evolution actually work. While it’s true that measures like these reduced flu cases and even eliminated a particular strain during the pandemic, immunity is a dynamic system. The immune system is constantly exposed to various viruses and bacteria, which helps it "train" to recognize and fight off future threats. If we stop exposing ourselves to these relatively mild infections, our immune defenses could become unprepared for more serious illnesses when they inevitably re-emerge or mutate.
Viruses, especially, evolve rapidly. While masking might reduce transmission in the short term, viruses like influenza and coronaviruses mutate through processes like antigenic drift, which can make them unrecognizable to our immune systems even after we've built up some resistance. We saw this recently with the rise in RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) infections, particularly in children. After pandemic restrictions reduced exposure, many children lacked the usual low-level exposure that would have primed their immune systems. As a result, when RSV returned, it hit harder. So while distancing and masking can temporarily protect us, they don't provide a long-term solution for maintaining strong, adaptable immune systems.
Just being out there in the soup of viruses and bacteria, keeping your immune system resilient, and taking advantage of immunizations when possible is really the best, only, and most time-tested practice.