After Covid-19, more common viruses move in unexpected ways
Jun 7, 2022, 7:55 AM | Updated: 7:59 am
Photo by Paul Hennessy
With the Covid-19 pandemic causing widespread lockdowns and limited social interactions, cases of common infectious diseases, like influenza, were at an all-time low. Now, these infections are back, and behaving in unusual ways.
According to an article published by Stat News, viruses like influenza have been circulating for unseasonably long times, and in places they wouldn’t normally be.
Dr. Gordon Cohen MD, who has worked in a children’s hospital for the past 25 years, says that these infections are likely to increase because of a lack of herd immunity that would normally be present in the general population.
“This year, we’re actually having an increase in cases many months later than we typically would have it, and the fact is, the last two winters have been amongst the mildest flu seasons that we’ve seen on record.”
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With mask mandates and social distancing protocols, infections of other novel diseases have been reduced, but this also means a decrease in natural immunity gained from being exposed to these infections.
As Covid-19 protocols end across the country moving into Summer 2022, Cohen says that the natural immunity is likely to return as people are exposed to these infections more often.
“I suspect within a year to two years, we should be back to developing normal immunity, as long as we’re not back into, you know, social distancing, but you still see a lot of people wearing masks, and you still see people who are social distancing.”
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