Not much being said about the flu during the covid-19 pandemic

For about two months, the coronavirus pandemic has dominated the news.  Craig Thompson, CEO of Golden Valley Memorial Healthcare Clinton, Missouri says there are reasons why you haven’t heard as much information about this year’s flu season.

“The thing that’s different, though, about COVID-19 and the flu – there’s really two pieces. One is, we currently have a vaccine for the flu that minimize symptoms and improve outcomes. So, we don’t have a vaccine yet for COVID-19, hoping one’s developed maybe close to the first of the year. So that’s a big difference,” he says.

Thompson also says, the coronavirus has impacted many people in a short period of time, “When you look at the number of deaths annually from the flu, that’s an annual number. So, a number between January 1 and December 31 of a year. We’ve had almost the same number of deaths from covid in a six-week period of time.”

Scientists are working to develop a coronavirus vaccine