Are We Better Now At Managing The Flu?
ST. PAUL, Minn. (WCCO) - You haven't heard us talk much about it the past few months, and that's a good thing. Flu numbers are down again this season after record lows last year.
We wanted to know: Are we better at managing the flu now? Did vaccination rates play a role?
"Up until now, there really hasn't been any," said pharmacist John Hoeschen, owner of St. Paul Corner Drug, when asked how he'd describe the current flu season. "We only treated a couple patients so far and that was early, in like late October, early November."
It's not people sick with the flu that's kept his pharmacy busy, just people hoping not to catch it.
"The last two seasons, we've done more flu vaccine than we had in pre-COVID," he said.
Getting a flu shot gained extra awareness last fall as people were lined up to get vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19. And it could be part of the reason the flu once again was minimal this year in Minnesota.
There have been 645 flu hospitalizations so far this season in the state. That's a solid jump from last year when it was down to 35.
But still, that's significantly lower than all the season's before the COVID pandemic.
Flu hospitalizations in Minnesota, per the Minnesota Department of Health:
2021-22: 645 (to date)
2020-21: 35
2019-20: 4,022
2018-19: 2,543
2017-18: 6,446
2016-17: 3,695
There have been 42 deaths connected to the flu so far this season, up from just seven last season. But again, it's well under the average of the pre-COVID years.
Flu deaths in Minnesota:
2021-22: 645 (to date)
2020-21: 35
2019-20: 4,022
2018-19: 2,543
2017-18: 6,446
2016-17: 3,695
So, are we better at managing the flu now?
"I think the general public have adopted a lot of measures to avoid getting respiratory illness," said Melissa McMahon, a senior epidemiologist with MDH who specializes in the flu. "We are better at washing our hands. We're better at social distancing and we're better at staying home when we're sick."
Did people get vaccinated for the flu at a higher rate than pre-COVID years?
"Our data is showing that we had a decrease in overall influenza vaccination," McMahon said.
She added that vaccine rates varied across the state. While it was down in some areas, it could also have been higher in others, like St. Paul.
"We gave a lot of people a flu shot this year that maybe hadn't had one in five, six, seven years," Hoeschen said. "Had we had adequate supply, I mean, we'd have probably done another 500 on top of what we already did."
Hoeschen said spring is typically when demand for flu medicine picks up. There were notable flu case jumps in March and April in the years before COVID. This year, however, he hasn't had many patients seeking flu medicine.
Will the flu no longer be as bad as it used to be?
"As we kind of always said, the flu is predictably unpredictable," McMahon said. "I think as kind of the pandemic fades more into a sense of normalcy and people get back to doing their normal daily activities, we may see more influenza than we've seen in the last two seasons."
McMahon says this season, the flu vaccine wasn't as strong of a match with the strain that's circulating compared to previous years. It's why she feels efforts to stop the spread of COVID worked best at stopping the flu.
