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Dallas County Stomps Out Influenza
[DallasNews] Mask use, social distancing and other safety protocols implemented to fight the coronavirus pandemic have almost wiped out influenza in Dallas County this flu season, health officials say.Masks forever, even if they don't squash COVID. Dallas County Health and Human Services officials had recorded only two flu cases and no flu deaths through late March, compared with 18,186 cases and 25 deaths the entire previous flu season. Flu season begins in October and winds down in April, health officials say.  "We avoided a catastrophe," [the health director], said of onetime fears about the possibility of a double pandemic. "We are blessed that a typical flu season didn’t materialize. The situation would have been catastrophic.""We showed that with these measures, we can inhibit flu spread," he said. However, he added, "it should be noted that COVID is much easier to transmit and more lethal than influenza." So why don't these measures stop COVID? Stay-at-home orders that kept children out of classrooms also hurt the flu's chances this year. "Children are big flu vectors," Davis said. "They infect their classmates and infect their teachers. By not attending classes because of the pandemic, that transmission chain has been broken." So it's not masks and social distancing? Children are not spreaders of COVID, not yet, anyway. Posted by: Bobby 2021-04-20 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=599943 |