The country’s flu infection rate remained “lower than usual” during the 2020-2021 winter, according to the CDC, with health experts crediting many of the safety measures people were following to slow the spread of the coronavirus; wearing a mask, social distancing, and staying home and away from people when sick.
In fact, the CDC only reports one juvenile death from influenza this season, as of the beginning of May.
The health agency has tracked nationwide flu deaths in children since 2004, and in that time the number has fluctuated as low as 37 deaths to 358 deaths during the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic.
In the 2019-2020 flu season, before the coronavirus pandemic took hold in this country, there were 188 kids who died from the flu.
In a recap of that season, the CDC reportedonly about 21% of children 17 and younger were fully vaccinated against the flu, a similar vaccination rate to previous seasons.
Monday afternoon, the FDA expanded their emergency use authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to teens as young as 12. Health experts say vaccinating children is a big step in getting the country to a level of herd immunity for the coronavirus and to controlling the spread of the virus.
