Large, Early Flu Surge Threatens Health Service, Doctors Warn

This year’s flu season could be bigger and worse as it combines with Covid to create a dangerous ‘twindemic’, some alarmist doctors have warned. The Mail has the story.

There are now concerns that the simultaneous onslaught of flu and Covid could overload the NHS, which is already trying to cope with record backlogs.

Figures from the Southern Hemisphere, which usually foretell what will happen in the U.K., indicate a flu surge two months earlier than normal, mostly driven by under-30s.

It suggests that a spike in flu hospital admissions in Britain could begin as early as October, also including many children.

One estimate suggests that the flu season could be twice as large as normal.

Sir Peter Horby, Professor of Emerging Infectious Diseases at Oxford University, told the Mirror: “It could come earlier and bigger, then you have a ‘twindemic’ with COVID-19 and that could put real pressure on the NHS.”

In a typical flu season there are between 15,000 and 30,000 hospitalisations due to the virus.

Dr. Simon Clarke, Associate Professor in Cellular Microbiology at Reading University, also said: “We’ve never had a [flu and Covid] dual outbreak so I’m concerned this UK season could be particularly bad. Catching flu and Covid together is particularly dangerous. We have the NHS under huge pressure as it catches up [from the pandemic] so you have a problem there.”

The health service waiting list has hit a record 6.8 million in England, with A&Es often full and ambulances frequently queueing outside with patients they cannot unload. 

Will it be flu and Covid together, or will flu take over, while Covid, with natural immunity now very high, finally taking a back seat?

Of course, none of this is any reason to panic. It’s true that the health service is extremely busy at the moment, but that is not because of Covid.

Worth reading in full.