This year's nonexistent flu season could prove problematic for vaccine developers

Flu vaccine.
(Image credit: Tim Boyle/Getty Images)

Hospitals have seen only a few silver linings throughout the COVID-19 pandemic — a dramatic drop in the flu and other respiratory illnesses among them. But a year without the flu could actually be a problem for vaccine developers and disease forecasters, as well as for people who've gone a whole year without reinforcing their immune system against respiratory diseases, The Atlantic reports.

As 2020 ended and the pandemic began overlapping with the start of a typical flu season, the Mayo Clinic was among hospitals that began testing patients with respiratory symptoms for both COVID-19 and the flu. But among the 20,000 flu tests it conducted between December 1 and February 1, zero came back positive. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention similarly reported a mere 0.2 percent flu positivity rate among 800,000 lab samples reported nationwide.

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.