Winter colds and flu have plummeted during the COVID-19 pandemic

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-06-22 01:00

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A US study has shown that winter colds and flu have decreased dramatically during the pandemic, with data from a large academic health system in Wisconsin showing winter virus rates dropped from 4,800 per month in previous seasons to just 12 per month. The study also found that prescriptions of antibiotics for respiratory infections from walk-in clinics dropped 79 per cent, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors say the data suggests that COVID-19 transmission mitigation strategies may help curb respiratory viral diseases beyond SARS-CoV-2.

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Journal/
conference: JAMA Internal Medicine

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Organisation/s: University of Wisconsin, USA

Funder: Dr Lepak reported grants from Merck, Fedora, Amplyx, Cidara, MicuRx, Melinta,Wockhardt, Paratek, KBP Biosciences, Matinas, and Nosopharm outside the submitted work. Dr Schulz reported personal fees from Merck, Astellas, and Rebiotix outside the submitted work. Dr Temte reported nonfinancial support from Quidel and personal fees from Elsevier outside the submitted work.

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