- If the coronavirus continues to rage, the US could experience the worst public health crisis in modern history, warned Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Robert Redfield, and said that the mixture of coronavirus with the annual flu season could lead to a public health crisis.
- He advised people to not only “wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands and be smart about crowds”, but also get a grip. The flu killed 80,000 Americans in the 2017-2018 season.
- Taking a flu helps protect people and reduce stress on the health care system.
- Redfield said the measures used to curb the spread of the coronavirus could also help curb the flu.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that public health in the United States could reach a critical crossroads in the fall season when the coronavirus takes root.
The seasonal flu combined with growing cases of coronavirus could exacerbate the effects of the deadly pandemic, CDC Director Dr Robert Redfield said in an interview with the medical blog, WebMD.
“I ask you to do four simple things: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, and be smart about crowds. If you do these four things, this outbreak will bring down,” Redfield said. “But if we do not do that … this may be the worst case scenario from a public health perspective we have ever had.”
“I tell people all the time, I’m not asking some of America to do it – we have to do it all,” Redfield said, suggesting that where the US goes from here depends in part on whether Americans take the recommended steps. t Scientists and public health officials have been advocating for months since COVID-19 began spreading in the US.
“It depends on how the American people choose to react,” Redfield said. “It really is the worst of times as well as the best of times, depending on the American public. I’m optimistic.”
The US is among the countries with the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths of coronavirus, with more than 5.2 million recorded infections and more than 167,000 deaths as of August 13th.
On Wednesday, the US reported 55,910 new cases. The country also recorded the highest number of deaths in one day since mid-May: 1,499.
Redfield also advised Americans to get their flu this year and stressed that the measures used to limit the spread of the coronavirus, such as social distance and wearing masks, would also help limit the spread of the flu.
According to CBS News, the flu is a common death in the US, but less than half of the population received a flu vaccine last year.
The flu season 2017-2018 was the deadliest in modern history. More than 80,000 people have died from the viral infection, CNN reported at the time.
The CDC has urged the public to get a grip to protect themselves and limit the burden on the health care system. Redfield hopes to vaccinate 65% of the population for the flu this year, CBS reported.
“We’re going to have COVID in the fall, and we’re going to have flu in the fall, and one of them could even stress on hospital systems,” Redfield said. “I’ve seen hospital intensive care units struggling through a severe flu season, and clearly we’ve seen it all recently with COVID.”
“So, by getting that flu vaccine, you might be able to ignore the need to take up a hospital bed, and then that hospital bed might be more available to those who come into the hospital with COVID,” he said.
