What’s a “twin-demic”?
Medical experts say it’s something we might face if COVID-19 shares the winter landscape with the return of seasonal flu.
“What we’re really worried about is that the combination of influenza and COVID-19, both of which have very similar symptoms, could overlap and really case a lot of problems,” Dr. Jim Conway, medical director of UW Health’s immunization program and a pediatric infectious disease specialist tells WTMJ.
He says the combination coming amid relaxed restrictions could fill hospitals.
He suggests getting shots for both.
“That’s the goal is protect people as much as we can from these two bad ones. Then whatever is circulating is at least going to hopefully be mostly respiratory colds and things like that.”
We had a low flu year in 2020, but now things could be back to normal.
“We’re talking on an average year, 20 or 30 million cases. We’re talking about somewhere between 10 and 60 thousand deaths.”
For the full interview with Conway on Wisconsin’s Morning News, click in the player above.