More people are dying from flu than from COVID in California this winter for the first time since the novel coronavirus started flooding emergency rooms in 2020.
Since then, COVID had been by far the most deadly respiratory virus in the state, though each year it has killed fewer people. But before the pandemic, flu had long since established itself as an annual threat.
“Prior to COVID, influenza was the only epidemic infectious disease in the developed world that every year significantly changes the mortality rates,” said Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus at the UC Berkeley School of Public Health.
Since late December, however, the percent of deaths coded as flu-related has surpassed the percent of deaths coded as COVID-related, according to data from California’s Department of Public Health.
During the first years of the pandemic, elevated precautions mostly suppressed the perennial flu outbreaks that typically kill between 10,000 and 50,000 people annually in the United States. Social distancing, mask-wearing and avoiding indoor crowds helped stop the spread of COVID and flu at the same time.
As COVID vaccines became available and the virus became less deadly, people let their guard down more, and influenza returned to its annual pattern. But this year, the spike in deaths is steeper, with the percent of deaths attributed to the flu reaching 2% of deaths around the state in early January, higher than it has been in the last two winters — when it peaked at just under 1.5%.
