Some striking figures are coming out of Australia in the southern hemisphere, suggesting sharp rises in RSV (the croup/bronchiolitis virus) in little children. The figures are very high and also appear to have started out of season (during the Australian summer, the same time as our northern hemisphere winter). The speculation is that because the virus was squashed so effectively during lockdown, there are now a lot of very small children with little immunity, meaning that figures are likely to stay high for a while.
twitter.com/ID_ethics/status/1365047781799333892
There is already speculation about the flu and what the heck is going to happen. On the positive side, it's possible that one or two lineages of flu could have been permanently eradicated. On the other hand, immunity may be unusually low this winter; there has even been talk about the possibility of some kind of weird out-of-season outbreak during the warmer months of the year.
www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/02/covid-19-flu-season/617924/
There may be similar situations for other endemic viruses. On top of this, vaccination rates may be low for some diseases which are normally not circulating much in the UK, like mumps, measles and other things.
I hope that TPTB are thinking about this, and that there will be a big drive for the flu shot this yearideally, as early as possible. We really could do without another bunch of viral disasters breaking out this coming winter-or even, perhaps, earlier in the year.
In the mean time, we really ought to be getting all vaccines that we are entitled to, and making sure our own children's vaccination records are fully up to date.