Risks from "other" contagious diseases

[PreservativeFree]

Maybe it's been done but I haven't seen anything.

Apparently the rates of all the other bugs we get circulating each year are vastly down, which makes sense when we've all been avoiding catching "something", but isn't there a risk that by getting back to normal our healthcare system will become over run by a sudden surge in flu, D&V measles etc, if not by Covid because enough people are vaccinated?

It seems obvious to me, but I haven't seen anything about how we plan to manage it.

I feel fairly comfortable that the vaccination rates make lifting restrictions soon after 21 June (probably not on 21 June) possible from a Covid POV but I do wonder what will happen with these other illnesses.

Flu has already been highlighted as a concern because our flu plan very much depends on monitoring what is circulating in the Southern Hemisphere prior to our flu season and planning vaccines based on that. With such low levels of flu that’s not particularly reliable so there’s a possibility we could be heading into a particularly bad flu season (which is also one of the reasons I think it’s gung ho to completely lift all restrictions before winter hits when we would easily operate with low level restrictions and monitor the flu situation from early 2022).

Population level inherent immunity for other diseases shouldn’t have waned dramatically over the past year/for a few more months so although an increase wouldn’t be surprising it also shouldn’t be a problem.

We don't actually need to encounter hundreds of strains of viruses for a good immune system, a few will do. We don't even need to be upset if some go extinct, they aren't as useful as bees. Measles will only be a problem if people don't get their children vaccinated against measles, sadly the anti-vaxxers still find it entertaining to risk children's lives by lying about the MMR jab. The use of anti-bac is brilliant for reducing norovirus and rotavirus rates. The only one that might be problematic is flu, because they aren't sure which strains will be prevalent because it's such an unusual year. Best to get the flu jab anyway when you can, but it's a risk.

yadnbu