Doctor on CNN Suggests the ‘Lesson’ From Covid is the Need for Masking Up Every Winter to Fight the Flu

Dr. Paul Offit — Director of the Vaccine Education Center in Philadelphia — is suggesting that masks and social distancing should be continued wintertime practices in light of the dramatically reduced rates of flu activity America is seeing this year.

The infectious disease expert joined CNN’s New Day to talk about how Texas and Mississippi are rolling back mask mandates and lifting coronavirus restrictions in both states. New Day host Alisyn Camerota asked Offit about the CDC’s data that flu activity across America is at the lowest point the country has seen in 15 years.

“That’s got to be masks, right? And the fact that people are social distancing,” Camerota said.

Offit agreed, noting that the death rate this year for children with influenza is currently on target to be much lower than usual. He also said that the spread of the flu has been so reduced that it might be difficult for the FDA to decide which strains to focus on to develop a vaccine for that this year.

“If we mask and social distance every winter, we will see a dramatic reduction in flu, which usually causes hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths,” Offit said. “I wonder whether that will be the lesson from this.”

Watch above, via CNN.