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A Flu Strain May Have Gone Extinct Due to COVID-19
By Ally Hirschlag
November 16, 2021
The 2020/21 flu season was milder due to COVID-19 mitigation efforts, like lockdowns, and as a result a fairly common strain of the flu may have gone extinct.
There are four strains of the flu that are known to circulate in the Northern Hemisphere: Influenza A, B, C and D. Influenza A and B are the most prevalent. These strains are also divided into subtypes. For example, Influenza B is broken into two varieties: B/Yamagata and B/Victoria.
According to a new Australian study published in Nature Reviews Microbiology, cases of Influenza B/Yamagata have been so low over the last year and a half that this strain has not been genetically sequenced for case tracking since March 2020. There were only 31 reports of the B strain during last year’s flu season as of July 27th, 2021, according to the World Health Organization...