The UK must prepare for a ‘hard winter’ of flu due to reduced immunity across the population, according to Dr Susan Hopkins.
As the nation fights back against the Covid-19 pandemic, people’s immune systems are likely to have weakened due to a lack of social contact over the past 12 months.
As such, our exposure to other respiratory viruses has been minimal, meaning we could see a surge in illnesses like the flu in winter, as well as the potential for increasing coronavirus cases.
Dr Hopkins told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show: “I think we have to prepare for a hard winter, not only with coronavirus, but we’ve had a year of almost no respiratory viruses of any other type. And that means, potentially the population immunity to that is less.
“So we could see surges in flu. We could see surges in other respiratory viruses and other respiratory pathogens.”
Dr Hopkins said she has to “prepare for worst-case scenarios” in her capacity as a government advisor, saying that the NHS needs to be ready for any potential surges, particularly in consideration of the dual-threat posed by catching the flu as well as Covid.
There is some evidence that a double infection can be more deadly than catching either alone, while a surge in both coronavirus and flu cases could result in the NHS becoming overwhelmed.
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Get in touch with the Covid Safe UK team today to find out more.
