The “new normal” includes a lot less travel, a lot fewer parties, and a lot less vomit.
An ironic silver lining of our disastrous plague is that all other viral and bacterial infections besides COVID-19 are at or near record lows. The flu has basically disappeared. Common colds are much rarer than ever. And mercifully for parents of young children, the norovirus and other stomach bugs are at a fraction of their usual frequency.
If you have little ones or remember when you did, you know that one of the least enjoyable inevitabilities is when the stomach bug sweeps through the house. Yes, the parents will probably get it, which means unpleasant bathroom trips. Yes, it breaks your heart to have to say no to green-faced little Bobby when he says he’s starving. But really, the pits is when you both wake up in the middle of the night and have to clean the sheets, the pillows, and the stuffed bunny rabbit that are now coated in a cocktail of macaroni, cheese, and stomach bile.
Well, thanks to the coronavirus and the lockdowns, many parents have just gone a whole year without that. The norovirus, one of the most common stomach bugs, is at one-fifth of its typical winter levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Other illnesses show even more severe numbers.
Influenza A is at about 1% of its typical winter levels, and Influenza B is also well below its normal levels.
Surely, some of this is just lower detection as people avoid going to the doctors’ offices these days. But mostly, social distancing, lockdowns, hand-washing, and sanitation probably work better at preventing the spread of the flu and the stomach bug than they do at stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Also, closing many public schools and limiting contact in the other ones are probably driving these numbers way down.
No parent would choose 2020/2021 if they could. But at least we’re all cleaning up less barf.
