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. 2021 Sep;15(5):573-576.
doi: 10.1111/irv.12866. Epub 2021 May 6.

Which influenza viruses will emerge following the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic?

Karen L Laurie  1 , Steve Rockman  1   2
Affiliations

Which influenza viruses will emerge following the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic?

Karen L Laurie et al. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2021 Sep.

Abstract

The world has experienced five pandemics in just over one hundred years, four due to influenza and one due to coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). In each case of pandemic influenza, the pandemic influenza strain has replaced the previous seasonal influenza virus. Notably, throughout the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, there has been a 99% reduction in influenza isolation globally. It is anticipated that influenza will re-emerge following the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and circulate again. The potential for which influenza viruses will emerge is examined.

Keywords: COVID-19; influenza; pandemic; pandemic influenza; seasonal influenza; virus replacement.

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Conflict of interest statement

Karen Laurie and Steven Rockman are employees of Seqirus, an influenza vaccine manufacturer.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Epidemiology of influenza and SARS‐CoV‐2 infections. (A) Number of influenza positive samples (blue) and testing rate (red line) for influenza and number of SARS‐CoV‐2 positive samples (green) for countries indicated from week 1, 2018 to week 3, 2021. Influenza data collated from and SARS‐COV‐2 data collated from. Inset graph for India shows influenza positive samples from week 15, 2020 until week 3, 2021. (B) Number of influenza positive samples (blue) and negative samples (white) for influenza globally for first two weeks in September or last week of December/first week of January from 2015 to 2020/2021, as collated from. Percentage of positive tests indicated above each column. These time points were selected as representative of high detections of influenza virus circulating in Southern and Northern Hemispheres, respectively
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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