The first American death from COVID-19 was in February. The country shut down mid-March and has been slowly reopening since. Yet, the pandemic continues, with the number of confirmed cases surpassing 8 million and the number of deaths exceeding 220,000.

Estimates show that the death count could reach 400,000 by the end of the year if the proper precautions are not abided by.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, insists on continuing pandemic practices, such as wearing masks, washing hands, avoiding crowds and maintaining social distance as much as possible.

It is crucial that we enforce these practices to prevent as many deaths as possible. Yet, even with these regulations, we could be living with this pandemic for the long haul, especially as we head into the yearly flu season.

Diseases and viruses will always be present. They are a part of life. The pandemic’s presence won’t stop the flu season from beginning or creating a struggle of its own. This combination is even more concerning because we don’t yet know how it will play out.

The flu and COVID-19 could work in tandem.

The populations considered typically vulnerable to either illness could change, especially if being sick with one weakens the immune system and thus increases the risk of catching the other.

Back in March, when the national quarantine began, we all knew it would be a tough few months. We didn’t know when COVID-19 would go away, but we had hope for the future.

Now, in mid-October, the country is exhausted. Individually, we have had to restructure our day-to-day lives, and as a society, we have had to create a new normal. It has been tiring, to say the least, but the coronavirus remains.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides daily updates for the country and individual states, including trends for confirmed cases. In October, between 30,000 and 60,000 new cases developed each day, moving in an upward trend. This comes after a spike in July with days that reached 74,000 newly recorded cases.

Hospitals and emergency medical centers were overwhelmed at the start of the pandemic. With COVID-19 spikes and the flu, they could once again be brought to capacity and perhaps over-filled, placing particular stress on already strained intensive care units.

Perhaps, though, the flu might be diminished by established COVID-19 precautions.

Interestingly, the southern hemisphere’s flu season was rather mild. The southern hemisphere’s flu season usually occurs between April and October, and due to the already established pandemic precautions, many countries, including South Africa and Australia, saw a below-average number of flu cases.

However, in the northern hemisphere, particularly in the U.S., we are struggling to even subdue COVID-19. If the flu season occurred during our initial quarantine in the spring, we most likely would have seen a similar reduction in flu cases.

We aren’t in quarantine, though. If anything, it seems like we keep opening and starting new things.

For the 2019-20 flu season, the CDC estimates about 38 million people were sick with the flu and approximately 22,000 died from it. In the last decade, the number of deaths from the flu ranged from 12,000 to 61,000, with the average being 35,900 deaths each year.

COVID-19 has been far more contagious and deadly. Over 220,000 Americans have died in eight months—more than the last few flu seasons combined. This number is still growing.

A global pandemic is certainly expected to be more difficult to contend with. The flu season is annual. COVID-19 sprung up and changed our lives drastically and quickly. Each year, we have flu vaccines. We still do not have a readily available one for the coronavirus. It was unexpected more than anything, and we are seeing the consequences of that.

Clearly, the pandemic does not have an end date planned. We can’t immediately eliminate COVID-19, and if we can’t stop the flu’s onset, we can at least try to prepare for it.

We need to increase testing so that individuals can learn which illness they are sick with. Both COVID-19 and the flu start off with similar symptomatology: chills, fever, headache and fatigue, to name a few. But the treatments are different. The flu does not typically leave long lasting effects, but based on the research done so far, COVID-19 can have a lasting impact on the body. Scientists and doctors don’t quite know the extent of these long term effects, but so far, they’ve found potentially harmful respiratory and cardiovascular conditions developing.

A vaccine for COVID-19 is not yet available, but as usual, flu vaccines are. If anything, vaccines are important to keep each other safe. Their purpose has always been protection, and that has never been more pertinent.

Going forward with future flu seasons, we will be able to use pandemic practices. Masks and social distancing could become commonplace.

Yet right now, as the pandemic continues, they are our only option.

We’re all tired of COVID-19, but it’s not done. And the flu is coming. We have to listen to the doctors, scientists and researchers who are trying their best to keep us healthy and safe. We have to follow pandemic precautions and restrictions to keep each other healthy and safe.

After enduring COVID-19 for this long, and after losing so many people, we can’t let our fatigue take over. We must persist.

Maddie Peters can be reached at pete9542@stthomas.edu.