Orange County health officials warn of coronavirus and flu ‘twindemic’

Orange County health officials warn of coronavirus and flu ‘twindemic’

“The whole ‘twindemic’ turn of phrase we’ve heard in the last few days – that’s not what’s keeping me up at night,” said Andrew Noymer, and epidemiologist and professor of public health at UC Irvine. “It goes back to the thing that is driving all of this: COVID is a new virus and the flu is not,” he said. … But one legitimate concern is that both diseases share symptoms, which could cause the lesser-studied COVID-19 to spread undetected if a sick person believes they simply have the flu, Noymer said. “That’s going to be a challenge for an already stressed health care system,” he said.