01 Mar 2021
Setting it Straight: COVID-19 and influenza
Early on in the course of this pandemic, much of our thinking about COVID-19 was conditioned by our long confrontation with influenza (flu). I’ve been writing a lot about the coronaviruses and, as I think there are lessons to be learned from comparing flu and COVID-19, I’ll devote this essay to providing some background on human influenza. Next week, we’ll probe the link between immunity and pathogenesis for these two diseases. Hopefully, that will illuminate how COVID-19 vaccines work.