Flu outbreaks have been a regular occurrence in winter seasons for centuries, however during quarantine there was a major halt in flu cases. This year, as we transition towards life post pandemic, the flu season has returned. During late October/early November, Minneapolis had a major flu outbreak that has continued to infect many. This outbreak is notable for how early it’s happened, because most flu outbreaks take place in the later winter months.

The COVID pandemic has changed how the general public views and deals with viral illnesses, which has affected how we treat all major outbreaks. Becky Murphy, a school nurse at South said, “This flu season, after COVID, has been interesting because I feel like the community and families are more communicative with us [the health office] about symptoms and about viral illnesses in general…before COVID, families would be like, oh it’s just the flu, and now I feel like families are more educated and communicative about what illnesses are going around our community.” 

As more and more students get sick we can see class sizes shrinking similarly to outbreaks in the past. Zora Bael-Cyr, a sophomore at South said “I’ve noticed less people being at school for sure”. It can be hard for students who have been sick to get their school work done. Bael-cyr comments on getting her work done while sick, saying “I had to stay home from school for a long time…its made it a little bit harder to catch up. Even though teachers are trying to make stuff accessible online, it’s not always their top priority…it was a little stressful”. As more and more people get sick, this stress only grows. There is a need for more online options for completing work for the growing numbers of students who are out sick. 

One person’s absence doesn’t just affect them. Our staff and public health professionals have to monitor illnesses closely. Murphy said “If we get to 5% of our school population being absent with influenza, we have to report that to the state. That’s something we’re monitoring closer in in the health office right now.” she added “We’re public health nurses [as well as] licensed school nurses, so we do try to follow [the] trends of outbreaks and diseases within the community. Even before COVID, we followed influenza very closely…we ask parents to [report] when their student is ill”

With cases being so high, and many students still contracting the flu, there are concerns about whether or not this outbreak will lead to mitigation strategies like the ones in place during COVID. For example, distance learning, mask wearing and social distancing. Murphy said “With COVID, it was a unique illness, because our bodies had not seen it before and we were really concerned about the long-term effects and death rates that we were seeing… I don’t think that influenza would lead to any mandates from the state.” She added, “That being said, I love to see people wearing masks and I would still encourage everyone to wash their hands regularly and get vaccinated for influenza and COVID.” Bael-Cyr said “I think it [would be] really hard to go back to wearing masks… I think [it] might be a good idea but I don’t think people would actually follow it”

In terms of what we can do as a school and community to stop the spread of influenza, Murphy said that we can use a lot of the strategies we’ve used in the past. “I love the mitigation strategies that we have available to us; hand washing, using hand sanitizer, wearing a mask, and not coming to school when you’re sick.” she added, “That was one of the best parts about COVID, the connections that I made with families.” She also reminds us that the nurses in the health office are here to help. “I think I want the students and the staff to know that we [the health staff] really care for them.”