The COVID-19 pandemic reportedly may mean that this year’s flu season in the northern hemisphere will be worse than normal. Low numbers of influenza infections over the past year have left the population’s immunity to the disease at an all-time low, the Economist newspaper reports. Some good news, though, the Economist notes. An effective new drug to treat COVID has emerged from a big pharma firm, and a Florida-based biotech an oral antiviral medicine just approved by Britain’s national medicines regulatory agency—the first in the world to do so.

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