Seattle and Boston are about as far apart as two cities can get in the U.S., but both should expect to see an uptick in flu cases and flu-related deaths this season, thanks to a surprising reason — the Super Bowl.
A new paper from Tulane University and the College of William and Mary shows that areas that send football teams to the Super Bowl see an uptick in flu-related deaths each year — an 18 percent increase from the average for people over 65, in fact. So, thanks to the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots, healthcare providers in the Seattle and Boston area should be prepared for more flu cases.
The study's authors came up with some explanations for this marked increase, one of which is Super Bowl parties. People who hail from areas with teams in the big game are more likely to congregate to watch them play (either in public venues or private homes), which increases person-to-person contact and also the chance of flu transmission.
The best way to combat this would be to get a flu shot, Charles Stoecker, PhD, a health economist at Tulane and one of the paper's authors, told The Atlantic. But if unvaccinated, he encouraged people to wash their hands and "be careful around the dip."
The Super Bowl isn't the only big sporting event to impact the spread of disease: Flu transmission has also been shown to spike around the Winter Olympics and the World Cup, according to The Atlantic.