Social media posts claim “flurona” is a new variant of the virus that causes Covid-19. This is false; experts say the term refers to simultaneous but separate influenza and coronavirus infections rather than a new variant, and that such cases are rare but have been detected before.
“There is a new variant called Flurona detected in Los Angeles please wear a mask and get vaccinated,” says a January 5, 2022 tweet.
The claim — part of a flood of inaccurate information circulating on the internet about Covid-19 — also appeared on Facebook and on Twitter. Online articles meanwhile describe “flurona” as a new phenomenon that is being detected for the first time.
News reports of cases of patients infected simultaneously with Covid-19 and influenza — such as this one about an unvaccinated pregnant woman — have been widely shared in early 2022, during a surge in infections caused by the Omicron variant that has set records for new cases in multiple countries.
A case of a patient testing positive for both influenza and Covid-19 this January has also been reported in a Los Angeles county. But the claims describing “flurona” as new phenomenon or a coronavirus variant are inaccurate.
“These are two separate viruses that use different receptors,” the World Health Organization (WHO) Covid-19 incident manager, Abdi Mahamud, told journalists during a news conference on January 4. “They use a different mechanism and there’s not much cross-fertilization between. They are completely different species of viruses.”
Contacted by AFP, the WHO said by email on January 4: “Individuals are often infected with multiple pathogens that co-circulate in the community; and as more people are getting tested, multiple pathogens may be detected.”
“This does not, however, necessarily lead to the emergence of a new disease entity (‘flurona,’ as reported) when influenza and SARS-CoV-2 co-infect the same individual,” it said, adding that more evidence is still needed to better understand the interactions between the two viruses and whether the severity of the illness is higher when there is a co-infection.
Inaccurate claims about “flurona” have also circulated in French, and were debunked by AFP Factuel here.