The Pandemic Broke the Flu
The Pandemic Broke the Flu Katherine J. Wu Editor’s Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. In November, as fall was fading, Matt Binnicker began to hunker down for a hard winter. The coronavirus had already infected an estimated 13 million people nationwide, and his team at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was now peering over the precipice of flu season, when every coughing, feverish patient would need not one diagnostic test, but two. Determined to stay one step ahead, Binnicker’s lab ha...