Winters With Covid, The Flu And R.S.V. May Be Our New Normal.
Covid no longer plays the dominant role that it once did in most of our lives. But the risk of Covid and other viruses persists. This winter, experts expect cases, hospitalizations and deaths from viral diseases to rise once again.
The increase may have already begun. Covid cases, hospitalizations and deaths are up over the past two weeks according to nytimes.com. The upswing resembles the trend we have seen in recent years after Thanksgiving, typically continuing through the holiday season and into the following year.
Flu cases are up, too. The C.D.C. classifies the vast majority of states as having “high” or “very high” activity for the flu and related illnesses. “Hospitalizations for flu continue to be the highest we have seen at this time of year in a decade,” the agency’s director, Rochelle Walensky, said last week.Cases and hospitalizations from R.S.V.(Respiratory Syncytial Virus) which typically causes cold like symptoms but sometimes can be more serious, also spiked earlier this fall. But they seem to have already peaked according to cdc.gov.
The infectious disease climate in the U.S. right now is not a picture of Covid’s going away, but of its falling in line alongside other endemic respiratory illnesses in the fall and winter. In some years, Covid could be the worst of the bunch. In others, the flu or R.S.V. could be. “This is the reality that we’ll be living with moving forward,” said Dr. Céline Gounder, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.
By now, the disease trends of the fall and winter may seem familiar: As people gather for the holidays, and generally indoors to avoid the cold, respiratory viruses spread more easily true for Covid, but also for the flu and R.S.V. So yes wearing a mask around family and friends this Holiday season may not be a bad idea. Lets just accept it, This is more than likely the new normal.
