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12/07/2022

Everyone Is Sick Right Now

Social distancing kept us safe - until we started getting back together again

If cold and flu season seems to be hitting your household harder this year, you are not alone. This is the year when common viruses that took a backseat to COVID-19 finally return.

Positive tests for the flu in the United States stood at 25 percent in late November, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), compared to 8 percent at the same time of year in 2019. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) has pushed some children's hospitals to capacity. And COVID hospitalizations are rising again. It's the tripledemic that epidemiologists feared—those viruses, with the help of a few other seasonal recurring ones, are working together to fuel weeks of coughing, runny noses and fevers. So, if your kids, your coworkers and everyone you know has been feeling sick, that is why.

"This season is truly unprecedented," said Katelyn Jetelina, who writes Your Local Epidemiologist, a newsletter about infectious disease spread. The high rates of flu-like illness could be an early peak, or an early warning of a monumentally bad season. "How high it will go and how severe it will be, is unfortunately something we have to wait and see," she said. "We're at the mercy of time."

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.

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