Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, updated a congressional subcommittee Thursday about cases of respiratory illness in the US due to three viruses: flu, the coronavirus and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
“RSV season is in full swing,” Cohen told the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
“Flu season is just beginning across most of the country, though accelerating fast, and while we’re seeing relatively low levels of Covid, Covid is still the primary cause of new respiratory hospitalizations and deaths, with about 15,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths every single week,” she said.
“We are seeing a lot of RSV, particularly in the southern part of the country, so we’re near peak is what I would say for RSV,” Cohen said.
Rsv is bad every year, any pediatrician and most parents could tell you of the fun of rsv season. It just hasn’t gotten as much attention because there was nothing much we could do about it other than deal with it when it happens. The good news is we have a vaccine now, so if you’ve got an infant, are pregnant, or are over age 60 look into it. For young and middle age adults it’s mostly just cold type symptoms. It’s dangerous for young children and older adults though.
Also there were a couple years when flu, rsv, and other respiratory viruses were not very common, because everyone was making up and being careful due to covid, and they aren’t as infectious as covid. They’ve pretty much come back in full again now though.