Flu hospitalizations hit decade high amid early viral surge
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The U.S. is seeing the highest flu hospitalization rates in a decade for this time of year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, with people ages 65 and up hit the hardest, followed by young children.
The rise comes as other respiratory viruses, including respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, are also spreading early and rapidly.
Common winter viruses tend to peak in December and January — not October and November — though it's unclear how the early and intense spread of respiratory viruses will ultimately play out this season.
"Right now, we're not seeing anything that would lead us to believe that it is more severe," Lynnette Brammer, team lead of the domestic influenza surveillance team at the CDC, said of the flu during a media briefing Friday. "It's just early right now."
Still, Dawn O'Connell, assistant secretary for preparedness and responseat the Department of Health and Human Services, warned that the U.S. will undoubtably "face some challenges this winter."
It's the first time since the beginning of the Covid pandemic that run-of-the-mill respiratory viruses are again circulating widely. Masks are off. Kids are back in school. People are congregating as they did pre-pandemic.
While lockdowns and masking were important to slow the spread of Covid earlier in the pandemic, they had a secondary impact: They also slowed the spread of other respiratory illnesses like the flu and RSV. Young children, as a result, didn't encounter these viruses, leaving them with little to no immunity.
"We suspect that many children are being exposed to some respiratory viruses now for the first time, having avoided these viruses during the height of the pandemic," Dr. Jose Romero, director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during Friday's briefing.
Nationally, 76% of pediatric hospital beds are occupied, according to an NBC News analysis of HHS data. Twenty states are at 80% capacity or higher.
The CDC reported extremely high levels of flu-like illnesses in the Southeast, particularly in Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.
Another 13 states — Arkansas, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Mississippi, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia — also reported significant levels of spread.
The report only looks at "influenza-like" illnesses — with symptoms including a fever of at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit, cough and/or sore throat with any other known cause — as clinicians are not required to report each positive flu test to public health officials.
Other respiratory viruses, including rhinoviruses and enteroviruses, are also circulating widely, and could account for some of those illnesses.
Influenza-like illnesses are spiking in the Southeast, especially in Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.CDC
The CDC estimated that, overall, there have been 1.6 million cases of the flu so far this season. Among those, 730 people have died.
That includes four children, according to state health departments: two in Texas, one in North Carolina and another in South Carolina.
RSV, another respiratory virus, is also spiking unseasonably early this year.
"We are seeing more cases of RSV than we have ever seen," said Dr. Rachel Orscheln, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at St. Louis Children's Hospital in Missouri.
RSV is a common virus, and usually affects babies in their first year or two of life. While the vast majority of young children will only develop a minor cold, they are the ones most at risk for the worst outcomes. Babies who become sick enough to be admitted to the hospital often need help breathing. In some cases, they require mechanical ventilation.
Two children have reportedly died of RSV this season: a 6-year-old boy in Michigan and a baby in Virginia.
RSV typically hits Southeastern states hardest first, said Romero. That's what happened so far this season, with the initial spike in the Southeast. RSV has eased up somewhat in those areas and is now spreading elsewhere across the country.
"We'll probably start seeing cases rise on the West Coast in the coming weeks," said Dr. Meredith McMorrow, a pediatrician and team lead for Enhanced Surveillance Platforms at the CDC.
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The administration needs to issue an emergency authorization so the makers of Vioxx can put out an MRNA vaccine for the flu. Then we can shame one another for not getting it and forgetting the horrors of our pharmaceutical system where the company conducts it's own inhouse trials and submits generalized studies for peer review.
Who's first?
I went to the doctor yesterday and filled out a 6 page questionnaire with some interesting questions. Many were aimed at heart and neurological conditions. When I finally got back to the doctor I asked. She explained that their parent company is looking for vaccine side effects that are going undiagnosed. It's a massive healthcare company and evidently they are seeing an epidemic of side effects from our last round of vaccines. It was shocking to say the least.
An anti-vaxxer aye?
I took the moderna vaccine, thank you very much. I live in a very blue city and my Doctor is a rabid democrat. How's that for you?
Do you think putting blinders on and firing off a cute little quip actually accomplishes something?
Do you think what you said accomplishes anything?
I can say I am a Liberal yet somehow words matter.
I live in a very red city in a very red county in a very red state.
Does not make me conservative.
Why does sharing an experience at the doctor upset you. Do you not think that we should look into products that may have unintended consequences?
Further more the best thing you can do to mitigate risk regarding common flus and upper respiratory viruses is to live a healthy life style. I suggest getting all your food sources from regenerative agricultural farms and ranches. Exercise, don't drink or smoke. Maintain a healthy weight and get sun light every day. These will do more to help than most things modern medicine has to offer.
Who said it upset me? Making things up I see.
Not particularly a wise choice Imo.
Living a healthy lifestyle is not a new concept. No matter how healthy one can be there is always the need for modern medicine.
Disease happens and without 'modern medicine' a lot of people would be dead.
Also depends on where people live and what they do. For instance a coal miner is not going to be as healthy as an airline pilot.
Sunlight is beneficial, please tell me you know this? Too much of anything can be detrimental. I would hope you are smart enough to know this.
Living like a vampire is no way to live.
Can I ask how old you are? As in my generation, we grew up in the sun. Now facing the ramifications.
Were you not aware they make a product called sun screen at the time? I've lived my entire life knowing that.
This is dog whistle for I am a democrat not a liberal, and if you don't say the right words and carry the company narrative you have no value.
This is the difference between dedicated ideologue such as my self and someone who simply wants to wear a t-shirt when their corrupt establishment team wins. Partisan loyalists are a stain on this country.
Again, how old are you? In my day people would lay out in the sun or on the beach and slather themselves in oil.
For someone that was upset for someone else firing little quips, you seem to be good at it.
What in the world do you think a dedicated ideologue is? A partisan loyalist...
In my 50's, sunscreen was invented in 1938.
I subscribe to liberal beliefs, that includes very little from the democrat or republican party. Pulling this back to the topic, I remember when liberals condomed big pharma, after all they have knowingly killed millions of people and settled fraud cases on their studies for years with no criminal consequence. Tell me when we blindly decided to call them heroes and shame those that remember their recent past.
Our pharma system needs to be reformed, we are one of two countries that allow the manufacture to conduct the study with little review. They often find their product to be dangerous and weight the sales versus fraud fines as they did with Vioxx before the 60k people died as a result of their product. When and why would a liberal question ones choice to wait to take a product until it is proven effective and the risk minimal? I have an answer for you, a liberal wouldn't.
Ok, what are these Liberal beliefs?
I didn't know there was a handbook...
So far you sound more Libertarian than Liberal.
For the record, same. '67
We probably should move back to the topic. Not everything is political, you brought that to the conversation by calling a vaccinated and educated person an antivaxxer. Another dog whistle used by democrats to dismiss the mind and thoughts of another human who has something to say, something to contribute.
You can cover your eyes, plug your ears but it won't make it go away.
I don't see anyone particularly enamored with 'big pharma'. Hell the dems have been trying to get the cost of insulin under control.
Just because the dems wanted people to get vaccinated doesn't mean they condone every thing they do.
If one listens to all the commercials about the pill industry, hell every one of them says they could cause death.
What the problem seems to be is pushing pills or shots as a form of, how can I say, doctoring.
The one thing I would actually praise trump for was pushing for a vaccine.
The funny thing is, none of this is new. Back in our earlier days there was pushes against masks and vaccines.
Yes I did say that. Never denied it. I would say it again. This place has several anti-vaxxers and they use every excuse in the book. So call me skeptical.
Placing people in boxes so that you don't have to communicate with them or with the intention of putting yourself on a pedestal is exactly the opposite of what sites like this were designed for. Dehumanizing members, people is an exercise in low intelligence and is the reason we cannot have productive conversations with people that have different opinions. It is also one of the reasons violence is becoming an option in American politics.
We need to talk to one another like we are face to face. Welcoming people with an insult like that is unacceptable. I doubt you would treat someone that way in person.
Are you saying I wouldn't ask someone in person if they were an anti-vaxxer?
Of course I would.
That was not your intend by your quip and you know it. I am saying be more polite to people and you will foster better conversations. That is the right thing to do.
I will see how long you keep up this mantra and who it ends up being directed at.
Always shows sometime or another.
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It would appear that he does not know what the word polite means.
Please consider leading us all by example.
I fully understand the word 'polite' but there are a few here that I simply don't care to be polite to. I'll never be polite to a troll (of which we have gained a couple of new ones it seems).
I figure that if a fascist is called a fascist long and often enough, he/she might change.
I was mocking liberal independent who only seems to be mocking Democrats and others are taking it and running with it.
“I figure that if a fascist is called a fascist long enough, he/she might change.“
So you recommend continuing to call democrats racist until they change?
Hopefully they will realize that democrats can get into college without their help?
That voting laws don’t impact people of color more simply based on the color of their skin?
That people of color are smart enough to raise their own children despite what Biden thinks?
Exactly, the double mocking akin to the double dare. With the lack of a IP response, have you considered elevating this to the double dog mock?
Who new that there were so many repubs of color.
Total cumulative data show Black, Hispanic, American Indian or Alaska Native (AIAN) , and Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander (NHOPI) people have experienced higher rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths compared to White people when data are adjusted to account for differences in age by race and ethnicity.
Which parts of you are NA and which parts are Black? Do those percentages indicate that your torso is White?
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cj....being polite to someone who is impolite to you is a way to show them for what they are. As the old saying goes...."kill them with kindness." It only pleases them more when you sink to their level. So let them show themselves to be what they prefer to be. It's no skin off your back is it?
That's very good advice but sometimes it's so hard to follow thhru
I know, Tessy. But, do you really think they will change their MO with anything you or anyone else says to them? They, and others like them seem to be here on NT only to stir the pot.
The thing they hate more than anything is to be ignored. They and those like them are not worthy of my limited time here on NT, so I concentrate my time on my Friends here who have far more important and interesting things to say, or do.
Not out to change what anyone else chooses to say or do, it's just how I prefer to utilize my time here on NT.
I understand, and I've had a few days as well. But, I still try. I'm by no means perfect, nor do I think I am. I just prefer to be me, and not them.
Thank you, Furry Diamondtop
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Wow.
Who knew that liberals considered any aggression as 'micro'?
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4 whole sentences of far right wing insanity.
Good figuring, calling people names worked well in WWII, but isn't calling someone a fascist, trolling by definition?