Cases of three major respiratory viruses — influenza, COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus — are surging in the United States, pushing the country into a feared “triple pandemic” in the first respiratory virus season after the pandemic. is pursuing.
Optimism grew as the U.S. entered the virus season this fall. The national arsenal against these viruses now includes a vaccine against RSV for the first time, a newly updated COVID-19 vaccine, and the influenza “immunity debt” that plagued our children in 2022 is a thing of the past. became.
But now that confidence is waning. Vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) are difficult to obtain for many people, and enthusiasm for new COVID-19 vaccines has proven to be at its lowest. Since November, the number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19 has increased, and wastewater detection shows that most facilities (69%) are experiencing a significant increase in virus levels.
The national influenza epidemic is currently “rising and continuing to increase in most regions of the country,” according to the latest information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The flu vaccine rollout also appears to be slow, with the CDC announcing that nearly 8 million fewer people had been vaccinated by mid-December than at the same time in 2022.
During the first few years of the pandemic, influenza activity remained low thanks to the precautions communities took to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus. The 2022-2023 flu season appears to be back to normal flu levels.
Only about one-fifth of U.S. adults say they have received the latest COVID-19 vaccination, according to . Votes from KFF. Uptake rates for previous bivalent vaccines are similarly low, with many Americans likely not having been vaccinated since receiving their first shot in 2020 or 2021.
“We are definitely seeing an increase in the number of cases of influenza and COVID-19. Both are currently spiking,” said Luis Os, chief of infectious diseases and epidemiology at UT Health Houston and Memorial Hermann. Trosky said.
Ostrosky said the number of RSV cases in the Houston area appears to have spiked in early December, but remains “stable.”
“This is so alarming that the CDC issued a health alert in late December calling on all clinicians to take vaccination of their patients seriously and to ensure that patients with symptoms receive treatment if needed.” If they do, we urge them to get tested,” Ostrosky pointed out.
RSV data available from the CDC appears to suggest that test positivity rates peaked toward the end of November, and that antigen and PCR test positivity rates have begun to decline in recent weeks.
There were hopes that the approval of two RSV vaccines for the elderly and a prophylactic monoclonal antibody for infants would help reduce the number of infections this season.
But Sanofi, the maker of the monoclonal antibody Bayfortus, said in October that “unprecedented demand” had created a supply shortage and that the CDC had advised doctors to reserve doses for patients most at risk.
And RSV vaccine uptake among older adults appears to be pretty lackluster. With CDC data This suggests that by mid-December, only about 10% of nursing home residents had been vaccinated against the virus.
“The numbers don’t look good” for the three types of viruses circulating, said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
“If we get the new numbers from last week, I think we will see a continuation of the trend in the same direction and an increase in activity in all of these situations,” Plescia added.
A “surge” in cases is expected during the holidays after weeks of travel at the end of the year. AAA estimated that in his December Over 115 million people In the United States, you’ll be traveling more than 80 miles from home during the festival.
During the trip, Precia lamented that the social norms she had hoped would become commonplace after the pandemic seem to have been largely abandoned.
“I think we’re going back to the old ways of staying home when you’re sick,” Plescia said. “And they think it’s trivial and the thought that they might infect others doesn’t really occur to them.”
Mask-wearing has also become rare, although many hospital systems are reinstating mask mandates due to the rise in respiratory viruses, Plescia noted. These hospital-enacted requirements may be more acceptable to the community than those issued by the government, and Plescia expects to see more similar requirements in the future.
Although the number of infections is rising, Plescia said his organization has not yet heard that the respiratory virus situation is putting undue stress on health systems across the country.
“The first concern about some kind of ‘triple demic’ is that so many people get sick that hospitals become overwhelmed because there aren’t enough beds or there aren’t enough staff to care for that many people. “I haven’t heard of anything approaching that, but that’s what we’re most concerned about,” he said.
Ostrosky said past winter peaks have shown to decline sometime in early January, and he is optimistic that infection rates will begin to fall soon after a potential holiday surge. are doing. He stressed that there are now many treatments available to treat these infections, so it’s worth getting tested if you develop symptoms.
Plescia also recommended greater emphasis on vaccinating healthcare workers going forward.
“This is not just because we don’t want health care workers to get sick and infect patients, but when a lot of health care workers get sick, this whole capacity becomes an issue,” Plescia said.
“Because what we’re hearing now is that hospitals aren’t really worried about not having enough beds. They’re not having enough health care workers to staff those beds. I’m more concerned about whether or not there are.”
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