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.
Thing is, until recently there was nothing we could do for RSV aside from the genetic supportive care that’s given to all respiratory illnesses. That changed this last summer, when vaccines became available. It’s similar for other respiratory viruses like metapneumovirus and parainfluenza, which are also a thing.
The millions of people that get infected with one or more of the above but not diagnosed:
“Man, I had a really bad cold. Felt awful. Had to go to work though, was out of sick days and the boss couldn’t/wouldn’t find other coverage.”
Living The American Dream
Yeah, I looked into the RSV vaccine, it’s about $500 at the CVS in these parts. Gonna have to wait on that, unfortunately, because it’s one that I could really use.