(NEXSTAR) – A week into the Thanksgiving holiday, and chances are you’ll be sniffling, coughing, or feeling a little scratch in your throat. It’s not just you – the country is grappling with a “triple outbreak” of the virus (not to mention lots of colds).
In late November, reported COVID-19 cases in the United States were stable, but high. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded about 300,000 new cases in the past week, but that number is likely an underestimate because home testing often goes unreported to public health agencies.
Meanwhile, the flu is increasing rapidly and is on track to peak much earlier than the typical flu season. The CDC’s preliminary tally is rough, but the agency estimates that up to 14 million people have been sick and up to 8,400 people have died.
This year’s flu season has also been particularly difficult for children, as has RSV (respiratory syncytial virus). The RSV has had children’s hospitals across the country either overflowing or at full capacity since October.
What’s behind the seemingly ubiquitous disease? Are there suddenly more viruses than before? Or are our immune systems weaker after years of masks and social distancing?
According to Dr. Andy Pekosz, a virologist and professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, it’s neither.
“It’s not that our immune system is weaker, because it certainly seems like everyone is recovering. There hasn’t been a very high increase in, say, the flu-related death rate until now,” he explained.
If our immune systems had collectively weakened since 2020, we would expect to see people getting sicker and dying more frequently from influenza, RSV or COVID-19, but that is not the case. It’s more likely that we’re just “seeing the effects of three years of not circulating the virus,” Pekosz said.
RSV, for example, is a common virus to which we are regularly exposed. It’s usually more difficult for young children and babies, who haven’t developed immunity from repeated exposures. This year, adults also benefit a lot.
“People weren’t exposed to RSV as much, so their bodies probably stopped making antibodies,” Dr. Jim Scott, dean of the University of California, Touro, told Nexstar’s KRON. It’s not that our immune system has forgotten how to create the needed antibodies, but it just takes a while for the antibody production to “speed up and respond to the need”.
Staying home, wearing masks and avoiding large gatherings was not only effective in curbing the spread of COVID – it also lowered transmission levels of influenza and other respiratory viruses. Virtually all of these measures have been lifted and viruses have started to spread rapidly again.
“It’s a normal process that we see here. It’s just that without having seen it for three years, we now have this big rebound to bring us back into balance,” Pekosz said.
#people #sick
