Dr. Ashish Jha said a “tripledemic” of Covid, flu and RSV cases could unfold this winter. He pointed to tools we can use to fight it, including new vaccines.
Covid has been a prominent winter threat during the last two years and is expected to wreak havoc again this year, especially with the emergence of so-called “Scrabble” variants that appear adept at evading immunity from vaccines and prior infection.
The U.S. is also seeing an early uptick in flu cases, which don’t typically rise until late December. The country’s South Central and Southeastern regions already have positivity rates as high as 10%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases, especially among children, are also rising. Nearly 75% of the country’s estimated 40,000 pediatric beds are currently full, according to the latest Department of Health and Human Services data.
Source: Dr. Jha: A ‘tripledemic’ could hit the U.S., but ‘we’re not powerless against it’
