The Real Reasons Your Family Is Sick Right Now
The easy explanation for a rise in non-Covid viruses is that pandemic mitigation measures let our immune systems backslide. But there’s more going on.
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Photographer: Cris Faga/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty ImagesSomething is altering the normal seasonal currents of cold and flu viruses. They slowed to a trickle during the early part of the Covid pandemic only to blast through human populations this year. Some public health experts have called it a “tripledemic,” but it might even be described as a quadrupledemic.
In the Northern Hemisphere, flu began surging in October, months before its normal season. This year has also seen a steep, early rise in two other viruses, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) and adenovirus. These normally cause colds, but RSV can be dangerous to young children and has recently led to overcrowding of children’s hospitals. Adenovirus is usually mild too, but this month there were reports of the virus putting college athletes in the ICU, and it’s been implicated in clusters of dangerous hepatitis cases in children.