Newswise: Free Online Course Focuses on Pediatric RSV Care. “A new online course from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (AACN) and the Children’s Hospital Association (CHA) is available at no charge to help nurses and other clinicians care for the influx of pediatric patients with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), influenza and other respiratory-related illnesses.”
Wisconsin Department of Health Services: State Health Department Introduces New Flu Vaccine Data Dashboard and Report on Vaccine Coverage in Wisconsin . “The Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) today released its Influenza Vaccine Update and launched a new online flu vaccine data dashboard. Together, the report and data dashboard provide a look at previous and current flu vaccine rates statewide, and highlight communities and areas of the state more vulnerable to the seasonal flu.”
New York Times: Why a Coronavirus-Flu ‘Twindemic’ May Never Happen. “The idea is that it wasn’t just masks, social distancing or other pandemic restrictions that caused flu and other respiratory viruses to fade while the coronavirus reigned, and to resurge as it receded. Rather, exposure to one respiratory virus may put the body’s immune defenses on high alert, barring other intruders from gaining entry into the airways.”
Bloomberg: People with Covid-19 and flu at greater risk of severe illness and death. “Adults in hospital with Covid-19 and the flu at the same time are at much greater risk of severe disease and death compared with patients who have Covid-19 alone or with other viruses, research has shown. Scientists found that patients who had both Sars-CoV-2, which causes Covid-19, and influenza viruses were more than four times more likely to require ventilation support and 2.4 times more likely to die than if they just had Covid-19.”
New York Times: Shrugs Over Flu Signal Future Attitudes About Covid . “The coronavirus pandemic hasn’t prompted most Americans to take influenza more seriously. Instead, more people are likely to think of Covid the way they think of flu, experts say.”
New York Times: Can You Get the Flu and Covid at the Same Time?. “As flu season sets in and the Omicron variant continues to surge, how worried should we be? We spoke to experts to better understand what it could mean to test positive for both infections. Here’s what we learned.”
KDKA: Hospitals Seeing Uptick In ‘Flurona’ Cases, A Double Infection Of COVID And The Flu. “According to the World Health Organization, symptoms include cough, fever, sore throat, muscle aches, and fatigue. Israel confirmed its first case of the so-called ‘Flurona’ last Thursday. It was identified in an unvaccinated pregnant woman. She was later released and is now in good condition.”
ABS-CBN News: ‘Flurona’: COVID, flu co-infections not unusual, expert says. “A co-infection with the influenza virus and coronavirus is not unusual, a health specialist said Monday, after Israel reported its first case of the ‘flurona’ infection in a pregnant woman.”
Inside Edition: Flu Season Makes Comeback After Unusual Year Off Due to COVID-19. “The flu virus, after being subsumed by the COVID-19 pandemic last year, has made an unwelcome comeback, according to health officials. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported some 2,500 nationwide influenza cases from clinical tests for the week ending Dec. 11. Though that figure isn’t unusual for this time of year, it also represents a number not seen since the coronavirus pandemic erupted.”
CNN: Flu and Covid-19 cases rising in much of the US. “US health officials are bracing for a trio of public health concerns this winter: more infections from the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, surging infections with the Delta variant, and a ‘slow but steady’ comeback of the flu.”
State of Michigan: MDHHS will issue face mask advisory for the holiday season due to rise in cases of flu and COVID-19. “With the increasing rise in COVID-19 and flu cases, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) will be issuing a face mask advisory and offering guidance to keep loved ones safe and prevent the spread of respiratory illnesses during the holidays. MDHHS will issue a Public Health Advisory that recommends everyone over the age of 2 should wear a face mask at indoor gatherings regardless of their vaccination status. In addition, establishments should implement a policy to ensure that all persons entering or seeking services, including employees, wear a mask. This face mask advisory will remain effect until further notice.”
CNN: Flu shots uptake is now partisan. It didn’t use to be. “Uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine has, unfortunately, become partisan like so much else in our society. Almost every Democratic adult (90% to 95%) has gotten a shot, while a little less than two-thirds of Republican adults have. That partisanship appears to have transferred to at least one other important vaccination. An examination of flu shot data suggests that which party people belong to is highly correlated with whether they have or will get a flu shot this season — something that was not predictive of flu shot uptake the last few years.”
Newswise: Flu Season Underway Amid Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic. “For the second straight year, flu season is emerging against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. While the number of flu cases was relatively low last year, experts at Johns Hopkins Medicine say that this year, it could be much higher.”
Washington Post: Flu practically vanished last year. Now doctors are bracing for potential ‘twindemic’ of flu and covid-19 spikes.. “Survey data released Thursday found slightly more than half of American adults plan to be vaccinated against influenza. That’s not much of a change from pre-pandemic surveys conducted by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, but health authorities are alarmed because some evidence points to a potentially more severe flu season. Experts say Americans have built up less natural immunity against influenza because so few were infected in 2020.”
University of Virginia: Scientists Target Next Pandemic With ‘Map’ To Victory Over Viruses. “University of Virginia School of Medicine researcher Wladek Minor and collaborators in China and Poland have developed an internet information system, called virusMED, that lays out all we know about the atomic structure and potential vulnerabilities of more than 800 virus strains from 75 different virus families, including SARS-CoV-2, influenza, Ebola and HIV‑1. Several of the collaborators, including the lead investigator, Heping Zheng, are former students and members of Minor’s lab at UVA.”
