Fears of a tripledemic are "surging," according to a new report, but if there's panic in the streets, it's somehow failed to make the news.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned that flu cases are "elevated and continue to increase in most parts of the country," complicated by the spread of respiratory syncytial virus infection (RSV) and, of course, COVID-19 variant Eleventy-Jillion B.
Hence a "tripledemic."
Luis Ostrosky, chief of infectious diseases and epidemiology with UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann told The Hill, "We’re definitely seeing an increase in the number of flu cases, COVID-19," and that "they’re both surging right now."
But the same story indicates that flu cases are merely returning to pre-lockdown norms and that RSV infections "peaked toward the end of November." Whatever the actual number of COVID cases is, if it was a big, scary number, it would be all over the news.
It seems like only last month [It was only last month, Steve —editor] that I first reported that Americans were "responding with a collective yawn" to scare stories about how this winter's triple threat would kill those few hardy stragglers who somehow survived Donald Trump's tax cuts and his repeal of net neutrality.
A month later and Americans are still largely unconcerned with normal flu levels, tapering RSV infections, and a mild COVID variant.
What's a government gotta do to scare people into submission these days?
My anecdata indicate that this year's flu bug is a bad one.
My wife and our younger son got their flu shots this year. My older son and I did not. All four of us got the flu. The boys recovered quickly — being young helps; so does getting sick during Christmas break instead of during school. Melissa and I, on the other hand, were useless for almost a week. Even two-plus weeks later, we still spend some quality time each morning hacking stuff up.
The 60-hour sore throat that accompanies this year's flu was so painful that I took two coronavirus tests, convinced that the first one's negative result had to be wrong. After four years, neither Melissa nor I have yet to catch the 'rona — but I would have preferred the current, mild strain to this year's model of influenza.
And yet — again, speaking anecdotally — I know a lot of people with the flu this year and literally nobody who's had COVID, irrespective of flu shots, vaccines, or boosters.
"Remember back when everybody used to get sick every winter?" my best friend Matt — still recovering from the flu — asked me over bowls of spicy pho on Sunday. "They still do," he concluded with the kind of tired smile you muster after two-plus weeks of coughing.
Vaccinations for the ordinary flu are down a bit, too. "Adult vaccination rates for influenza reached their peak for the 2020-2021 cycle," the Washington Examiner reported last month, "with 50.2% of those over 18 getting vaccinated. For the 2022-2023 season, however, only 46.9% of the same population obtained their shot." Rates are expected to be about the same or lower for the current 2023-2024 flu season.
The long and short of it is that the country is enduring a nasty flu virus, compounded by RSV and the 'rona — for the smaller segments of the population at serious risk of RSV and the 'rona.
Welcome to winter; it sucks.
Recommended: Threats of a Wider War As Israeli Strike Takes Out Terror Commander in Lebanon
Join the conversation as a VIP Member