White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Ashish Jha on the White House in Washington, October 25, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
As Covid and flu hospitalizations have climbed within the weeks since Thanksgiving, White House’s Covid-19 coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said families shall be safer at upcoming holiday gatherings in the event that they get their updated vaccines.
This 12 months, hospitals are facing the simultaneous threat of Covid, flu and RSV for the primary time. Circulation of flu and RSV was very low through the pandemic as a result of widespread masking and social distancing implemented in response to Covid, but as most individuals return to normal life, all three viruses are circulating widely.
As of Dec. 14, the 7-day average of weekly latest Covid cases reached 65,067, a 2.9% decrease from the previous week, in response to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The excellent news here is that we are able to prevent those infections from turning into serious illness if people exit and get that updated bivalent vaccine,” Jha told ABC’s “This Week” Sunday.
Public health officials have said many persons are probably more vulnerable to flu and RSV this 12 months because they weren’t infected prior to now two years, which implies their immunity is lower. Around 23,503 patients were admitted to the hospital with influenza this week, the CDC reported, while RSV hospitalizations appear to have peaked in some states.
Hospitalizations of individuals with Covid topped greater than 5,000 per day on average, in response to the CDC.
Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb said it will be a “difficult few weeks,” and he told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” Sunday that this 12 months’s respiratory pathogen season is the “worst in recent memory.”
Gottlieb said it has been a historic 12 months for the flu specifically.
“80% of hospital beds right away are full. The hospitals have not been this full because the peak of the omicron wave last winter,” he said. “The difference is that last winter, 25% of those hospital beds were stuffed with Covid admissions. Immediately, only 6% are stuffed with Covid admissions.”
Regardless that it’s protected to assemble in groups this 12 months, Jha said staying up to this point on vaccines shall be essential for keeping people out of the hospital.
“I got my flu shot last 12 months. I do not expect that to guard me this winter,” he said. “I’m going out and get my flu shot every winter, in the identical way people should exit and get their Covid shot.”