Stock up on your vitamins and prescriptions: CDC warns of a winter ‘Trifecta’: Covid, Flu, RSV

Revelations 18:4 Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues;

The American Heritage Dictionary “plagues”

  1. A highly infectious, usually fatal, epidemic disease; a pestilence.
  2. A virulent, infectious disease that is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis (syn. Pasteurella pestis) and is transmitted primarily by the bite of fleas from an infected rodent, especially a rat. In humans it occurs in bubonic form, marked by lymph node enlargement, and in pneumonic form, marked by infection of the lungs, and can progress to septicemia.
  3. A widespread affliction or calamity seen as divine retribution.

Important Takeaways:

  • Even as the nation is faced with blistering heat waves this summer, Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is already thinking ahead to cold and flu season this winter.
  • “We’re going to have three bugs out there, three viruses: Covid, of course, flu and RSV,” Cohen said in an interview. “We need to make sure the American people understand all three and what they can do to protect themselves.”
  • Spread of all three respiratory viruses is currently low, but the CDC has begun to detect slight increases in positive Covid tests and Covid-related emergency department visits. And the decline in Covid hospitalizations has stalled.

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Hospitalization on the rise for RSV and Influenza, pharmacies running out of medicines to help battle sickness

Luke 21:11 “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

Important Takeaways:

  • CVS, Walgreens limit kids’ pain and fever medicine amid shortage
  • CVS Health Corp. and Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., two of the largest US pharmacy chains, are limiting purchases of children’s pain-relief medicines amid constrained supplies and high demand.
  • Pediatric medicines containing acetaminophen and ibuprofen, which relieve pain and reduce fever, have been hard to come by across the US and Canada since at least October as respiratory viruses spread.
  • Rates of hospitalization for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, and influenza have reached heights not seen in recent years. The drugs don’t kill the viruses, but they do relieve symptoms.
  • More US children had been hospitalized in 2022 for influenza as of Dec. 10 than in any other year since 2009, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

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Children getting sick with RSV having hard time finding a hospital bed

Luke 21:11 “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Hospital Financial Decisions Play a Role in the Critical Shortage of Pediatric Beds for RSV Patients
  • The dire shortage of pediatric hospital beds plaguing the nation this fall is a byproduct of financial decisions made by hospitals over the past decade, as they shuttered children’s wards, which often operate in the red, and expanded the number of beds available for more profitable endeavors like joint replacements and cancer care.
  • To cope with the flood of young patients sickened by a sweeping convergence of nasty bugs — especially respiratory syncytial virus, influenza, and coronavirus — medical centers nationwide have deployed triage tents, delayed elective surgeries, and transferred critically ill children out of state

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Hospitals across America are filling up with respiratory cases

Luke 21:11 “There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Hospitals in the US are the fullest they’ve been throughout the pandemic – but it’s not just Covid
  • As respiratory virus season surges across the US, it’s much more than Covid that’s filling beds this year.
  • More than 80% of hospital beds are in use nationwide, jumping 8 percentage points in the past two weeks.
  • Back in January, about a quarter of hospital beds were in use for Covid-19 patients. But now, only about 6% of beds are in use for Covid-19 patients, according to the HHS data.
  • HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra noted that flu and other respiratory viruses are “increasing strain” on the country’s health care systems. Becerra wrote that the Biden administration “stands ready to continue assisting you with resources, supplies, and personnel” – but he stopped short of making a formal emergency declaration, as requested by children’s health leaders last month.

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