SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – Flu hospitalizations have overtaken COVID-19 hospitalizations for the first time since the start of the pandemic and that's a big concern for healthcare providers.
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What many health experts worried would happen for some time now has finally happened – where cases of flu, RSV and COVID-19 have begun occurring at the same time.
"That means patients can get sick for a number of reasons," said Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in the division of health policy and public health, and an instructor at Harvard Medical School on KCBS Radio’s "Ask an Expert" on Friday.
"When you get to the hospital there's just a lot of stress and strain on the system," he told KCBS Radio’s Margie Shafer.
While flu cases have risen in recent weeks, RSV has for the moment tapered off, although it’s unclear whether or not things will stay that way.
But the uptick in cases overall this year has a lot to do with the reduced hypervigilance of people now experiencing pandemic fatigue. In the two winters prior, people were masking and handwashing far more strictly.
"Almost all respiratory viruses, other than coronavirus, we really did a fantastic job of getting rid of those," he said.
As a result, there's a bit of a catch-up happening right now, as people who haven't experienced these viruses in a while and don't have the antibodies they need to combat them come into contact with flu or RSV.
At the moment, the rate of people getting the flu vaccine is spotty, according to Faust.
"More importantly, the flu vaccine appears to be pretty effective," he said. "Scientists have to do their best guess on what to put in every flu vaccine each year based on what’s circulating elsewhere around the world in the previous season."
Since this year's flu vaccine is a pretty good match, it reduces the likelihood of a person getting seriously ill from the flu by at least half.
While the flu typically causes more serious illness in people aged 65 and older, this year compared to previous years, younger people are getting hit harder than usual.
The most unusual is how it's hitting kids up to four years of age as opposed to in the past.
"It's certainly way, way too early for us to be seeing these kinds of flu numbers," said Faust. "So I think that's really what’s alarming a lot of us."
The numbers right now are usually seen more often in January or February.
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