The POINT project seeks to develop innovative strategies for the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases that arise as complications during the post-acute phase of COVID-19.
The POINT project, a research initiative addressing the long-term health consequences of COVID-19, was launched on 1 January 2024. Designed to focus on the post-acute phase of the disease, which occurs four months or more after the infection, the project seeks to develop innovative strategies for the prevention and management of non-communicable diseases that arise as complications during this phase.
Despite the acute phase of COVID-19 being the primary focus of global healthcare systems, evidence suggests that the post-acute phase poses a significant risk for the emergence of non-communicable diseases affecting pulmonary, cardiovascular, and renal systems. With over 183 million reported cases in the EU and up to 70% of patients experiencing reduced organ function post-infection, there is a critical need to address these long-term impacts. The POINT project aims to mitigate the socio-economic costs associated with these health challenges by introducing advanced biomarkers, a virtual twin model for clinical support, and comprehensive guidelines for healthcare providers.
It is commonly believed that once you stop displaying the primary symptoms of an infectious disease, you are healthy and expected to promptly resume your job and societal duties with the same vigour as before falling ill. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has unveiled a different reality. We now understand that the effects of this disease can persist for many months beyond the acute phase, impacting not only immediate health but also worsening the risk of chronic non-communicable diseases. This realisation underscores the need for a more comprehensive approach to managing the aftermath of COVID-19 and other severe infectious diseases in general. With POINT we will give a better understanding of the post-acute phase of COVID-19 and develop tools and guidelines that will help minimize risk of long-term consequences following COVID-19 and other severe infections".
Claus Desler, POINT Coordinator from the Copenhagen University
"It is important for these endeavors to gain traction and advance scientific understanding," says Chiara Palazzetti, Project Manager Officer from Fondazione ICONS. "We will therefore support the project in sharing its results and we will engage with stakeholders such as physicians and general practitioners. The aim is to get the healthcare community to adopt the procedures and guidelines on a large scale for better patient outcomes."
POINT assembles an interdisciplinary team, leveraging the expertise of clinical, molecular, and behavioral scientists alongside computer scientists. The consortium will access extensive cohorts and biobanks, encompassing data from over 6 million Europeans, to drive their research. This collective effort is poised to deliver a transformative impact on how post-COVID health challenges are understood and managed.
The project is particularly significant as it addresses a gap in the current healthcare response to the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on the post-acute phase which has, until now, been relatively underexplored.
By prioritizing the development of clinical guidelines and decision-support tools, POINT will provide crucial support to over 120,000 physicians and the broader healthcare value chain.
School districts want more time to spend COVID-19 relief aid for homeless-student programs, citing growing need and logistical challenges in meeting the September 2024 spending deadline.
Senators who first championed that aid$800 million for homeless children and youth included in the 2021 American Rescue Plan Actcirculated a letter to colleagues this week, rallying support to give districts an additional year to allocate that money.
District homeless liaisons have used the money to identify and locate homeless students, transport them to their original schools when their highly mobile families move into new attendance zones, and address the non-academic barriers that prevent them from attending or engaging in school.
Unfortunately, the number of students experiencing homelessness has grown significantly, with a 16 percent increase in the number of families in homeless shelters last year aloneand that number doesnt include the majority of homeless children and youth who move between couches, motels, and other locations, said a letter signed by Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.; Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz. The simple fact is that child and youth homelessness is higher now, and the need is greater than prior to or during the pandemic.
The lawmakers rallied colleagues Feb. 22 to sign onto the letter, which urges the Senate Appropriations Committee to include the extension in any fiscal 2024 spending plans. Congress must negotiate a budget compromise or pass a stop-gap spending bill by March 8 to avoid a full government shutdown.
Without an extension, the cutoff for the targeted homeless-student aid will coincide with the deadline for schools to obligate general K-12 COVID-19 relief funding providing to schools. Superintendents have unsuccessfully pressed for more time to spend those funds, and the U.S. Department of Education has offered some limited flexibility .
Advocates for students experiencing homelessness said the targeted COVID aid helped more schools reach more students than they have in the past. The American Recovery Plan funding is about six times higher than what districts receive in a typical year through the federal McKinney-Vento Education for Homeless Children and Youth Program.
About 10,000 school districts receive the targeted COVID-19 aid, and about 6,000 of those districts dont typically qualify for ongoing McKinney-Vento funds because they dont meet criteria, including having a high enrollment of identified homeless students, according to SchoolHouse Connection, an organization that advocates for students experiencing homelessness.
In some places, [the targeted COVID aid] is making a huge difference, but it comes with this ticking clock of a spending deadline, said Barbara Duffield, the organizations executive director.
In a survey SchoolHouse Connection released Feb. 21, more than half of district homeless liaisons reported serving more homeless students in late 2023 than they had at the same point in the previous school year. The respondents attributed that increase to increased housing instability and an improved ability to identify homeless students, who may not realize they are eligible for services.
School programs use a more expansive definition of homelessness than the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, counting students who sleep on friends couches, in motels, and other temporary arrangements. Seventy-six percent of the 1.1 million students in the most recent federal data were doubled up with other families. As a result, schools must conduct thorough outreach programs to locate students who may be disconnected from school and to ensure families are aware of resources that may help boost their attendance.
Districts used the influx of additional federal funding to hire social workers to connect students and their families to community programs. They also used it to stock school food pantries, buy washers and dryers to allow these highly mobile students to do laundry at school, and provide new shoes for children who had outgrown their only pair.
But some districts werent aware of all of the acceptable uses for the temporary aid until recently, Duffield said. In September 2023, a year before the spending deadline, the Education Department issued new guidance to clarify that the relief funding could fund emergency motel stays; gas cards, bicycles, and car repairs to address transportation barriers; grocery store gift cards to allow families to buy food; and early childhood programming.
Additional time to draw down the remaining funds will give districts the flexibility to meet students needs throughout the next school year, Duffield said.
Schools need to have funds available to meet the most pressing needs when they arise, rather than rushing to meet a deadline, Duffield said.
Over the last month, norovirus has been circulating in the Northeast at the highest rates since April of last year.
The region has been seeing over 13% of norovirus tests come back positive, on average, since late January, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thats a higher share than in any other part of the U.S. right now, but lower than the regions rate at this time last year.
Norovirus is somewhat seasonal cases occur most frequently in cold months (late fall, winter and early spring). Nationally, norovirus positivity rates have been hovering between 10% and 12.5% since early January. By comparison, last years peak rates exceeded 16% in mid-March.
Western states have been hit the second-hardest the area saw a three-week positivity rate of 12% as of Saturday.
Norovirus is often referred to colloquially as the stomach flu, but it is not related to influenza. The highly contagious virus generally causes gastrointestinal symptoms like vomiting, nausea, diarrhea and stomach pain. Mild fever and aches can occur, too.
Norovirus spreads easily on hands and surfaces just a few particles are enough to make someone sick, and people with the illness shed billions of virus particles in their stool and vomit. The virus can linger on objects and surfaces for days or even weeks.
An infected person can transmit norovirus even after feeling better, potentially for up to two weeks, according to the CDC.
The virus also spreads via contaminated food, which is why it is sometimes referred to as food poisoning. Norovirus is the leading cause of foodborne illness in the country. Food can get tainted if fruits or vegetables are grown or washed in contaminated water.
Oysters also pose a norovirus threat if harvested from contaminated water. Currently, the FDA is advising restaurants, retailers and consumers to avoid selling or eating some oysters from Baja California and Sonora, Mexico.
In December, a norovirus outbreak linked to a North Carolina sushi restaurant sickened at least 241 people.
Most norovirus outbreaks in the U.S. happen between November and April. On average, the country sees around 20 million cases per year.
There is no treatment for the virus, but the CDC recommends drinking lots of fluids to prevent dehydration. The illness typically passes within days.
Antonio Planas
Antonio Planas is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Cambodia's health ministry has reported another human infection from H5N1 avian influenza, part of an uptick in similar cases that began in 2023.
The patient is a 17-year-old girl from Kampot province, according to a ministry statement translated and posted by Avian Flu Diary, an infectious disease news blog. Kampot province is in southern Cambodia. The girl is hospitalized in the intensive care unit and is improving.
An investigation found that about 5 days before the girl's symptoms began, there were seven dead chickens at her home.
Cambodia has now reported 5 cases for 2024 and a total of 11 since February 2023, following nearly a decade with no human infections. Genetic sequencing on samples from several cases has revealed that the virus belongs to an older H5N1 clade (2.3.2.1c) that still circulates in poultry in some Asian countries, including Cambodia. It is different from the newer H5N1 clade (2.3.4.4b) that is currently affecting wild birds and poultry in multiple world regions, including the United States.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection (CHP) today reported an influenza A H9 case, which involves a 22-month-old girl who had recently visited the city of Zhongshan in mainland China's Guangdong province. Her symptoms began on February 15, and she was seen at a hospital the next day but was not admitted. Plans are under way for her to receive care in hospital isolation.
An investigation revealed that she had no direct contact with poultry during her incubation period while visiting the mainland, nor did she eat undercooked poultry or have contact with sick people. One of her home contacts had a sore throat on February 17 that subsided.
The CHP said novel H9 flu virus infections, including H9N2, are typically mild. Hong Kong has reported nine cases since 1999, and its most recent casefrom 2020was also imported.
An "apocalyptic" mass mortality event that has left thousands of sea lions and elephant seals dead on the beaches of South America is raising alarms among some California sea mammal experts who fear similar scenes could play out along California's Pacific Coast and other continents as the H5N1 bird flu continues its march across the globe.
The highly pathogenic avian influenza virus has become notorious for its devastating affects on wild and domestic bird populations over the last four years, but only recently has it inflicted so many deaths in a mammal population.
Up until now, the ability of the virus to jump from mammal to mammal has been limited, but the scale of infections and deaths in South America has raised troubling questions about whether something has changed.
Read more: In a remote corner of California, roaming dog packs leave a trail of blood and terror
While it remains unclear whether this particular strain of H5N1 has improved its ability to pass easily between mammals, such a development would have potentially devastating consquences for endangered and non-endangered species alike.
The disease "presents an existential threat to the worlds biodiversity," wrote Chris Walzer, executive director of health for the Wildlife Conservation Society in a January statement, noting that the scene of dead elephant seals could "only be described as apocalyptic."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the H5N1 viruses circulating in birds "are believed to pose a low risk to the general public in the United States; however, people who have job-related or recreational exposures to infected birds may be at higher risk of infection and should take appropriate precautions outlined in CDC guidance."
The World Health Organization has also deemed the risk of human-to-human transmission to be low, and notes that candidate vaccines have been developed for pandemic preparedness.
Yet the speed with which the virus has destroyed once-thriving animal populations is breathtaking, said Marcela Uhart, a wildlife veterinarian with UC Davis' One Health institute, who is based in Argentina.
In October, the mortality rate for newborn elephant seal pups reached 96% on one beach in Argentina astronomically higher than the 0.8% mortality rate observed there in 2022.
"Ten days and it's done. There's nothing left alive," Uhart said.
Die-offs have also been observed in South American dolphins and fur seals. And the virus is practically knocking on Antarctica's front door, where more than 100 million birds, including colony-living penguins, and marine mammals congregate.
"There's climate change and habitat destruction," which are taking their toll on the planet's wildlife species, said Rebecca Duerr, an avian veterinarian with International Bird Rescue in Long Beach. "And then this. It's grim."
In California, some experts say they worry about the vulnerability of sea lions and sea otters.
"California has been spared some of the huge die-off events being seen somewhere else in the world. But we still have species that are very vulnerable to it. We're not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination," Duerr said.
Colony nesting of seabirds and breeding of marine mammals occurs all along the California Coast, the Channel Islands and Farallon Islands. They are seasonally populated by such species as terns, sea lions and sea otters, among others.
"There's a whole lot of concern still for what will happen in the bigger picture over time," she said. "This summer is breeding season, the time that other areas of the world have seen huge die-offs at breeding colonies."
The effects wouldn't be limited to just the infected animals either, Duerr said. These animals are critical within wider ecosystems. Guano produced from breeding bird colonies provides nutrients for marine invertebrates and fish, for instance.
And if sea otters were to suffer such losses, that would endanger the health of California's vast kelp forests, which would be left prey to sea urchins, said Christine Johnson, professor of epidemiology and ecosystem health at UC Davis.
And although Southern and Northern hemisphere populations of marine mammals don't have much, if any contact, Johnson said the world is changing so quickly, we can't really be sure about anything.
"The distribution of marine species is largely dictated on where their food goes, which itself is dictated by ocean trends and warming," Johnson said. "Are there species that are now overlapping that hadn't been before, based on climate or other factors?"
She said forces such as climate change and habitat destruction could have played a role in the virus' geographical expansion, as well as its initial and sustained grasp on wildlife.
"There's increasing evidence that pandemics that come from wildlife, in particular, are increasing in frequency," Johnson said. "There's not a lot of segregation or separation between wild animals and their pathogens" and domestic animals and people.
Read more: California mountain lion population is thousands fewer than previously estimated
Until recently, highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI, was considered strictly a poultry disease. It would flare up here and there primarily in Asia and get stomped out quickly by killing all the birds on an infected farm.
But in 2002, the virus jumped to wild birds, and in 2005, it had spread to Eastern Europe, where seven people were infected after de-feathering wild swans. Four of the people died. Nine years later, the disease reached North America presumably via Alaska, where birds from around the world migrate and feast during the summer. And although it died down for a bit in Canada and the U.S. flaring up occasionally in Asia, Europe and Africa it came back with a vengeance in 2021.
Since that time, not only have hundreds of millions of domestic birds been culled, but countless numbers of wild birds and animals have contracted the virus.
Julianna Lenoch, the national coordinator of wildlife services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, said that while scientists are waiting for genetic information from South America, there is no "evidence that is of high concern yet in the United States, but I think watching mammal spillover and potential mammalian spread is something the global community is looking for."
The agency routinely samples wild birds, and only samples mammals in which there is suspicion.
"We pick them up from state agencies or wildlife rehabilitation facilities or from someone who has an indication of suspicion ... so, what we have is probably an undercount," she said.
But so far, the situation in North America is different from the "craziness" being seen in South America.
In the United States and Canada, the only mammals that have gotten the disease such as foxes, skunks, coyotes and bears are those known to scavenge on dead birds. There is no indication there is any mammal-to-mammal passage.
But North American animals may also share a defense that South American wildlife does not.
Because the virus has had a presence in North America since 2014, most of the continent's wildlife has "some sort of base immunity to influenza," said Deborah Fauquier, a veterinary medical officer with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "They have some antibodies. Maybe not the perfect ones ... but they've seen the virus before."
"In South America ... those populations were basically naive, and had not seen high path (influenza) before. ... So they just don't have that type of immunity that we have in our seals as well as our birds," she said.
So, whether the massive marine mammal die-offs are the result of a novel exposure to the disease, or because the virus has acquired the ability to move between mammals, remains unclear.
Read more: Bay Area birdwatchers mourn the failed rescue of 'Tuffy,' the kidnapped baby hawk
In either case, however, it does not bode well for wildlife in the last remaining areas of the world where the disease has not been detected: Antarctica and Oceania the region that includes Australia, New Zealand and the surrounding islands.
Uhart said she was setting out in late February to sample animals in Antarctica hitching a ride on a cruise ship. Before tourists are allowed off the boat for a landing, she said, she'll go out and do surveillance and make sure everything looks normal; she'll also collect samples.
"We've seen it enough," she said. "I know really well what it looks like."
Johnson said the nations of the world need to be on heightened surveillance as the virus continues its scourge.
Just as in the case of the coronavirus that caused COVID-19, this flu strain is constantly evolving and changing with new variants appearing all the time. Yet, fatigue is setting in among many governments across the world that have been battling the virus for three or four years now.
"Nobody wants to think about or talk about another pandemic," she said. But keeping a handle on its whereabouts and changes is critical for conservation, the ecosystem and human health.
"I think countries need to start preparing for the response efforts that's needed for ... big biosafety concerns," she said. "It does have a high mortality rate in people and we're talking about a lot of virus on the landscape."
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Feb 22
Please try again
ACTON, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 05: Rescued chickens gather in an aviary at Farm Sanctuarys Southern California Sanctuary on October 5, 2022 in Acton, California. A wave of the highly pathogenic H5N1 avian flu has now entered Southern California as the fall bird migration sets in, raising concerns for wild birds and poultry farms in the region. Farm Sanctuary is home to rescued chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs and other farm animals. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Theres a nasty virus spreading through the U.S.Were not talking about COVID and were not even talking about humans. Avian influenza or bird flu has affected millions of birds across the country, including here in California. And in the Central Valley, farmers have been set back months due to the loss of flock and eggs. Reporter: Kerry Klein, KVPR
The push for California to provide reparations for Black Californians is taking shape at the state capitol. Members of the legislatures Black Caucus have chosen 14 reparations bills to prioritize this year. Those range from a formal apology on behalf of California lawmakers who supported slavery, to limits on solitary confinement in state prisons. Reporter: Guy Marzorati, KQED
Updated Feb. 21, 2024, to reflect the growing impact of the avian flu outbreak.
After falling for months, egg prices are rising again and could continue that way in 2024 as farmers grapple with another outbreak of bird flu.
The average cost of a dozen Grade A large eggs was $2.52 in January, up slightly from $2.51 in December, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, retrieved from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis' FRED site.
Despite the month-to-month increase, egg prices are nowhere near where they were a year ago. CPI data show egg prices are down 23.8% from December 2022.
BLS data tracking egg prices goes back to at least 1980, when large, Grade A eggs cost $0.88 a dozen, not adjusted for inflation.
Before February 2022, the average cost of a dozen had largely stayed below $2 since March 2016.
The price of eggs more than doubled from the beginning of 2022 until hitting its peak of $4.82 per dozen in January 2023. Since then, prices fell steadily until the fall but still hadnt reached pre-pandemic norms before ticking up again.
So, why did egg costs get so high? The pandemic and inflation play a factor, but they arent the real culprit.
Eggs are so expensive because of a widespread outbreak of H5N1, a highly transmissible and fatal strain of avian influenza, or bird flu. The outbreak started in early 2022 and has grown into the largest bird flu outbreak in U.S. history.
The outbreak reduced the egg supply, while demand remained consistent, leading to higher prices.
Nerd out on investing news
A NerdWallet account is the smartest way to see the latest financial news and what it means for your wallet.
Prices eased as the number of bird flu cases declined in 2023, with no infections reported from May through September.
The relief was relatively short-lived, though. Egg producers reported a resurgence of the virus starting in November 2023. The latest outbreak has claimed 13.64 million egg-laying hens so far, according to the USDAs Livestock, Dairy and Poultry Outlook report released in February.
As a result, prices started to rise again at the end of 2023. The USDA expects prices to continue climbing in 2024.
Theres an egg shortage because the ongoing bird flu outbreak reduced the number of egg-laying chickens. As of Feb. 16, the virus has affected more than 81.9 million birds in the U.S. since January 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the birds affected were egg-laying hens.
Flu levels remain elevated, with increases in half of US regions, as COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) levels stayed on downward trends, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest weekly updates.
Though the national test positivity declined a bit, to 14.8% of respiratory virus samples, the percentage of outpatient visits for flulike illness held steady at 4.5%, the CDC said in its weekly FluView update.
Regional patterns, though, show a mixed picture, with five regionsthe Northeast, New England, the Middle Atlantic, the Midwest, and the Central statesexperiencing increased activity last week. Test positivity also varied by region, with higher levels in the Northeast, Middle Atlantic, and Central regions.
Influenza B activity, which often rises in the later flu season months, stayed level last week. Of respiratory samples that tested positive for flu at public health labs last week, 71.7% were influenza A and 28.3% were influenza B. Of subtyped flu A samples, 51.3% were the 2009 H1N1 strain and 48.7% were H3N2.
Hospitalization indicators remained stable and have been decreasing since the first of the year, the CDC said.
Overall deaths from flu rose last week, and the CDC received reports of 9 more pediatric flu deaths, raising the season's total to 91. The deaths occurred between November and the first weeks of February. Five were linked to the H1N1 virus, and four were related to influenza B.
In its latest data updates today, the CDC said both severity markers for COVIDhospitalizations and deathsdeclined last week. Hospitalizations remain elevated in seniors and infants ages 12 months and younger.
Early indicators also show downward trends, with the nation's test positivity rate at 8.1%. The rate is a bit higher in the southeast than in other parts of the country. Also, emergency department visits declined 12.4% from the previous week.
Wastewater SARS-CoV-2 detections, another early signal, remained high. For the week ending February 17, detections are much higher in the southern region than in the rest of the country.
Meanwhile, RSV levels continue to decline in many areas, and hospitalizations levels are dropping for both infants and seniors, the CDC said in its weekly respiratory virus snapshot.
Deaths from RSV remained stable.
CDC classifies severity to understand the impact of flu virus activity throughout the season on the population and health care system. These data can help guide public health actions, such as targeting prevention and treatment messages to appropriate audiences and make recommendations designed to prevent flu illnesses and death. Additional information onHow CDC Classifies Flu Severityis available.
Additionally, CDC estimates the 2023-2024 in-season disease burden of flu available at Preliminary In-Season Burden Estimates.
Three flu surveillance indicators (influenza-like illness (ILI) outpatient visits, flu-related hospitalizations, and flu deaths) are used to assess the severity of a flu season each week. The preliminary severity for a season is classified by assessing these indicators across all age groups at the highest week of activity for each indicator during the season. The highest values are compared to historic flu seasons and classified as being low, moderate, high, or very high severity based on which intensity threshold the highest week value observed to date crosses. The highest week assessment can change as the season progresses, depending on activity levels of the flu indicators.
WRAL News checked in with UNC, Duke and WakeMed hospitals about their latest numbers, and all reported a decrease in overall COVID, flu and RSV cases.
Emergency room visits for all respiratory viruses continues to drop for fourth consecutive week, now making up just 11% of all visits. Flu hospitalizations went down, nowmakingup 2% of all ER visits compared to its peak in late December when it made up 5%.RSV makes up the lowest of all current respiratory cases (just 0.5% of all ER visits).
COVID hospital admissions went up slightly, with 737 patients statewide compared to 702 a week ago, and 25.6 million more COVID-19 virus particles were found in wastewater compared to last week.
At WakeMed on Wednesday, less than 80 people are hospitalized for COVID, flu and RSV combined. WakeMed currently has 63 COVID-19 hospitalizations, the highest out of the three hospitals but down from 67 last month.
UNC Health is reporting 33 COVID-19 hospitalizations, up from 30 last month, and Duke Health is reporting 30 COVID-19 hospitalizations this week compared to 45 last month.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the peak of the season may be over, but virus levels are still up.
Dr. Daniel Park, who leads the pediatric emergency department at UNC Medical Center, told WRAL News hospital capacity is still a concern, and were not yet out of the woods.
"The numbers have started to come down, which is encouraging, but we are still experiencing capacity concerns from time to time," Park said.
According to Park, one of the easiest ways to slow the spread of these illnesses is keeping children at home if they have a fever. Children should be fever-free for at least 24 hours before you send them back to school.
North Carolina's flu season runs from October until May. In late January, Dr. Cameron Wolfe, infectious disease specialist at Duke Health, said the hospitals were slightly less strained but shared a word of caution.
"I want to be cautious and say were not out of the woods yet but certainly less busy than it was a fortnight ago," Wolfe said. "Suddenly you get this wash of respiratory viral infections ... surgeries get delayed, ED admissions get delayed, people cant get out to their nursing homes and rehabs as quickly. All of those things, unfortunately, take place in the middle of winter, and I think were starting to see that just start to relax a little bit, which is great news.
WRAL data trackers looked back at five years of pre-COVID flu data and determined the average number of deaths per flu season in North Carolina is 211. Historically, the majority of deaths occur late in the season, in February or March.
"Its very typical for us to get a light rise in influenza-B cases that can sometimes be as late as March or even April," Wolfe said. "So I dont think were through all of that yet by any means."
The current page does not support this embedded media. To view this story with fully functioning media, please visit this page on our full site.
"Demand has slightly decreased for the flu and COVID vaccines, but demand has remained steady for the RSV and pneumonia vaccines," said CVS Regional Director Gaurang Trivedi
The demand for COVID-19 vaccines is greatest in the 65 and older age group.
Park said there have been high rates of children with respiratory illnesses like RSV and the flu in hospitals.
Hospital's visitation precautions ask for children experiencing active symptoms to not come to the hospital unless they are experiencing worsen symptoms such as difficulty breathing and high fever.
According to the CDC, you cant tell the difference between flu and COVID-19 by the symptoms alone. Specific testing is needed to tell what the illness is and confirm a diagnosis.
Adults should see their doctor if they experience any of the following:
Children should see a doctor if they experience:
