Category: Influenza
What Covid taught scientists and the public about the flu
(NBC News) For nearly three years, the medical and scientific world scrutinized Covid. That research helped experts gain a new understanding of a much older virus: the flu. On March 3, 2020, the head of the World Health Organization began a daily press briefing exhorting countries around the world to do more to stop the spread […]
Nov 22, 2022
Flu variant that hits kids and seniors harder than other strains is dominant in U.S. right now
(CNBC) The H3N2 variant has been associated with more severe flu seasons for children and the elderly in the past, according to the CDC. Public health labs have detected H3N2 in 76% of the more than 3,500 respiratory samples that have tested positive for the flu and were analyzed for the virus subtype The flu […]
Nov 21, 2022
What a ‘Tripledemic’ Means for Your Body
(The Atlantic) In 2020, and again in 2021, the dreaded twindemic never came. The worry among experts was that a winter COVID surge layered on top of flu season—or even, in worst-case scenarios, a flu outbreak of pandemic proportions—would push already strained hospitals to the brink. Thankfully, we got lucky. Flu season simply didn’t materialize […]
Nov 10, 2022
CDC Warns on Early Wave of Respiratory Illnesses
(MedPageToday) The CDC is warning of elevated levels of non-COVID respiratory illnesses in recent weeks — including rising cases of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and rhinovirus. The surge stands in contrast to the lower activity of these viruses seen during the past couple of pandemic years, as a result of the various mitigation measures […]
Nov 4, 2022
(Pfizer) today announced the advancement of an mRNA-based combination vaccine candidate for influenza and COVID-19 to a Phase 1 trial with the aim to address two severe respiratory diseases with one vaccine. The first participant has been dosed in a Phase 1 trial evaluating the safety, tolerability, and immunogenicity of a nucleoside-modified RNA (modRNA)-based combination […]
Nov 4, 2022
Signs point to an early start for flu season, with cases already ticking up in parts of the U.S.
(Stat News) Before the Covid-19 pandemic emerged, influenza trackers would begin reading tea leaves around this time of the year, looking for signs of whether there would be an early start to the flu season in the northern hemisphere and which of the various flu viruses might be responsible for the most cases over the […]
Oct 17, 2022