The new year is kicking off with a spike in respiratory illnesses across the U.S., including COVID-19, flu and respiratory syncytial virus. Considering all the circulating illnesses right now, it might be time for masking to make a comeback, experts say.
“We’re certainly in the winter peak of respiratory viruses,” Dr. Albert Ko, professor of epidemiology and medicine at the Yale School of Public Health, tells TODAY.com. A post-holiday COVID spike alongside upticks of the usual winter illnesses, like flu and RSV, make this surge “very much expected,” he adds.
Amid this rise in the spread of illnesses, mask mandates are already back in some health care settings, including hospital systems in Los Angeles County and New York City. And many of us should probably follow suit, Ko says.
Wearing a mask amid a spike in respiratory viruses is “kind of a common sense thing,” Dr. Joseph Khabbaza, a pulmonary and critical care specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, tells TODAY.com, like using a parachute when jumping out of a plane.
Khabbaza, who works in both outpatient settings and the intensive care unit, has been seeing more cases of COVID-related pneumonia since about November, he says. After seeing very few cases for over a year, “We have a couple of patients in the ICU (with COVID pneumonia) almost every day that I’ve been on the last two months,” he explains.
While the situation isn’t as severe as it was at the beginning of the pandemic, there has been a noticeable uptick in serious cases in the hospital, Khabbaza says. During the week ending on Dec. 30, 2023, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saw a more than 20% increase in COVID hospitalizations.
He tells TODAY.com that he’s also seeing more cases of RSV-related airway inflammation, and flu-related complications are beginning to tick up as cases increase across the country. “We’re really seeing a nice combination of all three of those ending up in the hospital right now,” Khabbaza says.
With illnesses so…
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