As US health officials try to predict how serious an upcoming
winter surge may be, the key factor in the calculus is the emergence of new Omicron
subvariants, BQ.1 and XXB.
The current dominant strain, BA.5, which in late August accounted for about 87
percent of cases, has seen a steady decline. As of Saturday, that figure has
dropped to just 62.2 percent. The new variants have quickly ticked up, now
accounting for about 17 percent of cases across the country.
The possibility of a new surge isn’t the only cause for concern right now.
Doctors are now seeing an increase in respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV,
an illness that, along with COVID and the flu, could fill hospitals this
winter, my colleague
Marin Finucane reported.
With the flu, COVID-19, and RSV circulating, the country could be in for a “tripledemic” this
winter, the New York Times warned.
The central message, according to Matthew Fox, a professor of epidemiology and
global health at the Boston University School of Public Health, is that “we
should be prepared to act if needed, and everyone should get boosted.”
Other
top stories
- Test scores across the US reveal
“appalling and unacceptable” results from fourth and eighth
graders in nearly every state since the pandemic, including Massachusetts.
- Massachusetts officials offered to
reinstate about 50 employees who lost their jobs earlier
this year after Governor Charlie Baker mandated one of the nation’s
strictest government vaccine requirements, requiring executive
branch employees be inoculated against COVID-19.
President Biden received his updated coronavirus booster shot Tuesday and urged people to get their shot by Halloween.
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