Thank You for for all your updates. My husband became immunosuppressed when he started infusions for RA during the first year of COVID. Your information is very helpful in managing our lives. Most of my husband ‘s family is not vaccinated and do not plan on any vaccinations this fall for COVID ,influenza or RSV. It is heartbreaking. We are unable to attend family events because we don’t feel safe with them. 40+ years together with his family at a standstill. Really difficult to get them to understand that COVID is not just a cold for him. He looks and is healthy.And we want to keep him healthy. He recovered well with Paxlovid last year. We continue to take all precautions to prevent more COVID infections. I have had 3 siblings and a nephew who have died from COVID or other infections due to their immunosuppression. I wish more people would to take COVID seriously. And have more understanding of the immune system.I am a retired cardiopulmonary RN. I have given so much time and patience to educating my family about the immune system. But it seems to be so inconvenient for them. So much sadness and anger to manage alone.
Another moderately immunocompromised person here who appreciates your compiling and sharing information! I'm also the family biologist and responsible for translating from 'medicine' to 'human', so I use your info to counsel friends and family.
RSV doesn’t have a long immunity span though. People who got it last year are susceptible to is this year. You can even get it more than once in a season (whatever that is now 🥴).
I really think the relation to when you got COVID and then another virus plays a role. And now that COVID is back on the radar, that’s something people need to consider.
We went through the same thing as you did last year and I do not want to go through that again. My youngest missed a ton of school the first half of the school year.
We got hit with COVID the end of summer, before he had completed his first vaccine series. looking back, he wasn’t 100% recovered from COVID before catching the other viruses being spread around at school when it started later in the month. While his fever was long gone, and he was no longer coughing, he still had fatigue. In December he had RSV and adenovirus at the same time, and we were finally told to keep him home for two weeks and not take him anywhere unless absolutely necessary.
Your body can’t handle getting sick when it’s already/still fighting something else. COVID takes a while to fully recover from; we’re being pushed to work through it vs take the time truly needed to fully recover from it (usually more than 5 days).
Hand washing, wiping surfaces/toys, and masks when you’re out/at work/at school will be key. I wish there would be more advocacy for masks in businesses and schools. And don’t get me started on dropping them for sick visits at medical facilities.
The data I've seen on durability of RSV immunity is mixed. It definitely declines rapidly, but grows more robust after multiple seasons. I do think some RSV immunity is retained over time, especially protection against severe illness.
That's what I've been seeing too. I'm encouraged, as well, by a durable monoclonal antibody (nirsevimab) for pediatric use and potentially for older adults. My big concern with COVID and subsequent viral infection is the increasing body of literature calling into question the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on T-cell exhaustion.
Appreciate the attempt at a forecast. :-) I can honestly say the sickness this year has been the part of being a parent of 1-year-old that I was least prepared for.
I've been trying to reset my brain to just expect to be constantly sick and appreciate the windows between sickness. A lot of this means giving myself a break for needing to take sick time (I think we have a lot of ingrained, unproductive scripts in society about how good workers don't need sick time). And also giving myself a break for not having built better social connections as a newish parent -- it just takes more time to build that community when you can't make solid plans or leave your house a good percentage of the time.
I'm typing as the skin peels off my fingers in sheets as we recover from HFM. We got about a week off between COVID-19 and HFM.
I am grateful for your analysis regarding all things virus and otherwise. I heed your advice and plan on getting all proper vaccines. Thanks for all you do!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. While I go out in public a bit more than 2020, I still wear masks indoors always and your updates remind me that I am not ”crazy” for doing so like some folks have told me I must be. Or “anxious.” Wearing masks actually helps me feel much less anxious and it is baffling why others don’t feel the same way.
I'm not prepared to make a long-range forecast. I agree with Osterholm, so my limit of prescience is about 60 days but subject to revision if we suddenly see a new variant. I do agree with your logic for RSV. I'm concerned that we'll see an earlier flu season, though, because parts of the southern hemisphere have seen that.
Thank You for for all your updates. My husband became immunosuppressed when he started infusions for RA during the first year of COVID. Your information is very helpful in managing our lives. Most of my husband ‘s family is not vaccinated and do not plan on any vaccinations this fall for COVID ,influenza or RSV. It is heartbreaking. We are unable to attend family events because we don’t feel safe with them. 40+ years together with his family at a standstill. Really difficult to get them to understand that COVID is not just a cold for him. He looks and is healthy.And we want to keep him healthy. He recovered well with Paxlovid last year. We continue to take all precautions to prevent more COVID infections. I have had 3 siblings and a nephew who have died from COVID or other infections due to their immunosuppression. I wish more people would to take COVID seriously. And have more understanding of the immune system.I am a retired cardiopulmonary RN. I have given so much time and patience to educating my family about the immune system. But it seems to be so inconvenient for them. So much sadness and anger to manage alone.
Another moderately immunocompromised person here who appreciates your compiling and sharing information! I'm also the family biologist and responsible for translating from 'medicine' to 'human', so I use your info to counsel friends and family.
RSV doesn’t have a long immunity span though. People who got it last year are susceptible to is this year. You can even get it more than once in a season (whatever that is now 🥴).
I really think the relation to when you got COVID and then another virus plays a role. And now that COVID is back on the radar, that’s something people need to consider.
We went through the same thing as you did last year and I do not want to go through that again. My youngest missed a ton of school the first half of the school year.
We got hit with COVID the end of summer, before he had completed his first vaccine series. looking back, he wasn’t 100% recovered from COVID before catching the other viruses being spread around at school when it started later in the month. While his fever was long gone, and he was no longer coughing, he still had fatigue. In December he had RSV and adenovirus at the same time, and we were finally told to keep him home for two weeks and not take him anywhere unless absolutely necessary.
Your body can’t handle getting sick when it’s already/still fighting something else. COVID takes a while to fully recover from; we’re being pushed to work through it vs take the time truly needed to fully recover from it (usually more than 5 days).
Hand washing, wiping surfaces/toys, and masks when you’re out/at work/at school will be key. I wish there would be more advocacy for masks in businesses and schools. And don’t get me started on dropping them for sick visits at medical facilities.
Masks work.
The data I've seen on durability of RSV immunity is mixed. It definitely declines rapidly, but grows more robust after multiple seasons. I do think some RSV immunity is retained over time, especially protection against severe illness.
That's what I've been seeing too. I'm encouraged, as well, by a durable monoclonal antibody (nirsevimab) for pediatric use and potentially for older adults. My big concern with COVID and subsequent viral infection is the increasing body of literature calling into question the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on T-cell exhaustion.
Appreciate the attempt at a forecast. :-) I can honestly say the sickness this year has been the part of being a parent of 1-year-old that I was least prepared for.
I've been trying to reset my brain to just expect to be constantly sick and appreciate the windows between sickness. A lot of this means giving myself a break for needing to take sick time (I think we have a lot of ingrained, unproductive scripts in society about how good workers don't need sick time). And also giving myself a break for not having built better social connections as a newish parent -- it just takes more time to build that community when you can't make solid plans or leave your house a good percentage of the time.
I'm typing as the skin peels off my fingers in sheets as we recover from HFM. We got about a week off between COVID-19 and HFM.
I am grateful for your analysis regarding all things virus and otherwise. I heed your advice and plan on getting all proper vaccines. Thanks for all you do!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. While I go out in public a bit more than 2020, I still wear masks indoors always and your updates remind me that I am not ”crazy” for doing so like some folks have told me I must be. Or “anxious.” Wearing masks actually helps me feel much less anxious and it is baffling why others don’t feel the same way.
I'm not prepared to make a long-range forecast. I agree with Osterholm, so my limit of prescience is about 60 days but subject to revision if we suddenly see a new variant. I do agree with your logic for RSV. I'm concerned that we'll see an earlier flu season, though, because parts of the southern hemisphere have seen that.
The Australian chart for flu doesn't include 2020 or 2021. Was all flu counted as covid?
No. Flu in years 2020 and 2021 was so low that those years were excluded from the plot because they skewed the 5 year average.