ARCC
Member
In the past month, my family has been hit by two stomach viruses(the latter kicked all of our butts) and my three younger ones have just beat RSV. Yeah, it’s back as well.I've posted about the flu before, and I believe the most likely reason for the low flu season was COVID itself, in the form of viral interference. Flu, RSV, other coronaviruses have all been significantly reduced since March 2020, regardless of level of mask-wearing, social distancing, etc. Countries/states that locked down hard and countries/states that stayed mostly/wide open all saw those viruses disappear at the same rate. The only places that have seen a near-normal amount of flu are parts of SE Asia and parts of Africa, where COVID hasn't been nearly as prominent. As we see COVID decline (hopefully) the rest of this year, we should see a return of the flu, RSV, other Coronaviruses, etc. We've actually seen a large increase of coronaviruses OC43 and NL63 over the last month across the US, which is an encouraging sign.
Im actually worried somewhat about what may be coming. In the almost ten years of having kids, we’ve never had RSV in the house.