Even as the nation is faced with blistering heat waves this summer, Dr. Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is already thinking ahead to cold and flu season this winter.
“We’re going to have three bugs out there, three viruses: Covid, of course, flu and RSV,” Cohen said in an interview. “We need to make sure the American people understand all three and what they can do to protect themselves.”
Spread of all three respiratory viruses is currently low, but the CDC has begun to detect slight increases in positive Covid tests and Covid-related emergency department visits. And the decline in Covid hospitalizations has stalled.
Omicron XBB subvariants remain the most prevalent forms of Covid, though on Wednesday, the World Health Organization identified a new XBB version, the EG.5, as rising in prevalence around the world and in the U.S.
It’s unclear what — if anything — the emergence of EG.5 means. The WHO noted there’s no evidence that it causes more severe illness. Cohen said that so far, the virus remains susceptible to Covid shots.
For the first time this fall, the U.S. will have access to vaccines for another expected virus: respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.