Q&A of the Day – The Differences Between RSV, COVID-19 & The Flu & What’s Happening in Florida Right Now
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
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Today’s Entry: Brian, hope you’ve enjoyed your time away and have a happy Thanksgiving with your family. I have a question I’d like for you to address once you’re back. Ever since the pandemic I’ve been skeptical about the seemingly dire warnings about sickness spreading. I don’t know what’s hype that might be designed to try to scare us into max vaxxing vs. real data about how extensive infections are. There have been regular news reports discussing Florida’s high levels of infections of various types. Can you break this down (and) what’s really happening for us? Thank you.
Bottom Line: You bet and you’re right. There are many stories about sickness in Florida making the rounds recently. That said, that’s at least in part due to literally “high” levels of illness spreading around the state. Conversely, your skepticism is also warranted, because what we’ve experienced in Florida to date, during this flu season hasn’t even risen to the level of where we were at the same time last year. As is often the case with stories that point towards extremes, the truth is often somewhere closer to the middle and that remains the case with the proliferation of illnesses being spread across Florida right now as we’re now firmly inside of the holiday season. So, what’s real? What’s potentially hype?
Contextually here’s an idea about what’s real from the University of South Florida’s Thomas Unnasch, who is one of the leading public health experts in the state. Most recently, when evaluating data late last week, he said this: We do seem to be kind of a hot spot and that’s pretty typical of what we’ll generally see. It just has a lot to do with socialization and how much contact people are having with each other. The numbers are really starting to increase. At least doubling over the last four weeks or so here in the state of Florida. On the other hand, Covid seems to be just puttering along. So we may be in a situation this year where we’ll mostly see, you know, RSV and influenza as a problem and not so much Covid. That commentary is the first potentially actionable bit of perspective from this story. COVID isn’t proving to be a problem in Florida, however other respiratory illnesses increasingly are. In the post-pandemic era, one’s mind typically defaults to thinking that if someone is sick it’s likely the ‘vid. What’s more is that the symptoms resulting from contracting RSV, COVID-19 and the H1N1 flu virus are often the same. As noted by the Cleveland Clinic: RSV, flu and COVID-19 are respiratory viruses. These viruses affect your respiratory system — the network of tissues and organs that help you breathe. There are some subtle differences between RSV, the flu and COVID-19. What are those differences?
- A sore throat and a loss of taste or smell don’t happen with RSV but commonly does with the FLU and COVID-19
- A loss of taste or smell doesn’t happen with the flu but commonly does with COVID-19
- Sneezing is common with RSV and the flu but not with COVID-19
Most of the other potential symptoms one may have are otherwise shared between the illnesses. That makes the process of elimination I just outlined potentially helpful for those trying to figure out what they may have or what’s going around with those around them. As for the levels of sickness going around...
The CDC keeps their flu map updated weekly and has online information available for the prior 15 years. This allows us to compare levels of sickness currently to any window of time over the prior decade and a half. This helps illustrate what’s potentially hype in the news or whether the levels of illness we’re experiencing are unusually high.
According to the CDC’s most recent flu map Florida currently has the 7th highest infection rate in the country. Notably, preceding Thanksgiving, while Florida’s rate of infection was measured as being “high”, on the CDC’s scale, the rates of infection had been decreasing throughout much of the state – including in Palm Beach, Martin and Indian River Counties. That’s likely to reverse following Thanksgiving week with family get togethers – though that’s typically true everywhere – not just in Florida. So given that Florida’s 7th in flu activity most recently, there’s certainly nothing especially unusual about our state in comparison to others. Especially when you factor in how many visitors our state regularly sees. So how about in comparison to prior years?
Notably on the same date a year ago Florida’s rate of illness was higher than it currently is. Should you come across coverage that doesn’t provide that perspective it’s possible if not likely, you’re encountering hyped reporting. However, with that said, the level of the spread of illnesses is higher for this time of year in Florida than is normal. Of the prior 15 years, only last year’s flu season and the ‘09-’10 flu season produced more recorded instances of flu and non-COVID respiratory illnesses by this date. So effectively what we’re currently experiencing is a high level of illness we tend to see only about every five years. There are many reasons why this could be the case, perhaps the most likely is why last year turned out to be a high year for non-COVID illnesses... Actions taken during the pandemic. It’s widely known and accepted that by isolating, masking, etc. for an extended period, many Americans weren’t exposed to contagions we somewhat commonly come across and that our immune systems previously were able to combat without becoming ill. Without natural immunity to those contagions, it becomes more likely that more people fall ill when exposed to them. That principle would also help explain why COVID is proving to be the least impactful of the three illnesses this flu season. At this point who hasn’t had COVID-19 within the last three years? So that’s my hypothesis for what’s happening here. As always there are two sides to stories and one side to facts... What I’ve presented are the facts and my hypothesis based upon them. Now you can decide...and hopefully stay healthy!