Record number of parents miss work as respiratory illnesses spike in kids

Almost every child gets RSV before the age of 2. I don’t think we can go putting masks on babies, keeping them out of daycare, and encouraging them to wash their hands.

Not that adults can’t get it and transmit it, but my understanding is that it pretty much just washes through daycares in waves.

(1) There’s a lack of immunity to some old respiratory viruses that mutate every year. Should be back to normal in 1-2 years.

(2) COVID has made people more aware of respiratory illness in general. It has introduced basically everyone to the idea (and habit) of testing themselves. This means more people reporting, and more stories written about it. Whether this is a truly unusual spike (as opposed to being just seasonal) I’d be interested to know.