Melissa's Musings(My opinionated view of life)

Opinion: With COVID, flu and RSV circulating, it's time to return to mask mandates

Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were three times as likely to die than those with seasonal influenza : Adults (aged 18 or older) hospitalized with COVID-19 are at higher risk of complications and death than those with influenza, despite being younger and having fewer chronic illnesses, according to a retrospective cohort study conducted at the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona.

Time to stock up on zinc? - Harvard Health : As winter approaches, it’s time to contend with rising rates of cold and flu. An analysis of studies suggests that over-the-counter zinc supplements may be one way to make cold and flu season a bit easier. But how strong is the evidence and what else could help?

You Can Get COVID and the Flu at the Same Time - The Atlantic : Looking for coinfections creates more work for doctors, and interpreting the results when they find multiple pathogens lurking inside someone’s organs makes for an even bigger clinical headache. But more and more studies are finding that coinfections are commonplace, so it’s important not to ignore them—particularly for patients who are very ill. Not everything in biology abides by Ockham’s razor, a principle attributed to the Franciscan friar and philosopher William of Ockham, which argues that, when given several possible solutions, the one with the least complexity is the most likely. “Ockham was not a physician,” Griffin said. “You can have more than one thing going on.” From the above linked article

The Future of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccination — Lessons from Influenza | NEJM

Understaffed hospitals dread overcrowding this winter, as flu mixes with COVID : Shots - Health News : NPR