Governor Kathy Hochul and top state health officials say New Yorkers should start preparing for a surge in three different viruses, RSV, the flu, and COVID, as the holiday season gets underway.
Hochul says doctors and hospitals in New York are bracing for a “tri-demic,” in the upcoming winter season, the respiratory virus RSV has been spiking in children for several weeks, and now the flu is on the rise, the governor believes largely due to New Yorkers attending Thanksgiving gatherings.
“We are not out of the woods,” Hochul said. “The threat is real, and we have cases.”
According to the federal Centers for Disease Control, two children have died from the flu so far, state health officials say one of those deaths was in New York. Children as young as six months old are eligible for the flu vaccine, and health experts recommend that everyone who is eligible get one.
There is no vaccine or antiviral medicines for the RSV virus.
Dr. Sallie Permar, pediatrician in chief with New York Presbyterian Hospital -Weill Cornell Medical Center, says there is potential for a vaccine and medicines to treat the respiratory virus to be ready for next year’s flu and cold season. She says for now, parents should monitor their sick child at home, and watch for these signs to determine if they need to go to the hospital.
“When you start seeing your child having difficulty breathing,” said Permar, who said warning signs include. rapid breathing, and breathing that makes it hard for the child to drink and remain hydrated.
She says another sign that it might be time to visit the hospital is if the child is dehydrated, and has not urinated in more than six hours.
“The emergency room is always available,” Permar said, though she recommends also contacting the child’s pediatrician.
State health commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett says it’s believed that the two years of social isolation, school closures and lockdowns are responsible for the viral outbreaks in a population that has not yet been exposed to the diseases.
“We’re coming out of a period when our children were really cloistered,” Bassett said. “We’re just speculating, that the kids haven’t been exposed to many common viruses that they, in another time, would have been exposed to.”
Finally, as year four of the COVID-19 pandemic approaches, cases are once again on the rise by 25% nationwide, and are increasing on Long Island, and hospitalizations are also up, a trend Dr. Basset finds “worrying.”
She says like the flu, there is of course a vaccine to help prevent COVID. And the bivalent booster shot, which protects against strains of the Omicron variant of the virus, is widely available.
But so far, just 13% of those eligible, and one third of seniors over age 65 have received the shot.
Unlike during the Omicron surge one year ago, Hochul has no plans to impose a mask mandate or place limits on business or social interactions.
Dr. Bassett says while masks are recommended in crowded indoor settings, governments have moved away from trying to force people to do so.
“People are tired of being told what to do,” said Bassett, who said people can make protective decisions on their own, like getting their booster shots.
“There’s a limit on how much we can legislate people’s behavior,” Bassett said.
Dr. Bassett is leaving at the end of the year. She told reporters at the briefing that it was her own idea to return to a prior post at Harvard.
Bassett replaced former state health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker. Zucker was appointed by former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who resigned in August of 2021 over multiple scandals, including the undercounting of COVID deaths in nursing homes at the height of the pandemic in the spring of 2020. Zucker left shortly after wards.
Hochul praised Bassett, and says she would have welcomed her staying longer in the post.
“There cannot have been a more challenging time for any public health professions to enter into a whole new position than we had last December,” said Hochul. “Her leadership really gave us a sense of calm.”
Bassett, in turn, says she believes Hochul “did everything possible” to manage the pandemic and prevent it from becoming worse.
The governor says she’s conducting nationwide search for a replacement, but does not expect to name anyone to the post anytime soon, saying “these are big shoes to fill”.
