First Mississippi Child Dies of Flu in 2023-2024 Season
Mississippi saw its first child flu death of the 2023-2024 season.
Mississippi saw its first child flu death of the 2023-2024 season.
The Centers for Disease Control is warning of the worst flu season in over a decade, with more than 78,000 hospitalizations and 4,500 deaths across the nation this year alone. Mississippi’s health system, already struggling with the damage from years of COVID-19, is feeling the consequences of the surge as well.
“As SARS-CoV-2 continues to evolve and is likely to become endemic, it is possible people may need periodic booster shots for the foreseeable future,” Immunologist David R. Martinez writes. “I suspect scientists will eventually need to update the COVID-19 vaccine to take on newer variants, as they do for flu.”
A child has died of an influenza infection for the first time since May 2020, the Mississippi State Health Department reported this week. The state reported two child deaths from influenza in 2020, but flu activity levels plummeted as residents followed social-distancing guidelines in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today’s Americans have significant advantages over those of a century ago. We have a much better understanding of virology and epidemiology. We know that social distancing and masking work to help save lives. Most critically, we have multiple safe and effective vaccines that are being deployed, with the pace of vaccinations increasingly weekly.
Epidemiologists and public-health specialists have been using mathematical models to forecast the future in an effort to curb the coronvirus’ spread. But infectious disease modeling is tricky. Epidemiologists warn that “[m]odels are not crystal balls,” and even sophisticated versions, like those that combine forecasts or use machine learning, can’t necessarily reveal when the pandemic will end or how many people will die.
Beleaguered hospitals through the Magnolia State have begun taking extreme measures to stay afloat amid a mounting deluge of COVID-19 patients.
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