Facts

• According to a modeling forecast released on Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COVID, RSV, and influenza will likely impact the US healthcare system simultaneously this fall and winter.
• The CDC predicts either staggered peaks of moderate flu, RSV, and COVID activity or possibly overlapping peaks of moderate COVID activity along with severe flu and RSV activity during this year's respiratory virus season.
• The CDC also expects the total number of hospitalizations from the "tripledemic" to be similar to last year, which was higher than pre-pandemic levels.
• Further, the CDC said that vaccines for all three respiratory viruses will be available this fall for the first time and encouraged people at higher risk of developing severe complications to get vaccinated.
• The organization predicted that if only adults aged 65 and older get vaccinated, instead of everyone older than six months, nearly 200K more people would require hospitalizations, and 15K more may die.
• In the last week of August, 18,871 patients were admitted to hospitals nationwide, up 9% on the previous week.