It’s the season of respiratory illnesses and with COVID-19, RSV, and flu abound, it’s hard to make it to spring unscathed. Stories in the news talk about the recent rise in respiratory virus activity over the holidays (here, here, and here) and how respiratory symptoms just won’t seem to subside. A winter full of respiratory symptoms might be particularly true if you have a kid in school or daycare. When little Storm started daycare, we knew he'd be getting sick himself and bringing home the viruses behind these illnesses.
Three weeks after the start of daycare, Storm brought home a stomach bug. A few weeks after that, COVID-19. Then we couldn’t tell when one illness subsided and when the next began. The rate of illnesses has got to slow down at some point right? Naturally, as a microbiologist, I decided to scour the scientific literature looking for answers. Here’s what I found.
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