2024-12-23
8 分钟This is the Opinions, a show that brings you a mix of voices from New York Times opinion.
You've heard the news.
Here's what to make of it.
My name is Caitlin Rivers.
I'm an epidemiology professor and author of a recent book, Crisis Averted.
I specialize in epidemics and pandemics at the Johns Hopkins center for Health Security,
and I spent a lot of time during the COVID 19 pandemic writing reports
and offering support to elected leaders and public health officials about how to navigate the pandemic.
It's usually peak flu season right here in mid December, but we got a late start this year.
COVID 19 has been unusually quiet and influenza was a couple weeks later getting started than it is typically,
but it is picking up now as we head into the winter holidays.
This has been the worst year for walking pneumonia in probably four or five years.
Walking pneumonia is a more mild kind of pneumonia.
It's called walking pneumonia
because people who are sick with it are still going to work and still going to school often,
and it's identified when a cough won't go away.
And so a doctor orders a chest X ray.
And I know people who are particularly vulnerable, like those who are immunocompromised,
are wondering what should I be doing as I head to the airport for my winter travels.
For example, in my years as an epidemiologist,