The latest Covid 19 variant has been given this ominous moniker. Here is some current information on XBB.1.5 aka “the Kraken”. Bloomberg What We Know About the ‘Kraken’ Covid Variant XBB.1.5 and Why It’s Causing Concern A healthcare worker prepares…
ILI= Influenza Like Illness. The holidays have contributed to the rise in the number of respiratory infections, RSV, flu and Covid 19. Plus, there are the other rhinoviruses and adenoviruses that circulate this time of year. While flu and RSV…
The painting is called Arrangement in Grey and Black Number One,but is commonly referred to as Whistler’s Mother and hangs in the Musee D’ Orsay. Someone sent this to me right before Thanksgiving and I didn’t have time to post…
“Don’t travel” won’t cut it. One of my patients asked why I hadn’t posted lately. I said that I didn’t have any new news and that things were getting worse. The “Tripledemic” is a reality.  People don’t want to hear…
Tripledemic is the term that has been coined to describe a surge in cases of three viruses this fall, Covid 19, Respiratory Syncytial Virus and Influenza. My phone has been ringing again.  Not a good sign. There are new flu…
Bivalent vaccines have been a tough sell, but with new variants BX 1 and BX 1.1 increasing, getting one of the new boosters before the holidays is a reasonable thing to do. Studies have shown the neutralizing antibody levels…
Often times in people with Covid 19 it is not clear whether they should be treated with medication if their symptoms are mild. This article, which has not yet been peer reviewed, suggests that treatment with Nirmatrelvir (Paxlovid) may prevent…
The Flu season is off to an early start this year. Respiratory Syncytial Virus is also on the rise and while it usually affects children it also causes disease in adults and kills about 14,000 people a year. Covid 19…
Will there be a Covid wave this winter? Time will tell, but this is an interesting article from The Washington Post that tells us what might happen and why. Following that is an article from The New York Times which…
Finally, a picture of a different virus. The flu season usually begins in the Southern Hemisphere before moving North. That’s why Australia’s flu season usually predicts ours. When the pandemic hit and everything was shut down, so did the flu. …
