[prisoner655321]

Two hypotheses:

(1) There’s a lack of immunity to some old respiratory viruses that mutate every year. Should be back to normal in 1-2 years.

(2) COVID has made people more aware of respiratory illness in general. It has introduced basically everyone to the idea (and habit) of testing themselves. This means more people reporting, and more stories written about it. Whether this is a truly unusual spike (as opposed to being just seasonal) I’d be interested to know.

[dragonwriter]

(2) wouldn't explain the corresponding spike in pediatric ICU cases. Increased awareness and parental caution (and stronger COVID-driven school and daycare policies for kids to stay home from school with respiratory illness) would explain more lost days of work, but not kids ending up in ICUs.