So far this season, there have been 895 hospitalizations for RSV. Of those, 836 have been children.
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Posted inHealth
Colorado health officials warn of “early and intense” respiratory virus season in children
Colorado is seeing a spike in cases of RSV in infants and toddlers at the same time influenza and COVID-19 cases are rising
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Colorado is having another good flu season so far. But that could change.
Last year, Colorado’s flu season was virtually nonexistent. Only 34 people were hospitalized for the flu during the entire 8-month season in 2020 and 2021. There were zero reported flu deaths among kids. This year, the flu season is, well, existent. There have been at least 36 flu hospitalizations so far, a number that started […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
You need a flu shot this year. Here’s a guide to help you find one in Colorado.
If there’s one thing health leaders across Colorado want you to do right now it’s to go get a flu shot. “It’s time to check off the flu shot on your to-do list,” Dr. Eric France, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s chief medical officer, said last week. During a relatively typical flu […]
Posted inOpinion, Write On, Colorado
When we met amid social distancing, it felt like starting our friendship from scratch
On March 25, I met a friend for a picnic near my home. For about eight months, he and I had gradually become accustomed to spending more and more time together. Before social distance began, we routinely spent 10-12 hours a week together, sharing meals, errands, conversations, and artistic projects, with the occasional evening date […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government
Coronavirus testing is lagging so much that some Colorado counties are asking citizens to self-report symptoms
They call it a citizen epidemiological project. As COVID-19 testing across the state and nation focuses on the already ill or high-risk workers, a grassroots program from Eagle County is taking root across Colorado as more communities enlist citizens to self-report their symptoms. With real-time citizen reports aligning with lab-confirmed test results, local health officials […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News, Politics and Government
Months ago, Colorado trained to prepare for a pandemic. But not one like the coronavirus.
In August, months before the first case of the new coronavirus was documented, some of Colorado’s top health officials gathered in a room at the state Department of Public Health and Environment to train for a pandemic. The hypothetical scenario: A highly infectious and lethal new virus had jumped from animals to humans in China […]
Posted inOpinion, Opinion Columns
Nicolais: Comparisons of the coronavirus to the flu should terrify us
Last Friday the 13th, my neighbor passed away. Gary had a weakened immune system, contracted influenza followed by pneumonia, survived on a ventilator for several days and finally died. I became profoundly mournful after hearing the news. First and foremost, I’d known Gary to be a good, kind and generous man in the 10 years […]
Posted inCOVID, Health, News
Colorado’s other pandemic: The 1918 flu and the lessons learned — or maybe not — for coronavirus
A run on surgical masks. No viable vaccine. Opportunists. Uncertainty. Fatalism. Fear. These were just a few of the elements converging at the uncontrolled intersection of medical science, politics and human nature — not this week, but a century ago, when the flu pandemic of 1918 crept into Colorado, gathered deadly momentum and claimed thousands […]
Posted inHealth, News
The startlingly high cost of the “free” flu shot
By Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News In the Byzantine world of health care pricing, most people wouldn’t expect that the ubiquitous flu shot could be a prime example of how the system’s lack of transparency can lead to disparate costs. The Affordable Care Act requires health insurers to cover all federally recommended vaccines at no […]