covid resurgence? a lot of folks are talking about it, we don t really know what s coming. we know some hospitalizations are up but not as much as last year. what s going on? always great to be with you, aishah. first of all, you know, everyone remembers every single end of summer since we started in 2020 we ve always had a resurgence of cases towards the end of summer, beginning of school year. that s happening right now so, yes, you re seeing covid cases on the rise. good muse is hospitalizations are about 20-25% now what they were last year. so hospitalizations are still down, but you re going to see an uptick in hospitalizations because the more people who test positive, you re going to have some hospitalizations. it s just the ebb and flow of this. it s going to be, you know, cold covid and flu season, so we re going to have a lot of respiratory viruses, and every winter/fall, you re going to see a rise in cases. what people are talking about right now, you mentioned it, the var
the first time ever we have a tool to prevent rsv which you remember was filling our emergency departments aand hospitals last fall. for little kids, we have a shot that gives them some antibodies to protect them and for older folks, age 60 plus, we have a first time ever vaccine. this is great news and if americans avail themselves of these shots, we could stave off an overflowing emergency department and nanoverflowing hospital. i have fingers crossed as we head into this fall. and it is amazing to have something to do for rsv. what are you going to do? but now the vaccines seem very big. we know there is a new covid strain that health officials are warning about. why is it such a concern and do we know yet if the booster shot will be able to protect against it? yeah. my son said to me today, mom, covid is back.
experiencing and in our families and our communities, it is a continuation of a trend that pre-dated covid by over a decade. one of the saddest things about this increase in suicide deaths is the greatest increase in suicide deaths is firearm suicides or gun suicides. those have made up more than half of suicide deaths for a very long time and we ve seen that percentage increase in this latest year. and so for folks that are watching, i urge you if you have a friend or a family member that is feeling depressed or going through a moment of stress, to make sure that their connected to help, to know that you care about them and if they own or have access to a firearm, make sure that they can t acscess it until they re feeling better. that is best thing you could do to save someone s life. dr. plmegan ranney, thank yo so much. we appreciate it. thank you. and just a note to anyone struggling or who knows someone
resurgence. what you need to know to keep yourself and your family safe. plus, what is it really like world? post pandemic restaurant food network s bobby flay joining anderson cooper to see how the industry is adapting. don t miss a new episode tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern only on cnn. plus, switch, keep your number, and get t up to $300 off. with verizon business. it s your business. it s your verizon. the first time you connected your godaddy website and your store was also the first time you realized. well, we can do anything. cheeseca cookies? the chookie! mana all your sales from one place with a partner that always puts you first. (we did it) my dad was a hard worker. he used to do side jobs installing windows, charging something like a hundred bucks a window when other guys were charging four to five-hundred bucks. he just didn t wanna do that. he was proud of the price he was charging. my dad instilled in me,
yes, covid is still here, right. it has never gone away. but this is not the same as the summer surge that we saw last year or the year before or the year before that. this is a variant of interest, not a variant of concern. we are seeing a mall increase in hospitalizations and deaths but nothing like what we saw in prior years. to me this is really that signal that as we head into the fall, we could be heading for worse. so, the takeaways for my son as well as for folks watching is if you re in a crowded place right now and particularly if you re high risk, wear a mask. because we are seeing increases spread of this new variant. if you have symptoms, if you feel like you ve got the flu, stay home, please. don t get other people sick and make sure you test and particularly if you re one in of the higher risk groups and you test, know that you could ask for paxlovid. now you mentioned the booster, we re really excited about it. erg suggests that it is going to