tis the season for sickness. cases of the flu and rsv and covid are all still high in the u.s., and they re not going away just yet. the trifecta is raising concerns that more americans will get sick as they gather indoors or travel for family events. dr. tara narula joins us. what can people do to keep viruss from ruining their holiday plans? as someone who had christmas of 2020 ruined by covid, it is not fun to be away from your family. so certainly what you want to do is think about the events you want to attend this week or next, and count back by about five days. during that time, you really want to avoid large indoor unmasked crowds. if you do have to attend an event during that time, wear a high quality mask like an n95.
if you re going to attend with family in the coming weeks, make sure they re all strategizing and planning out in the same way, and keeping those vulnerable people in your parties safe. so if that means 245 you re sick and showing signs or symptoms, don t attend. other things you can think about doing, obviously staying up to date on your covid booster, your flu shot. ventilation, we can t underestimate the importance of that. hepa filters, open the windows. go outdoors if you live somewhere warm. and finally, the rapid covid tests to be taken right before you attend an event or at the door. these are all ways you can think about trying to stay safe. and as we re seeing a rise in the spread of these respiratory illnesses, cvs and walgreens are limiting how much children s pain relief medication a consumer can buy. these are widely used by parents when their kids suffer these viral infections to ease fevers and bring comfort. how big of a problem is this? it s certainly unnerving as
up. we have influenza. we have num cockle disease. we have strep, and several pathogens that are coming on early. and they re all hitting at once. the reason for wearing a mask and hand washing, yes, it s to help with covid, it really works well against some of the other pathogens. that s the thing to keep mindful of, that circulating right now as we head into the winter. such a good reminder. thank you. next, a one-man humanitarian mission. we re going to have you meet the former u.p.s. driver from maine who is saing lives on ukraine s front lines. yeah. i feel on the hook. i keep looking at the need and looking at the grief and the freezing cold and emaciated animals and the medical injuries and on and on. we sit down at the kitchen table, pull up the ancestry app, drink our coffee looking
terms of case positivity, in terms of number of cases, hospitalizations. and those deaths, even though they re 300, 400, that s more than 100,000 deaths annually, which is two or three-times our worst flu season. this is still a significant and killer illness. we need to take it seriously. from my view, the two biggest problems and gaps right now, not nearly enough people have gotten the booster. the reason you need to do that you have to get boosted anyway. after about five months after your last boost, the protection against hospitalization starts to wane, as well. you might get infection but not hospitalized. if you haven t been boosted in the last five months, you have some risk of being hospitalized with covid-19. and severe covid-19 is more likely to go on to develop long covid, as well. that s point one. point two is these new scrabble
happening in our country with gun violence, but also, their hope is, there will be celebrity football players. and when we re talking about celebrity, it can be high school through the college, to the nfl. they are hoping they will pick this mantle up and make a point to everybody that gun violence and mental illness are two serious problems that need attention in our country. kerry, thanks for bringing that story to us. the white house is preparing for a potential covid wave this winter. the administration just rolled out a new winter response plan. it includes bringing back those free at-home rapid covid tests, a new push for vaccines and having supplies ready to roll out to hard-hit states. joining me now is nbc news white house correspondent, mike menially, and peter cotez, the developer for the senior