Tripledemic appears to be waning

Americans can breathe easier as COVID, flu, and RSV all seem to be declining.

“Early waves of respiratory syncytial virus and influenza peaked before the new year,” writes Fenit Nirappil at The Washington Post. “And the expected winter uptick of coronavirus is nowhere close to overwhelming hospitals.”

While it’s difficult to track all infections, a new CDC data dashboard indicates that emergency room visits for all three viruses are at the lowest level in three months, reports Deirdre McPhillips at CNN.

“Being able to look at the proportion of individuals that seek care at an emergency department for these respiratory illness concerns is a really good measure of the respiratory disease season,” said Janet Hamilton, executive director of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists.

But winter isn’t over. “Whether that pattern will hold is still up in the air,” warns McPhillips. Respiratory virus activity remains higher than normal in most parts of the U.S. And in some years the flu has a second winter peak.

The CDC currently lists fewer than 4% of U.S. communities at the “high” level of COVID community transmission, but the highly contagious XBB.1.5 variant continues to spread. That variant now makes up more than half of the nation’s variant pool. And less than 16% of the population is up to date on their COVID vaccines.