Daily Archives: October 17, 2022

Introduction

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) represents a new infectious disease caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that has led to a pandemic and caused a universal concern [1]. The extraordinary condition of the pandemic and the need to adapt to the SARS-CoV-2 challenges resulted in significant costs to physical and mental health around the world [1-2], which increased associated morbidity and mortality in all ages. Furthermore, the unprecedented climate of fear, isolation, minimization of social interactions, and disruption of peoples daily routines changed the way in which all manner of activities were conducted, including education, work, social interaction, and hobbies for most people [3]. As a consequence, a number of health problems arose, including physical, psychological, social, and emotional.

In particular, education was a major field affected by the pandemic. The true extent of the impact on teaching and learning, for students and teachers alike, is yet to be fully determined [4]. During the pandemic, more than 80% of students around the world have been affected by school closures [5]. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), partial- or full-school closures were still affecting about 70% of the worldwide student population one year into the pandemic, and literacy levels were projected to decrease, with more than 100 million additional children affected. The more pessimistic scenarios refer to a looming "generational catastrophe" [6].

Balancing the above, we believe that there are several take-home messages that need to be recognized in an attempt to revive societys systemic approach. Educators have a responsibility to promote fundamental values and principles, while education is closely linked to health and well-being and is considered one of the most important modifiable social determinants of health [5,7]. Many countries have tried to keep schools open or re-open schools safely in the event of prolonged closures by putting in place locally adapted health and safety policies to protect learners and school staff [7]. The changes in the realm of education, and more specifically, preventive interventions in the context of health education, have drawn attention to difficulties and obstacles, but have also given prominence to new possibilities and opportunities.

In the current manuscript, we analyze five important aspects of the above-described landscape by exploring the lessons learned from the current pandemic while focusing on the opportunities lying ahead in school activities and interventions in order to further develop the important field of health education. We discuss five specific possibilities that have been highlighted and could serve as a symbolic transformation from VIRAL to VITAL in health education, which include: value in health, interventions in health education, transfer and diffusion of health messages, applications of online and distance learning, and life examples: from vague theory to real life. Each opportunity has been aligned with one relevant excerpt from ancient Greek literature.

"Health is best": The great Greek philosopher Plato argues that health is one of the best goods [8].

The threat, danger, and uncertainty of the pandemic have shifted societys focus on the values of life, health, and safety, which are recognized as valuable goods and demand particular attention, as opposed to the prevailing common perception that they are self-evident. In the famous pyramid of the hierarchy of human needs designed by the psychologist Abraham Maslow (1943: A Theory of Human Motivation), the scientist placed security at the base, as a fundamental good along with the main needs of survival [9]. However, the attribution of value to health is not self-evident. A large percentage of people, up to 40%, do not rank health in the top five values, giving priority to others, including the utmost value of freedom [10]. However, the value attributed to health is an important predictor of a person's intentions and behaviors [11-12], with the consequence that people adopt preventive behaviors only when they value health as a major asset. In other words, the more one considers health as a fundamental and primary need, the more one classifies it in its top values, the less one passes it as a given and self-evident, and the more one follows behaviors that protect and promote it [13].

The post-pandemic shift in social interest toward safety and health has consistently placed much higher importance on the strengthening, implementation, and adoption of preventive behaviors. As a consequence, several opportunities have emerged during the current pandemic regarding the value of health, which may be exploited in health education. Briefly, we may point out the reorganization of the human value system leading to the recognition of health as a primary asset and its placement in the center of people's interests; the reconstruction of the common prevailing perception that health is given and self-evident; the focus on safeguarding, defending, and strengthening health; and the need to promote, enforce, and implement preventive behaviors that protect health.

"Best to prevent than treat" The Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, claims that prevention is better than treatment [14].

Interventions in the framework of health education constitute a widely promoted goal in public health. Activities and interventions are a vital component of campaigns to raise awareness and inform not only the students but also the general public. It is of primary importance to raise awareness and inform the student population within the supportive environment of schools, an ideal setting to communicate with a large number of young people [15]. Such actions aim to promote health-positive attitudes among students by improving knowledge, rebuilding perceptions, changing beliefs, modifying misconceptions, prioritizing values, and reinforcing attitudes that value health.

The global health crisis highlighted and reaffirmed the value and usefulness of health education, with particular attention to personal hygiene, fresh air, healthy breathing, a balanced diet, physical activity, and quality of sleep. The children were asked to use their knowledge and skills about proper hand washing, covering their mouths in coughing and sneezing, using clean tissues, and many more hygiene measures in real-life scenarios [16]. This acquired knowledge was applied along with new ones concerning the more frequent washing of hands, the avoidance of finger contact with the face, the eyes, or the mouth, and the observance of social distance. Never before have the goals of preventive interventions in schools been served more effectively and proved to be so relevant and necessary to everyday activities [17]. In addition, the need for additional actions related to the expression of negative emotions, management, and control of anxiety, dysthymia, tension, stress, anxiety, fear, panic, or anger, which strongly manifested during the period of pandemic under the state of global threat, has emerged [18]. As a result of all of the above, emerging opportunities include the necessity of continuing and enhancing preventive interventions; the importance of health promotion as an educational priority; and the enrichment of school interventions by including stress and negative emotion management modules through the cultivation and strengthening of personal and social skills [19-20].

"We believe, the children, are the soul of the state." The wise ancient Greek legislator Solon claimed that children are the soul of each society.

As discussed below, children may also serve as vehicles for transferring ideas and information between the family and the greater community. This is important since public health and health education are closely interconnected as public health is considered the broadest bridge between science and society [18,21]. The current health "emergency" has made it clear that the effective transmission of health messages concerning universal measures to protect public health is a necessary precondition. According to the science of communication, extremely important elements are the content of the message, its expression, and the strengthening of its persuasiveness (exercise of persuasion) [22]. While it seems that parents are the ones who usually influence their children, the opposite may also be true, that is, children can be the ones who can influence the knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of parents, but also their immediate community [23].

In important health-education issues, such as adhering to the no-smoking rule at home, children seem to play an effective role as counselors and facilitators in the transmission of anti-smoking messages to the home environment [24] as well as serving as educators of their peers in peer-to-peer activities [25-26]. Challenges, as well as opportunities, arose regarding the dissemination of health education messages through the active role of students who could act as transport vehicles outside the narrow confines of the classroom. Therefore, students could mobilize their parents, siblings, and other important adults by serving as catalysts, proving that their voice has power and deserves to be heard [24].

In such a way, the dynamics of the school could be expanded to achieve, through students, a new potential to serve as a no-barrier two-way multi-modal institution to promote communication and influence families and the wider community. The pandemic has forced us to make the connection between health education and the learners home as well as the wider society. Highlighted opportunities include the possibility of communication between the school and the students families and the wider community for the diffusion of health messages beyond the school hall and the implementation of a simple and promising practice of transmitting health-education principles via students to home environments and communities alike, serving as a new legacy for the future.

"The need is an invincible strength." The great dramatic poet Aeschylus emphasizes that the power of need is invincible [27].

Over the last decade, digital tools in general and virtual learning environments, in particular, became increasingly prominent in education, but for the most part, they did not replace in-person learning [28]. During the pandemic, the number of online classes skyrocketed on a global scale, with more than 1.5 billion students in 188 countries around the globe being involved [29]. However, little consideration was given to whether online distance learning (ODL) is equivalent and has a similar cost-benefit profile to in-person education [4,29]. As discussed below, the benefits of ODL do not seem to outweigh the costs. It should be noted, though, that ODL is not equivalent to the use of digital technologies in education. Digital technology can be used even during in-person learning, and it is necessary for students to familiarize themselves with digital methods of searching for information and obtaining self-acquired knowledge. The implementation of e-learning educational activities, incorporated under the pressing necessity of the pandemic, offered, in addition to knowledge, a reminder of life and continuity, which we can use, especially when addressing students of the online generation but also at older ages.

Among the advantages of ODL, we may quote that most of the terms (online learning, open learning, web-based learning, computer-mediated learning, blended learning, m-learning, etc.) provide the ability to use a computer connected to a network, which offers the possibility to learn from anywhere, anytime, at any pace, and with any means [30]. Online learning is defined as "learning experiences in synchronous or asynchronous environments using different devices (e.g., mobile phones, laptops, etc.) with internet access" [31]. There is a plethora of programs and applications which function as platforms for ODL, and they may be used in formal as well as informal education. Such technology enhances accessibility, can reach into rural and remote areas, and increases the potential for individualized instruction, while also providing flexibility and comfort [31-35]. As far as flexibility is concerned, learners can learn anytime and anywhere, as they can plan their time for the completion of courses and recorded lectures available online [32-33]. Furthermore, these applications are cheap and easy to use, while students and teachers can also save time and money by avoiding transportation, accommodation, and the overall cost of institution-based learning [31-35]. Finally, ODL contributes to the preservation of cohesion within the class in times when state restrictions do not permit in-person learning. Students have the right to continue their education in the light of potential new states of emergency, as was the case of the coronavirus outbreak [29].

However, several disadvantages of ODL may also apply and need to be considered. ODL requires familiarity with the specific technology being used. It focuses on the cognitive component and the transfer of information while diminishing the role of emotional stimuli and the possibility to convert information into experience. Furthermore, ODL is associated with emotions of isolation and loneliness, and it makes learners attention more susceptible to distractions. There are several indications that it is less effective, but this requires additional long-term evaluation [4,18,32-33,36-37]. Effective teaching does not depend only, or even mainly, on the quality of the information. The way in which information is transferred is as important as the information itself. This depends on the way in which the teacher expresses himself and addresses the students [38-39]. More specifically, the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the education of healthcare professionals, which relies on various sources of learning from teachers, peers, and patients [6]. Variations in eye contact, voice intensity, voice pitch, the pace of speech, body language, the atmosphere within the classroom, and the sense of group cohesion are all significantly damped down with ODL [40-42]. Furthermore, interactive learning opportunities, such as the ability of students to assume active roles, participate in live dialogue and discussions, the expression of doubt and disagreement, and the opportunity to debate, argue, and express thoughts and opinions, are all achieved to a lesser degree with ODL. Students are encouraged to participate more when they are being taught in person [32,43]. Passive listening is not as effective in achieving the desired learning outcomes since learning is influenced by an interaction of personal, behavioral, and environmental factors [44]. As such, the educational process has the teacher-learner relationship at its center [45].

ODL mainly focuses on information as its nature severely limits the ability to learn behaviors and instill values, which, according to Banduras Social Learning theory, are learned through the process of observation and emulation of role models in the environment [46-47]. Thus, online distance learning with social isolation is even more disadvantageous at younger ages. Finally, it limits the ability of the teacher to gain real-time feedback from students, which is a crucial factor in improving effectiveness and promoting motivation [32,44]. We always keep in mind that the center of every educational process is the human relationship between teacher and student [18].

Take-Home Message

The experience of the pandemic can function as a motivator to introduce further preventive interventions in health education, especially via online platforms, since this form of education was imposed in many parts of the world as part of the response to the pandemic. However, the scientific literature and our common experience show that the benefits of traditional in-person learning outweigh the advantages of ODL, which can nevertheless have a complementary role in cases where in-person learning is not physically possible or too costly [48]. Opportunities in this aspect include the possibility of using e-learning as an educational tool and a springboard for the utilization of internet applications in preventive interventions in the context of health education; the recognition of the need for improvements in online distance learning in terms of enhancing the interaction, feedback, and participation of learners while reducing cognitive load; and the exploration of the hybrid learning mode, by combining classical personal learning with e-learning activities, which seems to be more attractive and acceptable to students.

"Deeds and not words." The ancient Greek poet Aeschylus says that deeds are those that have value, not words [27].

What we teach in schools in the context of health education refers to protecting students from future hazards that seem distant, uncertain, vague, and frequently underestimated by children, due to their lack of perception of vulnerability and sense of omnipotence. Young people generally feel strong, healthy, and invulnerable. They avoid thinking about future problems; they are complacent or ignore them based on the phenomenon of optimistic bias. However, the advent of the pandemic also overturned this rule, in light of the fact that the danger from SARS-CoV-2 did not occupy only the press and the media, but took on the dimensions of an individual. The real-life threat was transformed from distant and future into tangible and imminent, giving flesh and blood to the invisible enemy that emerged as a present and immediate danger.

According to the Health Belief Model [49], the degree and likelihood of adopting a health-related behavior (such as the SARS-CoV-2 prevention and control measures) is determined by the perception of the threat, that is, the degree to which the disease is perceived as threatening, and by the perceived susceptibility and severity of the disease. In other words, the children who were taught about the hazard of coronavirus felt and understood that what they learned was not about a theoretical danger or a hypothetical issue, or even an abstract and imaginary danger, but a tangible reality and threat, the consequences of which could affect them and their family as well as the social environment. Even if they did not become sick themselves or members of their immediate family, they experienced significant changes in their daily lives, from the obligation to wear a mask, restrictions on leaving home, to changes in school, and the way they attended classes.

During the pandemic, the students practically recognized their personal involvement with the problem of COVID-19 disease, realized the danger on a personal level, and clarified the meaning of preventive practices, thus mobilizing themselves by willingly applying personal hygiene and protective measures, aiming to protect their own health and defend the safety of their own loved ones, transferring the principles of theory to real life. Opportunities arising from the above observations, which may promote health promotion and disease prevention programs, are supported by the transformation of theoretical knowledge into practice, hypothetical problems into experience, and general instructions into rescue tools; the application of theoretical principles of health education into real-life scenarios, students recognition of their personal relationship with the problem of COVID-19 and the development of awareness of the problem on a personal level of risk, which led them to understand the value and meaning of preventive practices; students mobilization to willingly implement measures for the protection of their own health and their loved ones; and understanding of preventive interventions in the context of health education, concerning not only the future but also the current risks that are prevented through the adoption of positive health behaviors.

The great historian, Thucydides, characterized the war as a "violent teacher," which creates "stressful" needs and takes away the comfort of life while changing people's behaviors by bringing to the surface features that were left well hidden under the convenience of everyday life during times of peace. This process leads to scraping the glaze of comfort and serenity, setting aside pretexts, and letting the forces of survival emerge. Similarly, we could view the current crisis of the pandemic, which in the field of education put us in front of many obstacles and challenges, but also unfolded hidden possibilities, prospects, and opportunities, acting as a "violent teacher" worth recognizing and exploring. As time passes and the pandemic seems to be fading, we could forget the difficulties we faced, but it is worth keeping and further exploring what they taught us.

Continued here:

Opportunities in Health Education in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Transforming Viral to Vital - Cureus

(The Hill) Chief White House medical adviser AnthonyFauci on Sunday said COVID-19 was politicized by a triple whammy as the pandemic hit an already divided nation during a contentious election year.

It got political very, very quickly because we had the misfortune of an outbreak, and a double misfortune of an outbreak in a divided society, and the triple misfortune of a divided society in an election year, Fauci said in an interview airedon ABCs This Week.

I mean, you couldnt get more cards stacked against you, than right there. It was a triple whammy.

Fauci has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, working under seven administrations, but surged into the spotlight as the lead voice of the Trump White House response to COVID-19.

He became a lightning rod for criticism and conspiracy theories throughout the pandemic, with some on the right insisting that Fauci was a Democratic puppet. The doctor also faced death threats for his public health guidance.

To say that I, who have been an advisor to seven presidents, and have never ever veered one way or the other from an ideological standpoint, for somebody to say that Im political, I mean thats completely crazy, Fauci said Sunday.

Fauci announced earlier this summer that he plans to step down from his position by the end of President Bidens time in office.

He later made it clear that his move away from his government position isnt a retirement, and that he plans to pursue other professional goals away from the White House.

Excerpt from:

Fauci says COVID-19 was politicized by triple whammy of outbreak, division and 2020 election - WJTV

Dear Advice Team: Do medical experts have any idea yet how long immunity from the bivalent COVID booster will last? I know that previous boosters showed waning immunity over time, and Im wondering what this means for vulnerability around the holidays. Also, are there any rumblings about if/when the next round of boosters will be available?

Welcome to Pandemic Problems, an advice column that aims to help Bay Area residents solve their pandemic and post-pandemic conundrums personal, practical or professional. As COVID evolves into an endemic disease, we know readers are trying to navigate the new normal. Send your questions and issues to pandemicproblems@sfchronicle.com.

Todays question is fielded by The Chronicles Anna Buchmann.

Dear Reader: Your questions about the new COVID-19 vaccine boosters are very timely. We are just six weeks into the rollout of the bivalent shots so-called because they target two coronavirus strains, the ancestral version plus the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants currently circulating and as you note, many of us are making holiday plans that involve travel and gathering with others.

Meanwhile, bivalent booster eligibility has already expanded to include younger children as of Wednesday, everyone ages 5 and up may receive one dose of Pfizers bivalent mRNA booster (for the Moderna version, its 6 and up) at least two months after completing their primary vaccine series or at least two months after their last dose of the original monovalent booster.

Health officials are urging people to get the new boosters to help head off a potential winter COVID-19 surge, with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data showing less than 6% of eligible people had gotten the bivalent shot as of Monday. The CDC now says you are up to date on COVID vaccination after receiving a primary series and the most recent booster dose recommended.

With that context, your first question was about the immunity we get from the bivalent booster and how long it lasts.

Compared with the original booster, the bivalent boosters nearly double the levels of antibodies that can prevent omicron from infecting cells, according to Dr. Nadia Roan, a UCSF immunologist and investigator at the Gladstone Institutes. But in the real world, its not currently clear how much more protective the bivalent booster is, she said via email.

As for immunity duration, if BA.4 and BA.5 stay dominant, the new booster could give excellent protection against even a mild infection for four to six months, UCSF infectious disease expert Dr. Peter Chin-Hong said in an email. However, if more immune-evasive variants gain a greater foothold, the booster could grant maximum protection for about two to four months, decent protection for about four to six months, and less protection after six months, he said.

Both Roan and Chin-Hong agreed that those up to date on their vaccinations will have long-lived protection against serious disease and death from COVID perhaps more than a year without further boosters, Chin-Hong said.

You asked specifically about the holiday season. By that time, those who received the bivalent booster at the start of the rollout can expect full protection against serious disease and death for sure and likely substantial protection against even a mild infection for that time period provided the variant mix (all flavors of omicron) stays similar, Chin-Hong said.

If you have not had COVID or received one of the original boosters in the past few months, I would suggest getting the bivalent soon, Roan said. Thats because after boosting, antibody levels spike in about a week and stay elevated before declining steadily, she said. Those antibodies decrease your chances of infection.

So if you wanted (to) maximize protection for the holiday season, it could be timed 2-3 weeks before then, she said.

Chin-Hongs advice was to get the bivalent booster by Halloween.

Not only will it make you more confident about trick-or-treating, you will optimize your protection against infection for when we expect cases to increase, he said.

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Full protection will kick in within two weeks, he said. This will increase your chances of not missing Thanksgiving dinner, that family reunion or long-awaited vacation trip.

Your final question was about a possible next round of boosters. Both Roan and Chin-Hong said they had not yet heard any discussion on that front, though Chin-Hong said its possible we may get updated COVID boosters annually, like the flu vaccine.

Any reformulation of the boosters for next winter, possibly by September 2023, would depend on what happens with variants, Chin-Hong said. If omicron continues to dominate, the formula might not change.

But it is very likely that COVID will continue to mutate, he said.

Pandemic Problems is written by Chronicle Advice Team members Annie Vainshtein, Kellie Hwang and Anna Buchmann, combining thorough reporting and guidance from Bay Area experts to help get answers and find a way forward.

Read more:

How long does immunity from the new COVID bivalent boosters last 'in the real world'? - San Francisco Chronicle

In recent weeks many children have returned to in-person learning and resumed after-school activities and sports. Some public health measures used to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 such as masks and social distancing, which are also effective against other respiratory viruses, have been lifted in many schools across the United States. While all of this has brought back a much-needed sense of normalcy for children and their families, it has also come with some challenges, including a significant increase in respiratory illnesses among kids.

Childrens hospitals in major U.S. cities have been reporting unusually high numbers of sick patients with respiratory illnesses caused by viruses other than the coronavirus. These include respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), enteroviruses(EV) and rhinovirus(RV), which mostly cause coldlike symptoms such as a runny nose, coughing, sneezing and fever.

Normally, these viruses emerge in the winter months. During this time, also known as respiratory viral season, pediatricians and hospitals are prepared to deal with an influx of patients sick with these viruses. However, this year the season started sooner than expected, and the number of children needing hospitalizations has been so high that in some areas hospital systems are already overwhelmed.

In general, pediatric hospitals operate relatively close to their capacity, Dr. Michael Chang, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at UTHealth Houston and Childrens Memorial Hermann Hospital, told Yahoo News. So when you see patients needing hospitalization for respiratory viruses at unusual times of the year, then it's easy to kind of reach capacity for hospitals.

In September, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted public health departments and doctors treating pediatric patients about some of these respiratory viruses. The agency issued a health advisory warning about an increase in the number of pediatric hospitalizations for severe respiratory illness where patients were testing positive for rhinovirus and/or enterovirus, including enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) which has been linked to a rare but serious condition called acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM. The main purpose of the advisory, the CDC said, was for doctors to keep this information top of mind when diagnosing and treating respiratory illnesses in children, as some of these viruses can have clinically similar presentations and be indistinguishable from one another.

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Chang said his home state of Texas is in the middle of a big RSV surge right now, which started a couple of weeks ago and wasnt expected until at least late October. We have something like 20% of our tests for RSV are positive, which is well above the 10% threshold that we consider kind of the epidemic level of RSV, he said.

Cases of enterovirus D68 have also gone up and are at a higher rate than baseline, according to Chang. He noted that the numbers for enterovirus are not as high as those seen in previous surges. However, he said doctors are not exactly sure how far into the surge they are because this is happening at an unusual time.

In addition, doctors in the state have started to see a number of flu cases again, earlier than expected. COVID-19 cases, however, are going down, Chang said.

Why are these respiratory viruses surging right now?

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted not only peoples lives but also historical seasonal patterns for other common respiratory viruses. Chang said these patterns have completely changed, and while its unclear why, it likely has a lot to do with human behavior.

We were really focused on those infection prevention techniques, which again, not only do they work for SARS-CoV-2, but they really work for most of the respiratory viruses, he said. We knew that those infection prevention techniques could work for the flu and RSV. It's just that we never executed them on such a global scale, right? Like we never did it in such a widespread fashion where so many people were wearing masks, so many people were isolating, so many people were physical distancing. So we never got to see the impact that those types of preventions on such a large scale could have for RSV and flu, but were obviously very effective.

Chang explained that the past two winters were among the mildest influenza seasons on record. Similarly, doctors didnt see much RSV in the winter of 2020-21, when the country was facing a COVID-19 surge and there were tight public health restrictions in place. However, as some of these pandemic restrictions were loosened last summer, there was a major surge of RSV. He said two things were unusual about it: how early it happened well before winter and how severe some of the cases were.

This year, RSV is once again surging earlier than usual, and flu cases have also started to increase in some parts of the country, particularly the Southeast and South Central U.S. According to health experts, we could face a severe flu season that coincides with a winter surge of COVID-19.

Another explanation for why these winter respiratory viruses are affecting us more now, experts say, is not necessarily because theyve changed but because we have less immunity against them.

Basically for two years, two winters where kids and adults would have been infected by RSV or by the flu, they didnt have it, and so some of that immunity that we would have had from infection before, we don't have now, Chang explained.

Which symptoms should parents be on the lookout for?

For most parents, all these viruses are pretty much going to be indistinguishable, Chang told Yahoo News. Common symptoms are a runny nose, sore throat and coughing. These, the pediatrician said, can last three to five days, sometimes peaking on day five, just before they start to subside.

Most children, he said, recover fully from these viruses with no long-term complications. However, parents of children with asthma or reactive airway disease (when asthma is suspected but not confirmed)need to be more cautious about these viruses, particularly enterovirus D68, which can cause more severe disease.

Certainly any time that you notice that theyre having difficulty, like with shortness of breath at rest, or if theyre having trouble completing their sentences, if theyre wheezing a lot, coughing is more severe, any type of shortness of breath and then any type of chest pain, you are going want to ... seek medical attention, Chang said.

Infants and younger children, particularly if they were born premature or have a history of underlying congenital heart disease, are at increased risk of severe illness from RSV, he explained.

The main things you want to look out for are difficulty with feeding, difficulty with catching their breath if they're taking a bottle or breastfeeding. Certainly decreased feeding, decreased appetite, he said.

How can parents best protect children right now?

There are currently no vaccines available for RSV, enterovirus D68 or rhinovirus. But Chang said the best way to protect children this winter is to make sure parents and children are vaccinated against those viruses that we do have vaccines for, such as flu and COVID-19.

Everybody who qualifies for [a] flu shot, which is pretty much everyone from 6 months to adult, should go and get their seasonal flu vaccine as soon as possible, Chang said.

He also urged those who have not been vaccinated against COVID-19 to get their shots.

The best way to minimize the risk of severe illness and hospitalization, whatever your age, whatever your underlying conditions, is to get vaccinated and be fully up to date on your SARS-CoV-2 immunizations, including the new bivalent boosters.

Cover thumbnail photo: Peter Cade via Getty Images

See the rest here:

Respiratory illnesses have spiked among children. Here's what parents need to know. - Yahoo News