Los Angeles Times: COVID-19 Intensifies Across California, With the Worst Probably Still to Come

The Los Angeles Times recently interviewed Caroline Goldzweig, MD, chief medical officer of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Network, about the early-January surge of COVID-19 and flu throughout California and across the country and what to expect for the remainder of the winter season.

“There’s just this dramatic rise in influenza,” Goldzweig told the Los Angeles Times. “It’s a mixture of the three viruses—influenza, COVID and RSV [respiratory syncytial virus]—but there’s also many other respiratory viruses that we’re also seeing that are always more prevalent during the winter.”

To lessen the risk of getting sick or developing severe illness, experts recommend getting the latest COVID-19 vaccine and flu shot. An RSV vaccine also is available for infants, expectant mothers and adults over 60 years of age.

“People who are diligent and get the updated vaccinations as they come out, they’re just going to be less likely to have severe disease,” Goldzweig told the Los Angeles Times.

Experts caution that although COVID-19 is less deadly now than in the earlier days of the pandemic, there are still unknowns about the disease’s aftereffects.

“We will still see people getting long COVID—even if they’ve had COVID before, even if they’ve been vaccinated,” Goldzweig told the Los Angeles Times.

The number of positive COVID-19 and flu tests were increasing in L.A. County in January. Nationally, wastewater data indicated that this winter could see the highest number of COVID-19 cases in two years.

Click here to read the complete article from the Los Angeles Times.