Rob Stein

Well, this is kind of a good news, bad news story. Let's start with the good news. This winter's COVID surge looks like the mildest since the virus first emerged. Here's Caitlin Rivers. She's an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins.

Well, this is kind of a good news, bad news story. Let's start with the good news. This winter's COVID surge looks like the mildest since the virus first emerged. Here's Caitlin Rivers. She's an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins.

Well, this is kind of a good news, bad news story. Let's start with the good news. This winter's COVID surge looks like the mildest since the virus first emerged. Here's Caitlin Rivers. She's an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins.

There's still plenty of people getting it and even ending up in the hospital or worse. So River says people shouldn't let down their guard. Now, when it comes to COVID, though, I mean, why is this winter's COVID wave so mild? Well, one possible explanation is that we went through an unusually intense summer COVID surge that also started relatively late.

There's still plenty of people getting it and even ending up in the hospital or worse. So River says people shouldn't let down their guard. Now, when it comes to COVID, though, I mean, why is this winter's COVID wave so mild? Well, one possible explanation is that we went through an unusually intense summer COVID surge that also started relatively late.

There's still plenty of people getting it and even ending up in the hospital or worse. So River says people shouldn't let down their guard. Now, when it comes to COVID, though, I mean, why is this winter's COVID wave so mild? Well, one possible explanation is that we went through an unusually intense summer COVID surge that also started relatively late.

So lots of people may still have some immunity from when they had COVID this summer, but And no new variant has evolved that's any better at getting around the immunity people have built up. There's also a theory called viral interference. That's when the presence of one virus kind of pushes out other viruses. Here's Aubrey Gordon. She's an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan.

So lots of people may still have some immunity from when they had COVID this summer, but And no new variant has evolved that's any better at getting around the immunity people have built up. There's also a theory called viral interference. That's when the presence of one virus kind of pushes out other viruses. Here's Aubrey Gordon. She's an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan.

So lots of people may still have some immunity from when they had COVID this summer, but And no new variant has evolved that's any better at getting around the immunity people have built up. There's also a theory called viral interference. That's when the presence of one virus kind of pushes out other viruses. Here's Aubrey Gordon. She's an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan.

Now, you probably noticed she said there's a lot of flu out there, and that brings us to the bad news.

Now, you probably noticed she said there's a lot of flu out there, and that brings us to the bad news.

Now, you probably noticed she said there's a lot of flu out there, and that brings us to the bad news.

Well, this year's flu season started unusually early and has been pretty intense. And now it looks like we're getting hit by a second winter surge of flu. Here's Caitlin Rivers again from Johns Hopkins.

Well, this year's flu season started unusually early and has been pretty intense. And now it looks like we're getting hit by a second winter surge of flu. Here's Caitlin Rivers again from Johns Hopkins.

Well, this year's flu season started unusually early and has been pretty intense. And now it looks like we're getting hit by a second winter surge of flu. Here's Caitlin Rivers again from Johns Hopkins.

So it's looking like the intensity of this year's flu season could have a long tail.

So it's looking like the intensity of this year's flu season could have a long tail.

So it's looking like the intensity of this year's flu season could have a long tail.

No, no, which is good news. So far, testing hasn't spotted any signs that the whirring bird flu that's infecting dairy cows and poultry is spreading widely in people. So it's a bit of a mystery. It could just be kind of natural variation that happens with the flu.

No, no, which is good news. So far, testing hasn't spotted any signs that the whirring bird flu that's infecting dairy cows and poultry is spreading widely in people. So it's a bit of a mystery. It could just be kind of natural variation that happens with the flu.