CDC Director: RSV Hospitalization Surge Partially Due to COVID ‘Mitigation Strategies’ 

On Tuesday’s “CNN Newsroom,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated that part of the reason why the healthcare system is facing a large influx of RSV cases is “because of COVID, because of all the mitigation strategies that we’ve had over the last several years,” “we have several years of children who’ve never seen RSV before. And because of that, we have these layers and more children who are requiring hospitalization than we see generally in a given season.”

Walensky said, “So, we have done a lot to foster improved and increased capabilities in our healthcare systems. It is also the case that, these — every year, during respiratory virus season, we see these peaks, we see these challenges in the healthcare system. It’s also the case that, right now, the viruses are impacting children more frequently than some of our older adults, RSV is well known to cause challenges with children during respiratory virus season. What we’ve seen is that because of COVID, because of all the mitigation strategies that we’ve had over the last several years, many of those children did not get exposed to RSV. So, we have several years of children who’ve never seen RSV before. And because of that, we have these layers and more children who are requiring hospitalization than we see generally in a given season.”

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