Friday, January 17, 2020

appeared on radio with NPR “Here and Now” on the pediatric Influenza B situation. Influenza B predominating yet the Victoria B in the vaccine is only a 58% match and so children are getting a double whammy with B predominating early in the year and continuing and the vaccine is not well matched. In this regard, there are more pediatric deaths (39) thus far at this point in the season compared to most other years. The infection slope is high for all infections yet the total deaths and hospitalization are not that high, likely because there is little H3N2 and that is the virus that affects the elderly the most and the elderly accound for most of the hospitalizations and deaths. Jennifer Ashton of ABC World News Tonight called me in a panic about 15 minutes before she is to go on the air about the Wuhan virus (2019nCoV). She wanted to get my take on the airport screening and the potential seriousness of the situation. I emphasized that we need to take this seriously and the airport screening is entirely appropriate. We are now doing entry screening at JFK, LAX and SFO of flights from Wuhan. There are a couple of direct flights per week from Wuhan to JFK and SFO