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Key indicators for respiratory illness declined for the first time in weeks after the holidays, signaling that the tripledemic of flu, COVID-19 and RSV may have peaked nationwide, according to updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics. (Bettelheim, 1/12)

As Colorado slogs through its fourth winter of the COVID-19 pandemic, a curious trend has emerged. This season — at least so far — the state reached its peak for hospitalizations of people with COVID in the second-to-last week of November. That’s almost exactly when a peak happened last year. And the year before that. And the year before that. (Ingold, 1/15)

Toward the beginning of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy’s latest podcast, the center’s director, epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, makes this statement about COVID-19: “there’s no arguing that we’re in the midst of a surge.” Similarly, the title of a recent article in the New York Times began, “We are in a big COVID wave…”  Both statements are driven at least in part by data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showing that COVID-19 levels measured in wastewater are now higher nationally than they have been for almost two years.  (Helmstetter, 1/12)

During the holidays, we gather to be merry and sneeze on each other. The result? A lump of coal in the form of increased circulation of COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. But now that we’re heading toward mid-January, it’s far from behind us. We won’t stop running fevers, sniffling and coughing for some time. It is still several weeks before these viruses are expected to hit a peak and fade, local health experts said. (Washington, 1/15)

Last fall, the World Health Organization and some national drug regulators urged influenza vaccine manufacturers to drop the component known as B/Yamagata from flu vaccines as quickly as possible, citing the fact that this lineage of flu B viruses appears to have been snuffed out during the Covid-19 pandemic. It might seem like that request would be as simple as deciding to leave blueberries out of a mixed-fruit smoothie. It turns out it is not. (Branswell, 1/16)

Virginia health officials said Saturday that a person passing through D.C.-area airports in early January after returning from international travel has come down with measles, warning that others may have been exposed to the disease. The Virginia Department of Health urged unvaccinated travelers who were at Dulles International Airport from 4 to 8 p.m. on Jan. 3 to be on the lookout for signs of measles. Health officials also issued a warning for people who were at Reagan National Airport between 2:30 and 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 4. (Diaz, 1/14)

It sounds like something Elon Musk might have cooked up: “Disease X.” In fact ... it’s the somewhat mysterious name for an illness caused by a currently unknown, yet serious microbial threat. The World Health Organization added Disease X in 2017 to a short list of pathogens deemed a top priority for research, alongside known killers like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Ebola. The issue made it onto the agenda of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, with WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus joining other health officials to discuss it. (Gale, 1/15)