Is it COVID or something else? Parents of young kids navigate an unusually long flu season

If it feels like everyone you know has been sick recently, that’s because there’s a lot of different viruses circulating — some that are unusual for this time of year.

kids walk down a school hallway wearing masks
Students at Mariano Azuela Elementary School on Oct. 7, 2021. As COVID cases tick up in Chicago, kids are also getting colds and the flu at higher rates than expected. Manuel Martinez / WBEZ
kids walk down a school hallway wearing masks
Students at Mariano Azuela Elementary School on Oct. 7, 2021. As COVID cases tick up in Chicago, kids are also getting colds and the flu at higher rates than expected. Manuel Martinez / WBEZ

Is it COVID or something else? Parents of young kids navigate an unusually long flu season

If it feels like everyone you know has been sick recently, that’s because there’s a lot of different viruses circulating — some that are unusual for this time of year.

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Byron Adams said it feels like his 2-year-old daughter catches a virus at day care at least every other week, which sets off a familiar routine of adjusting child care plans.

When their daughter gets sent home for having cold or flu-like symptoms, the Edgewater family first tries to rule out COVID-19 with an at-home test or a trip to the pediatrician. Cold and flu symptoms typically go away in a couple of days, and then it’s back to day care — at least until the next phone call to come and pick her up.

Chicago parents know the routine all too well by this point in the pandemic.

And despite the warmer weather, which is typically a sign that cold and flu cases will soon dwindle, parents have not gotten the same sort of seasonal reprieve this year from common viruses.

Before the pandemic, Dr. Allison Bartlett of the University of Chicago said it was normal for her as a pediatrician to see parents bring their kids in for their eighth, ninth or 10th cold of the year caught in day care.

“That was our reality,” she said. “It was not at all uncommon to get five or 10 colds a year when you were a kid. And now we’re in this world where we’ve effectively prevented that, so now it’s sort of startling to have your child have a cold.”

The viruses that typically circulate in the winter months had been kept at bay as people were wearing masks and keeping their distance as part of attempts to stave off the spread of COVID-19, Dr. Michael Bauer of Northwestern Medicine said. With masks coming off, the flu, respiratory viruses and common cold are all spreading.

“Those viruses were suppressed during the earlier part of the pandemic, but they kind of took the attitude that ‘you can run but you can’t hide, we’re going to get you at some point,’ ” said Bauer, who is a pediatrician and the medical director at Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital.

Bartlett said a lot of the young kids who are getting sick at “off” times right now are kids who were born during the pandemic or were infants when the pandemic started, so they have not had the same number of colds other kids the same age may have typically had by now.

Throughout April and during the first part of May, there were about 300 known flu cases a week in Chicago, according to the city, which uses data on test results reported by several Chicago hospital labs. By comparison, throughout much of January and February, there were just tens of cases a week.

Bauer said spring break, when many students disperse, tends to be the end of flu season, but right now “we’re still seeing a fair amount of influenza.”

“Definitely higher rates right now than you would expect for May,” Bauer said.

In addition to COVID, the flu and RSV — a common contagious virus that causes respiratory infections often in young kids — Bartlett said there is also rhinovirus, which causes the common cold, adenovirus and other coronaviruses that have been “part of our repertoire, but are not COVID” circulating right now.

Throughout the pandemic, Chicago has experienced unusual seasonal patterns of RSV. Last summer, there was an unseasonable rise in cases among Chicago kids, including Adams’s daughter. Bauer said he had never seen a surge like that in his more than 30 years as a pediatrician.

Bauer said right now there have been some sporadic cases of RSV, but overall there has been “a pretty good drop of that since mid-to-late February.”

As other viruses tick upward, COVID is also climbing. Chicago is experiencing a “mini surge,” as Bauer put it, in COVID-19 cases with an average of more than 1,000 new cases a day — and the true number of cases is almost certainly higher given the prevalence of at-home testing.

Despite the rise in a variety of viruses right now, Bauer notes the vast majority of people getting COVID recently are not getting so sick that they need to be hospitalized, thanks to vaccines and boosters.

And Bartlett said she would reassure parents that the flu cases they are seeing are “not leading to a lot of children needing hospitalization.”

The risk for influenza infection remains low right now, according to the city, but the number of flu cases and the number of flu-related ICU hospitalizations have increased in recent weeks.

“So, lots of things that are giving kids coughs and stuffy noses and fevers,” she said.

Bauer said his advice to parents is to “control what you can control.”

That means good hand washing and avoiding “crowded, indoor, poorly ventilated areas, while these things are circulating.” And, staying home when you’re not feeling well, even if you test negative for COVID.

Going forward, Bauer said he expects a more predictable seasonality of viruses will return.

“I anticipate that we will still have typical flu seasons in the winter, typical RSV seasons, more in the late fall and early winter,” he said. “But it may take a bit of time to get back to that.”

Courtney Kueppers is a digital producer/reporter at WBEZ. Follow her @cmkueppers.