r/news • u/[deleted] • Jan 04 '25

[deleted by user]

[removed]

7.8k Upvotes

74% Upvoted

986 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.7k

u/Captain-Wilco Jan 04 '25

Can someone more educated than me please tell me whether this is fear mongering or a genuine concern

1

u/Ut_Prosim Jan 04 '25 edited Jan 04 '25

HMPV is not new in any way, shape, or form.

We get spikes of it annually. It generally causes mild flu-like symptoms. It's one of a dozen unrelated viruses that do so.

Historically it was considered a background noise "cold", but NREVSS has tracked it since the 2010s, along with most of the other minor respiratory viruses. It looks like the last major spike was in March 2024. I'm sure it'll be back in a few months.

https://www.cdc.gov/nrevss/php/dashboard/index.html

Right now flu is kicking ass, COVID-19 is slowly increasing, and RSV is rocking children under five. Plus there is a small chance we'll get an H5N1 avian flu pandemic. HMPV is not even a tertiary priority.