Pneumonia and COVID-19 Lead Respiratory Fatalities Last Week

The U.S. CDC reported last Friday that 2.3% of patient visits nationwide were due to respiratory illness that included fever plus a cough or sore throat, also referred to as Influenza Like-illness (ILI), decreased slightly over the past two weeks. 

And the National Center for Health Statistics Mortality Surveillance data available on June 2, 2022, showed that 7.8% of the deaths that occurred during the week ending May 28, 2022, were due to vaccine-preventable pneumonia, influenza, and/or COVID-19 (PIC).

Among the 986 PIC deaths reported for week #21, 488 listed pneumonia as an underlying or contributing cause of death on the death certificate, 483 had COVID-19, and 15 listed influenza.

This data indicates that current PIC mortality is due primarily to pneumonia, not COVID-19 or influenza.

Furthermore, 25 influenza-associated pediatric deaths occurring during the 2021-2022 season have been reported to CDC. 

This data is far below reports from 2019-2020 (199) and 2018-2019 (144) pre-COVID-19 flu seasons.

According to the CDC, these data are preliminary and may change as more data are received and processed.

Influenza vaccines, known as flu shots, protect people against ILI viruses that research indicates will be most common each flu season.

Flu shots are available at most pharmacies in the USA.

The latest influenza vaccine news is posted at PrecisionVaccinations.com/flu.

Note: This information was manually curated for mobile readers.