MILWAUKEE – If it feels like you, or one of your children, have been sick all fall, you’re not alone. “Back to the buffet,” says Dr. Tim Richer of Tosa Pediatrics. He tells WTMJ’s Wis. Morning News viruses, including COVID-19 are part of it, but he’s also seeing bacterial infections. “We do have several unique things happening, and every so often pertussis does make a comeback,” Richer said.
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If it’s been weeks, Richer added, it can be difficult to know whether young patients are dealing with a stubborn single illness, or back to back infections of a different variety. “You have people coming in for four or five weeks. You have to figure out if this is a complication of something you’ve had, or multiple things piling on one another.” Common cold, and walking pneumonia are other things Dr. Richer is seeing a lot of this season.
As for COVID-19, Richer says many parents are asking about vaccinating their children. “Sort of an uneasy, ‘should I or shouldn’t I? How do you feel about it?'” Richer points out with COVID-19 morbidity rates in children 2-3 times that of the flu, he recommends both vaccines for all eligible people. “The shots, both flu and COVID may not be great at preventing you from getting flu and COVID, but they’re very good at keeping you alive and keeping you out of the hospital.”
ASK A DOC: How does a pediatrician answer questions about COVID Vaccinations 4 years removed from the peak of the virus? Dr. Tim Richer on Wisconsin's Morning News:
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