LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Flu and RSV hit with some ferocity this season, much earlier and more widespread than past years. As those numbers remain high, some lessons from the pandemic could come in handy.
"I think you're going to see masking kind of added on into that sort of, just, good, basic public health, just prevention, of not inhaling those germs," said Dr. Elizabeth Hawse, a pediatrician in Lexington.
Hawse said a it could be a good idea for some people to refresh their stock of masks to combat those respiratory illnesses, along with COVID.
"I've seen a family over the past week that their poor kid has had RSV, when that was a thing, then they had flu, they've had another virus and got a secondary pneumonia for that. They asked me, should we mask her just for the rest of the semester, and I told them, honestly, I probably would. Just from a standpoint of, when you've had that many back-to-back infections, your airways just really never get a chance to heal, so you're more susceptible to getting sick again," Hawse said.
Hawse recognizes that masks were a controversial topic for a lot of people over the last couple of years, but for people who choose to wear them, she said there could be a real benefit in helping to prevent flu infections.
"It's turned into a political thing, unfortunately, but if you just look at the cases of flu that we had, even when we were back out and about, but still masking, they were much lower, so certainly for flu, it seems to help a lot," she said.
Hawse said she has noticed more people wearing masks in crowded places like stores. While she understands some people might have a negative association because of mandates over the last couple of years, she wants people to think of them as a tool they can choose to use.
"I think you're seeing more people open to those suggestions. I mean, look, nobody wants to be told what to do, but I think we need to go from a mindset of 'I don't want to be told what to do' to saying to yourself, 'What can I do to help myself?' Hawse said.
