Covid-19, a disease with tricks up its sleeve, hasn’t fallen into a seasonal pattern — yet
SARS-CoV-2 has not yet fallen into a predictable seasonal pattern of the type most respiratory pathogens follow, experts say.
To most people on the planet, the Covid-19 pandemic is over. But for many scientists who have been tracking the largest global infectious disease event in the era of molecular biology, there is still a step that the virus that caused it, SARS-CoV-2, hasn’t yet taken. It has not fallen into a predictable seasonal pattern of the type most respiratory pathogens follow.
Influenza strikes — at least in temperate climates — in the winter months, with activity often peaking in January or February. In the pre-Covid times, that was also true for RSV — respiratory syncytial virus — and a number of other bugs that inflict cold- and flu-like illnesses. Some respiratory pathogens seem to prefer fall or spring. Even measles, when that disease circulated widely, had a seasonality in our part of the world, typically striking in late winter or early spring.
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