00:00 Coughing, sneezing, wheezing. They're telltale signs of illness and of late it seems more
00:08 of us are getting sick. One driver is a spike in COVID.
00:12 I tested positive on Monday but I think it started on Saturday. I woke up with a cough
00:22 and a sneeze.
00:23 More of us could be getting COVID again soon. That's because a new family of competitive
00:28 sub-variants has arrived. Nicknamed FLIRT, they derive from JN1 and before that Omicron
00:34 and they're highly transmissible, dominating cases wherever they go. It could even lead
00:38 to updated vaccines at some stage.
00:41 What these variants are doing is they're just becoming better at navigating past and around.
00:46 It's not that the antibodies aren't binding but the virus is just becoming a little bit
00:49 slipperier.
00:50 While more of us are likely to get it, these variants cause less severe disease than earlier
00:54 ones.
00:55 The problem is a number of respiratory illnesses are also circulating, including the flu, whooping
01:01 coughs, so-called walking pneumonia and RSV. Carmel suspects she's had a double whammy.
01:07 I thought I probably, knowing my luck, had a combination of the flu and COVID.
01:12 All that illness could add pressure to our care systems.
01:15 There will be more flu, there is a little bit more RSV. The coincidence of these three
01:21 respiratory illnesses do pose some particular challenges to health care systems, to aged
01:26 care.
01:27 One of the effects is obviously people who get sick and need hospital care, but one of
01:31 the other effects is in terms of impacts upon our staff as well.
01:35 A timely reminder to be COVID safe.
01:37 I would do take the opportunity to encourage people who haven't been vaccinated for either
01:43 flu or keep up to date with their COVID boosters to please do so.
01:48 And maybe treat yourself to some new face masks.
01:50 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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