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Melissa Harris-Perry: Welcome back to The Takeaway. I'm Melissa Harris-Perry. For months, experts have warned about a tripledemic, and it has arrived.
Rochelle Walensky: "As we are all aware, nationally, we are seeing elevated levels of respiratory viruses including RSV, flu and COVID-19. Especially for RSV and flu, these levels are higher than we generally see this time of year."
Melissa Harris-Perry: That was CDC Director Rochelle Walensky at a press briefing last week. Dr. Sandra Fryhofer, board chair of the American Medical Association also spoke, expressing alarm at what she's seeing in her practice.
Dr. Sandra Fryhofer: "I see patients in my office every day, and I can tell you firsthand, this year's flu season is off to a rough start. Flu is here. It started early, and with COVID and RSV also circulating, it's a perfect storm for a terrible holiday season."
Melissa Harris-Perry: COVID cases are rising, flu hospitalizations are at their highest level in a decade, and senior citizens, infants, and young children remain at heightened risk for RSV, and there's another problem. There ain't no medicine. Just take a walk through your local pharmacy and you may see empty shelves of over-the-counter medications, Tylenol, ibuprofen, and cough medicines.
Let me tell you, if your little one wakes up sick, you will quickly realize that the problem is especially acute for children's version of medicine, which for parents can mean a frantic call to the pediatrician to determine if other remedies are available to treat cough and congestion. That's exactly what caused a bit of a third grader rebellion in my household this weekend.
Child: "This medicine is the worst medicine I've ever tasted. I never want to taste it in my life again."
Melissa Harris-Perry: I mean, what can you do? Quick online search shows that if you order Children's Advil today, well, you'll get it in almost two weeks. That is not terribly helpful if your infant or kiddo is sick today. CDC Director Walensky says the CDC is aware of the drug shortages.
Rochelle Walensky: "Maybe I'll start and say CDC is aware of the reports of some of the shortages for both antivirals as well as antibiotics across the country. I know FDA is working with manufacturers to try and explore what can be done to address this."
Melissa Harris-Perry: The FDA said in a statement, it's assessing the situation, and "the FDA recognizes the potential impact that reduced availability of certain products may have on health care providers and patients. The public should rest assured that the FDA is working closely with numerous manufacturers and others in the supply chain to understand, mitigate, and prevent or reduce the impact of intermittent or reduced availability of certain products."
Drug makers and retailers are pointing to soaring demand as the root cause for shortages. There's also this issue of people stockpiling, which is leaving shelves empty. Johnson & Johnson, the maker of Tylenol, said in a statement, "We are doing everything we can to make sure people have access to the products they need, including maximizing our production capacity, and running our sites 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some products may be less readily available due to this increased demand, but we're not experiencing overall shortage of Children's Tylenol or Children's Motrin in the US."
It does feel like we are. We're going to continue to follow this story, and we'd love to hear from you. Have you been having trouble finding the medicine where you live? If so, give us a call and leave us a voicemail at 1-877-8-MY-TAKE.
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