Why Are We All So Sick?

Today, I'm curious about the question of whether we are sicker than “usual.” For many people, it feels that way. But we also know that fall is always a time of respiratory viruses. I believe there are two potential explanations for the current state. One is that there actually is more childhood illness — especially respiratory illness — than there was in 2019. A second possibility is that we are back to 2019 rates and we just forgot what it felt like. So which is it? This didn’t prove easy to answer. But today I’m going to tell you how I went about it. For more on this subject, including graphs from this post, check out ParentData.org. You can also become a paid subscriber for access to the full ParentData archive (searchable by topic) and an extra newsletter every week.