For this week’s Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Friday Faithfuls, Jim Adams has asked us about the latest disease making the rounds, Respiratory Syncytial Virus, or RSV.

Jim asks these questions:
How long you have been aware of RSV? I first heard about this disease this past October when my one-year-old granddaughter was diagnosed as having RSV. Then, in early November, my local newspaper had a headline about this winter’s “triple threat” of the flu, COVID, and RSV.
Did you or any one you know get RSV? Yes, as mentioned above, our granddaughter.
Do you think that life expectancy will continue to decline, or do you feel that better health care and hygiene, healthier lifestyles, diet, and improved medical care will reverse the trend? I am afraid that, between climate change being unabated and new and mutating diseases on the loose, the life expectancy trend will likely continue to decline.
If a scary new pathogen is lurking right around the corner and there’s not much you can do to stop it, do you want to know about it? I certainly think it’s important to know about these threats to our health and welfare. I’m willing to potentially isolate myself if that is the only way to stay safe.
Do you feel that anti-vaxxers are responsible for the reemergence of infections that were once well-contained? You’re damn right I do. What a bunch of selfish, ignorant jerks they all are. My son-in-law refused to get the latest COVID booster shot because it made him temporarily lose his equilibrium, he claimed. Oh boo hoo! He just tested positive for COVID, thus putting my daughter and the rest of us at risk.
What are your thoughts on antibiotic-resistant bacteria that have developed the ability to defeat the drugs that were designed to kill them? Unfortunately, I think these viruses and bacteria will continue to evolve and mutate in order to survive and thrive. Thus, medical science will continually be playing catch-up and these viruses and bacteria will continue to cause havoc on humanity.
Sorry for my relatively pessimistic outlook, but that’s the way I feel.