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WHO asks China for more information about rise in illnesses and pneumonia clusters (mainichi.jp)

submitted 9 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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GENEVA (AP) -- Chinese officials say they did not detect any "unusual or novel diseases" in the country, the World Health Organization said Thursday, following an official request by the U.N. health agency for information about a potentially worrying spike in respiratory illnesses and clusters of pneumonia in children.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 9 months ago

A reasonable explanation is in this thread: https://twitter.com/BlakeMMurdoch/status/1728160700965523736

Basically, COVID causes a similar immune deficiency to that of HIV. This deficiency weakens the body's response to other illnesses, making infections like RSV or pneumonia more severe or more frequent. We see this effect more commonly in children because children have a lower vaccination rate than adults.