A new coronavirus subvariant is creating concern in the U.S. as two other respiratory illnesses are keeping hospitals busy. And later, is the West politicizing COVID in China?

Last month, two respiratory viruses RSV and influenza drove hospitalizations rates to the highest level in more than a decade in the United States. 

Meanwhile, a new coronavirus subvariant has emerged and is rapidly spreading across the country. Public officials are concerned about the tripledemic and how it will add stress to an already overloaded health care system. 

Dr. William Haseltine talks about what can be done to stop the spread of this new variant and the concept of herd immunity.

Joining the discussion: 

• Yaneer Bar-Yam is President of the New England Complex Systems Institute. 
• Kate Tulenko is Founder and CEO of Corvus Health.
• Calvin Sun is an Emergency Medicine Physician and author of the book, “The Monsoon Diaries: A Doctor’s Journey of Hope and Healing from the ER Frontlines to the Far Reaches of the World.”

You really should mask up again, says infectious disease expert: The tripledemic is hitting "too fast and too furious." (via @CNBCMakeIt) https://t.co/rGyXU4GAAU

— CNBC (@CNBC) January 8, 2023

As the new year begins, U.S. infectious disease experts monitoring the "tripledemic" viruses say there's good news — and bad.

Here’s the latest on the flu, RSV and COVID. https://t.co/Wevcclq87y

— NPR (@NPR) January 7, 2023