Amy Schumer reveals her son Gene, three, was ‘rushed to ER for RSV’

Amy Schumer revealed over the weekend that her son was rushed to the emergency room for the respiratory syncytial virus — and as a result, she had to miss a Saturday Night Live rehearsal.

The 41-year-old comedian shared on Sunday how her three-year-old son Gene had been diagnosed with the virus, which is spreading rapidly throughout the United States and threatens to overwhelm children’s hospitals.

RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, is a common infection that almost all children get before they are two years old and causes cold-like symptoms. It typically causes about 50,000 hospitalizations per year.

But during the pandemic, restrictions such as face masks and social distancing intended to stop the spread of COVID also halted the circulation of this virus, leaving young children without the immunity to fight it.

In the last week of October alone, the Centers for Disease Control report, more than 7,000 tests came back positive for the virus — which kills about 100 to 500 children each year.

“This has been the hardest week of my life,” Schumer wrote in a slideshow on Instagram. “I missed Thursday’s rehearsals when my son was rushed to the emergency room and admitted for RSV.”

Fortunately, she said, Gene is now safe and sound at home.

“Shout out to all the parents who are going through this right now,” she continued, adding that she “had to be with him all day at the hospital and the lovely people at @nbcsnl couldn’t have been more supportive.’

“The reason this show is so much fun to do isn’t really the performance or the show itself. “It’s time to spend time with the people out there,” Schumer raved about the SNL cast and crew, who described them as “the most talented people with the sweetest heart.”

The I Feel Pretty actress also assured her fans that Gene is already “home and better” after his hospitalization.

She concluded: ‘Thank you to everyone there and to the doctors and nurses who helped us.’

RSV has become an epidemic in the United States after cases of the virus were reported earlier than usual.

The virus usually appears in late fall/winter and then disappears before the spring and summer months.

But this year, cases of RSV have emerged in the spring, as schools shut down mask mandates and exposed children to viruses and other illnesses they may have come into contact with before.

RSV cases are now at levels comparable to December 2019 – the last year cases were this bad – and at their October high in four years.

It’s not clear how many have died in the current wave, but the CDC says that normally 100 to 500 die each year.

Schools across the country had to close for several days as a result, romper reports, in which the Decatur City Schools in Alabama switched to distance learning after nearly 100 students and about 30 percent of school staff reported having a fever or other symptoms.

Experts are now warning there could be a ‘triplemic’ this winter, with seasonal threats like RSV and the flu returning ‘with a vengeance’, while Covid infections are also expected to rise again.

And a new combination of Influenza A and RSV has created two new hybrid viruses, which would be completely unrecognizable to the immune system – increasing the risk that someone could become seriously ill.

“This kind of hybrid virus has never been described before,” says Professor Pablo Murcia of the University of Glasgow.

‘We are talking about viruses from two completely different families that coexist with the genomes and the external proteins of both viruses. It’s a new type of virus pathogen,” he said.

Those two viruses fused together could allow them to access more lung cells, experts say, and a hybrid virus could also increase the risk of causing a potentially fatal case of viral pneumonia.

But RSV on its own has proved life-threatening, with Allison Blocker, of North Carolina, sharing the horror she faced when her daughter, Ava, was put on a ventilator after a “mucus plug” caused her lungs to collapse.

She shared how her daughter didn’t seem to have a cough and runny nose until she first became ill last month.

But within a few days, the eight-week-old started wheezing and having trouble breathing.

Concerned, Blocker took her to the local clinic where nurses had “just one look” before calling an ambulance.

Ava was promptly hooked up to an oxygen device to stimulate her breathing for two and a half days, before being intubated and placed on a ventilator when mucus caused her lungs to collapse.

But after two and a half days, they put her on a ventilator when mucus caused her lungs to collapse.

She said, “You can’t help but go to that place, you can’t help but go to, “I’m going to lose my baby. I’ve only got eight weeks with my baby, I’m going to lose my baby. baby” .’

But after a week on the ventilator, Ava’s condition improved and she was discharged.

Another mum, Shanistry Ireland of Columbus, Ohio, also revealed that her two-month-old son Asa was rushed to hospital after RSV left his breathing “restricted and labored.”

Ireland helped her son “fight for his life” from the RSV infection, which also started showing mild symptoms in mid-October.

But his symptoms soon became “severe,” causing his breathing to become “heavy and restricted” and his ribcage retracted as he gasped.

Asa was then rushed to hospital where doctors diagnosed RSV in addition to bronchitis, rhinovirus and an ear infection.

She said she just “watched my eyes out” in the wards, adding, “I had no idea what my kid had, and I had no idea he was honestly fighting for his life.”

Fortunately, Pfizer’s experimental RSV vaccine has proven to be highly effective in fighting the rapidly spreading virus.

The pharmaceutical giant announced last week that his injection could reduce the risk of hospitalization in infants up to six months infected with the seasonal virus.

The vaccine is given to pregnant women during the late second to third trimesters of their pregnancy, which allows the antibodies to cross the placenta and protect the fetus.

Pfizer’s trial involved 7,400 pregnant women in 18 countries who received either a dose of the experimental vaccine or a placebo.

It was found that administering the vaccine to expectant mothers was nearly 82 percent effective in preventing serious illness caused by RSV in infants during their first 90 days of life.

After six months, the vaccine was still 69 percent effective.

Pfizer expects to complete its petition for Food and Drug Administration approval by the end of 2022, possibly giving a federal green light before the next respiratory infection season kicks off.