PIC: the new abbreviation you should know about, and it’s NOT for our coalition.

Were you wondering what happened to pneumonia and influenza, and their respective mortality rates this year?

Wonder no more.

Here, the CDC has lumped them together with Covid deaths, and now reports them, added together, as one figure, PIC (for Pneumonia, Influenza, and Covid).

“Severe Disease: Hospitalizations and Deaths

Within the past month, all age groups have reached their highest weekly hospitalization rate since the start of the pandemic. Based on death certificate data, the percentage of deaths attributed to PIC for week 49 was 14.3% and remains above the epidemic threshold. The weekly percentages of deaths due to PIC increased for seven weeks from early October through mid-November and are expected to increase for the most recent weeks as additional data are reported. Hospitalization rates for the most recent week are also expected to increase as additional data are reported.”

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html