RSV in kids threatens to overwhelm hospitals, the World Series is here: 5 Things podcast

On today's episode of the 5 Things podcast: Respiratory virus in infants and kids is threatening to overwhelm hospitals

Health reporter Adrianna Rodriguez has the latest. Plus, Sarasota Herald-Tribune political editor Zac Anderson looks at partisan politics in public schools, business reporter Charisse Jones gives the latest recession outlook, Elon Musk officially owns Twitter and the World Series begins.

Podcasts: True crime, in-depth interviews and more USA TODAY podcasts right here.

Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

Taylor Wilson:

Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson, and this is 5 Things you need to know Friday, the 28th of October, 2022. Today, a virus that's hitting hospitals hard.

Adrianna Rodriguez:

The COVID pandemic has been suppressing respiratory viruses for the past two years, but this year they're back and they're causing more hospitalizations.

Taylor Wilson:

Plus, a closer look at how partisan politics have infiltrated public schools. Elon Musk buys Twitter, and more.

♦

A respiratory virus known as RSV is hitting hospitals hard. In adults, RSV may appear as a common cold, but children and babies are more at risk for severe disease. USA TODAY Health reporter Adrianna Rodriguez explains why this uptick is important.

Adrianna Rodriguez:

Typically, pre-pandemic RSV had appeared around November, late October, and sort of continued on into the winter months around March. In 2020, we didn't really see RSV, neither did we see much flu or other respiratory viruses. Then in 2021, we actually saw an uptick of RSV in the summertime, which is really weird, and totally unheard of. This time around, we're starting to see RSV now a little earlier, but closer to where we normally see it in the fall and winter. The concern really is that we're overwhelming hospitals and using a lot of resources for this one virus, when we're at the time of year where multiple viruses circulate.

Taylor Wilson:

You can find a link to Adrianna's story in today's show notes. There are more tips for what parents can look out for, like dehydration, fever, or wheezing, all associated with RSV.

♦

USA TODAY's latest States of America explores how partisan politics have infiltrated public schools. It premieres tonight at 10:00pm Eastern on USA TODAY Network's YouTube page. Producer PJ Elliott spoke with Zac Anderson, political editor for the Sarasota Harold Tribune, about what to expect in the latest episode.

Zac Anderson:

The States of America is a long-form video series from USA TODAY, and they've done a few episodes around the country. They did one looking at abortion issues in Texas. They did one looking at farmers in Indiana, and they got interested in some of the education politics here in Florida. The show is going to be released on the USA TODAY Channel, which you can get on different streaming services. You can also get it on YouTube and on the USA TODAY website.

PJ Elliott:

Well, Zac, let's get into one of the topics. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been compared to Donald Trump on a lot of issues. How are these educational issues separating himself from the former president?

Zac Anderson:

As a president, it's harder to get bills passed. Trump's signature achievement was his tax cut bill, he didn't pass any education bills. But DeSantis has actually passed a lot of bills. And so I think that, rather than talk about some of these issues, he's really made a mark on them by passing actual legislation that has really transformed Florida's schools in many ways.

PJ Elliott:

Well, real quick before I let you go, let's get into the local level. How heated are these school board elections getting in Florida?

Zac Anderson:

Very. Very, very, very heated. More heated than I've ever seen. Usually, school board elections, historically, they're pretty sleepy. Candidates might raise a few thousand dollars. Now, you see candidates raising hundreds of thousands of dollars. You see Governor DeSantis endorsing in school board races, which we've never seen from a governor before.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Well, after months of experts predicting that we could see a recession in the US, will it actually come true? PJ Elliott spoke with USA TODAY Business reporter Charisse Jones to find out.

Charisse Jones:

The GDP grew 2.6% in the third quarter, and that was a real bright spot, because the economy had actually contracted in the first half of the year, and that was largely due to our trade deficit shrinking. Our exports were starting to outpace our imports, and business and consumer spending rose a little.

PJ Elliott:

Charisse, the Dow rallied, but reports were mixed. What does that say about the economy?

Charisse Jones:

I think people are just really nervous. They're seeing these bright spots like the GDP report that came out, that make them feel a little more confident. But at the same time, they're really bracing for this recession that so many economists have been talking about, and that the Fed has really been kind of pushing us toward, with all of the interest rate hikes that they've done, and the ones that they're still forecasting and planning to do.

PJ Elliott:

Well, with things looking better right now, does this mean that we may avoid a recession that a lot of experts were predicting?

Charisse Jones:

Probably not. Unfortunately, business and consumer spending is still slowing down. Some companies are already doing layoffs, and that's because we're still dealing with inflation that's at about a 40-year high. We added 263,000 jobs in September, which is great, but that's a lot less than the 383,000 jobs that we added in the previous quarter. And so people are remaining really concerned.

♦

Taylor Wilson:

Elon Musk now owns Twitter. The deal was initially supposed to close later today, but the New York Times reported last night that he began firing several top executives at the company. With the deal, Twitter is now again a private company, nearly nine years after going public. The billionaire agreed to buy the company in April and take it private, but he then spent months trying to back out of the deal, claiming that Twitter misrepresented the number of spam and fake accounts on its platform. Something Twitter denied.

The company then sued Musk to complete the purchase. A Delaware court had set a deadline for today for Musk to finalize the deal. The price, $44 billion. Before closing the deal, Musk changed his own Twitter bio to call himself Chief Twit. With more on the deal, and what happens next for the social media platform, I'm now joined by Money editor Riley Gutierrez McDermid. So Riley is the deal official?

Riley Gutierrez McDermid:

Elon Musk made a bid for Twitter in April. He offered, at the time, a per share price that is roughly $44 billion in valuation. Since then, that share price has gone down substantially. It has climbed up in the last few days, closer to what he bid for it, which is about $54 per share. And now it looks like he might be paying around... Well, lower, but closer to the value that he originally bid.

It was a very touch and go deal, and there were certainly many market watchers who posited that it was either one of the greatest business trolls of all time or would never be a deal that was completed at all.

Taylor Wilson:

And so what happens next for the platform? Can we expect major changes?

Riley Gutierrez McDermid:

Musk has talked a lot about how he wants to turn Twitter into a super app. Modeled on the types that you see in Asia, where not only can you chat there, you can bank there, you can send money. We know that he's already started firing some top executives. There were reports that he could fire as much as 75% of Twitter's workforce, which is about 7,500 people total right now. So that would take it down to about 2000 people for the whole workforce. And the vast majority of those people work in something called harm reduction, which is what social media calls moderation of harmful content like trolling, harassing, rape threats, things like that.

I think the average user of Twitter can expect a more confrontational experience when they use the platform. But Musk is a very good businessman and is already pitching ideas about subscription models where people could maybe pay to have less exposure to certain content, more exposure to other content.

He said that it wouldn't be a free-for-all hellscape on Twitter. He didn't, however, notably make this statement to users, he made it to advertisers. And advertisers are going to need to see a certain level of civility on the platform before they allow big name brand corporations to advertise there. And one of those will be whether or not former President Donald Trump is allowed, and his very vocal following, are allowed back onto the platform.

Taylor Wilson:

You can read more about the deal on USATODAY.com.

♦

The World Series is finally here. Game 1 is set for tonight in Texas between the National League champion Philadelphia Phillies and the American League champion Houston Astros. The Phillies are in their first World Series since 2009 and are trying to win it all for the first time since 2008. They had the second fewest wins of any playoff team, but pulled off some major upsets on their way to the final.

As for the Astros, they're undefeated this post-season. The 'Stros are back in the World Series for the fourth time in the last six years. But their 2017 championship has since been controversial, after Major League Baseball found they were illegally using technology to steal signs from opposing teams. So would the Astros be forgiven with the championship this time? USA TODAY Sports' Bob Nightengale and Steve Gardner weigh in.

Bob Nightengale:

There's only three position players left on the team, of that two pitchers. So hey, let's be honest, when they got caught in 2017, there were about a quart of the teams at baseball doing the same thing, the same teams they were playing against. They just happened to have a whistleblower, and their teams didn't. They still won games on the road and all that. So I think it'll always linger with those guys. We'll see what happens during the Hall of Fame balloting when guys like Jose Altuve goes on the ballot, but it should be forgotten about because this team is this great.

Steve Gardner:

I think that the people inside baseball recognize that it's a different Astros team, but I think the casual fan, probably the general baseball audience that's watching this World Series, still is going to associate Houston with cheating, no matter how long, or how successful they are since the scandal ended. I think that's what they have to overcome and it's not something that they're going to do with one World Series win.

Taylor Wilson:

These two squads have not played each other in the playoffs since 1980 when they were both still in the National League. You can tune in to game one tonight at 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific on Fox. And stay with USA TODAY'S sports for coverage throughout the series.

And you can find 5 Things every morning right here, wherever you're listening right now. Thanks to PJ Elliott, Shannon Green, and all of our great reporters for their work on the show, and I'm back tomorrow with more of 5 Things from USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Kids with RSV flood hospitals, Elon Musk takes Twitter: 5 Things podcast