Parents looking for Children’s Tylenol or Motrin may find empty shelves

Flu, RSV and COVID are making a lot of kids sick right now and that’s why parents might see empty store shelves when shopping for fever reducers.

HOUSTON — As if caring for a sick child isn’t tough enough, a lot of parents are having a hard time finding fever reducers for their kids.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told CNN that all but six states are experiencing high or very high respiratory virus levels so over-the-counter children’s medicines are in short supply.

“We’re facing an onslaught of three viruses — COVID, RSV and influenza. All simultaneously,” Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University told NPR. “We’re calling this a tripledemic.”

Johnson & Johnson makes Children’s Tylenol and Children’s Motrin. The company said there’s no supply chain issue or nationwide shortage, but the high demand is leaving some shelves empty.

“We are doing everything we can to make sure people have access to the products they need, including maximizing our production capacity, and running our sites 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” the company said in a statement to CNN.

Houston’s top doctor urged everyone to get their flu vaccine, especially young children and older people because they’re the most vulnerable.

Dr. David Persse with the Houston Health Department said this season’s flu is hitting people of all ages really hard.

“This year, it came on very heavy, strong, very fast,” Persse said.

He said fewer flu cases in recent years is playing a part.

“Those who would have gotten infected a year or two ago had some degree of immunity,” Persse said. “This year. there is no immunity because they didn’t have it.”

RSV cases in kids also surged earlier than usual.

“This is a real emergency because we’re having hospitals that are being overwhelmed with RSV,” Dr. Joseph Varon with United Memorial Medical Center said in November.

As the holiday season continues, the tripledemic isn’t likely to go away anytime soon.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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