Data Report

Hospitals limit visitation as new flu strain spreads across Eastern Carolina
by Emilia Paz
Mon, January 5, 2026 at 5:39 PM


“Fischer said people can spread the flu for up to two days before showing symptoms, which increases the risk in hospital settings…

Health officials also stress frequent handwashing as one of the most effective ways to prevent illness.

“In addition to CarolinaEast, ECU Health, Carteret Health Care, and Onslow Memorial Hospital have also implemented visitation restrictions as they work to prevent further spread of the flu.“

Onslow Memorial Hospital

Under the new guidelines, visitors 11 years old and younger are prohibited from all inpatient areas and waiting rooms.

In addition, any visitors showing respiratory symptoms are also prohibited from those areas, regardless of age.

Healthy visitors of any age are still allowed in hospital lobbies and retail or food service locations.

ECU Health

Due to high volumes, ECU Health may ask visitors to wait in an alternate off-unit location to adhere with facility safety protocols.

Carteret Health Care

BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT
Carteret Health Care is currently experiencing higher-than-expected levels of influenza. Because respiratory illnesses can spread quickly in larger groups, we highly encourage limiting visitors to 1 - 2 individuals at this time to help keep our patients and staff safe.

LINK:

https://wcti12.com/news/local/hospitals-limit-visitation-as-new-flu-strain-spreads-across-eastern-carolina

COMMENT:

“Fischer said people can spread the flu for up to two days before showing symptoms, which increases the risk in hospital settings…“

..So here are three hospitals that aren’t going to use masks.


“Healthy visitors of any age are still allowed in hospital lobbies and retail or food service locations”

...I suppose the hospital doesnt think the flu can exist up to two days before showing symptoms, which increases the risk in hospital lobbies and retail or food service locations.

..So hospitals admit they aren't taking measures to protect visitors and guests from the contagious illness that the patients bring in as well. Not a single hospital as of yet has said: Wear a mask so you don't catch the flu because we have patients with the flu here.

I don’t believe for a moment that the hospitals mentioned in this article who are busy caring for flu victims and in the midst of a flu outbreak nationwide have time to fully diagnose all these maskless healthy people moreover even if they were able to determine the health of guests and visitors I certainly don’t see any efforts to protect them from the flu by suggesting mask usage along with other precautions.

Moreover I see nothing that signifies that staff is going to mask and use precautions such as masking  to prevent the spread of airborne illness betwixt them, their patients or the visitors and guests even if the visitors and guests are perfectly healthy.

.. sounds like they are hosting a super spreader event by their own admission.

…Sounds like they definitely aren’t going to suggest to those they magically have deemed to be healthy to take precautions such as masking to prevent their healthy individuals from catching the flu from their patients.

I guess the hospitals here are under the false impression their staff don’t have to mask because they are healthy and ‘healthy’ doctors and nurses here also don’t have to mask because they are healthy and haven’t caught the flu yet while exposing themselves to the flu despite Fischer having said “people can spread the flu for up to two days before showing symptoms, which increases the risk in hospital settings”

There certainly doesn’t seem to be any building design or infrastructure  in place in the engineering sense …nothing -about the building design or it’s rooms, elevators and corridors and waiting rooms that can prevent the virus and the airborne illness and disease  from having great success spreading and finding hosts to multiply in betwixt the healthy and the sick.


.

I got a bad feeling the US will pass the 2025 measles count this year.
Four confirmed measles cases reported in Nebraska, no community spread identified.

Source of information.

1. KETV.

https://www.ketv.com/article/nebraska-measles-additional-confirmed-measles-cases-reported/69920252

Australia: Measles Exposure Alert Issued at Sydney Airport After Qantas Flight.

Source of information.

1. Aviation Analysis.

https://www.aviationanalysis.net/measles-exposure-alert-issued-at-sydney-airport-after-qantas-flight/

SUMMARY - South County Hospital (located in Rhode Island, USA) has re-instated masking requirements as of January 5, 2026. Visitors are required to wear a facility-issued mask in all areas. They are also asked not to enter the facility if they are experiencing acute respiratory symptoms.

LINK - https://turnto10.com/news/local/masking-required-at-south-county-hospital-flu-rising-in-rhode-island-massachusetts-jan-5-2026

So ironic to say if you are  "experiencing acute respiratory symptoms" do not enter our hospital or seek hospital care..lol. They should say wear a mask and get in line to be admitted as patient if you are experiencing acute respiratory symptoms. "Life-threatening" is actually  synonymous with the word "acute " sounds  pretty serious. Maybe the hospital should even prioritize a case like that.. make sure the patient is masked as well as those around them  first and try to bypass waiting room for such a patient having acute respiratory symptoms altogether! A person experiencing acute respiratory symptoms sounds like the very person who needs to be masked and treated and also one we should mask around!

Hospital says: "They are also asked not to enter the facility if they are experiencing acute respiratory symptoms"...

...That's equivalent to the hospital saying saying if you have a "life threatening" respiratory symptoms don't visit anybody at the hospital. It seems kind of odd to tell somebody publicly not to come to hospital. It seems  reasonable to request such people and the people around such a person to take precautions by wearing a masks around such people who come in who are having a life threatening difficulty with their respiratory functions (which is the same as having acute respiratory problems).

That  being said I guess they are justified in  trying to cut back on visitors who are ill who won't wear mask and think they just have a cold or something which in the first stages would constitute as being only minor  respiratory symptoms. Nevertheless seems like hospital is downplaying the seriousness of the outbreak and its almost as if the hospital could be interpreted as saying its okay to come in if you have a "mild" respiratory symptoms which is like saying if you have a tickle in your throat the last five hours or so  its probably okay for you to come on in and visit we love your company even though we are busy as all heck treating contagious loved ones...

...Then again perhaps hospitals would be just as well off to say people should not  visit the hospitals maskless regardless of if you are experiencing 'asymptomatic respiratory problems' even if they are minor ones during our flu outbreak.

See how allowing certain people to go maskless and doing so based on how they feel is absurd in a hospital setting? It just doesn't work to try to accommodate maskless people during an outbreak. These airborne illnesses include stages where people are sick and don't feel it  and they don't know it and that's what is meant by the term asymptomatic. When are doctors and nurses going to wake up and respect the asymptomatic stages of contagious illnesses where people aren't coughing or throwing up but they still make one another ill through germs we can't see that ride upon the vapors of breath, remain in the air for hours and even contaminate surfaces?

Again in the best interest of patients and staff to mask  alike you'd think its just easier to not make exceptions and stop trying to accommodate maskless people during flu outbreaks. Reality is maskless people are a burden, a threat and a threat to themselves and 'in the way' during flu outbreaks. Maskless people are like having too many bystanders in the the line of fire standing around during a catastrophe. We call them rubber necks.. people who turn their head to view accident alongside the road only to tail end the people in front of them in traffic. To accommodate the maskless, Just make the 'Maskless virus infection section' outdoors far away from hospital entrances alongside with the smoking section/area.

Why a hospital should have to accommodate maskless people even if they are healthy during a flu outbreak  is beyond me. The healthy active people are perfect prospective vectors and carriers of the flu which is why they should mask as well. Hospitals are accommodating the virus .. not really containing or quarantining the virus itself ...looking the other way when they allow the virus they host and claim to treat to feed on unsuspecting maskless guests and visitors that are allowed to be maskless around contagious people who inhabit any area (The virus isn't going to halt its activity in the waiting room...that waiting room is a great breeding ground for the virus no doubt..hospitals should deny that the waiting room is actually part of their property so they don't have to oversee it as a place where contagion can occur)...

..The problem is hospitals aren't taking measures to protect visitors and guests from the contagious illness that the patients bring in as well. Not a single hospital as of yet has said: Wear a mask so you don't catch the flu because we have patients with the flu here.

It's hypocritical and totally counterproductive for hospitals to accommodate the virus by accommodating maskless guests and maskless visitors to get unnecessarily exposed to the flu which the patients have. If I were a doctor or nurse I'd be thinking in the following terms..How do I contain the virus and keep it from spreading?...If we let people infect one another in the waiting room then that's no good. You don't want to inadvertently create a breeding ground area in the waiting room for the virus..You have to think like a virus like it is hunter in order to predict its pattern to ward it off from striking, feeding off its prey and multiplying! You have to quarantine the virus right away. You can't wait until aftwards to make people mask.. you can't wait for people to sign in or after they have already stretched themselves out amongst the upholstery in the chairs of the waiting room mingling with one another and then tell them to mask. By then its too late.. you have to mask in advance. You don't want to host the virus and accommodate it and toast to it in the waiting rooms, the elevator ride, and in the bathroom stalls! Even if person is proven totally healthy, Ya can't give a green card to healthy people saying its okay to go maskless and expose yourselves to our patients who have the flu because then the hospital is going to have repeat business at an undesirable rate. We can't afford to pretend viruses aren't going to multiply in the waiting rooms.

SUMMARY - A chickenpox outbreak has been declared at Fairview Elementary School, located in Buncombe county, North Carolina. As of January 2nd, there were 86 reported cases of chickenpox countywide, and school-aged children accounted for 66 of those reported cases.

LINK - https://828newsnow.com/news/228822-chickenpox-outbreak-confirmed-at-fairview-elementary/