For a week in early October, Lucia Gugliotta, global head of people at AI video company Synthesia in London, worked with an unexpected office assistant: her feverish four-year-old daughter. “In the thick of it, she was in the bed behind me on Zoom calls, and I just apologized to my colleagues and explained,” she said. “She really suffered — high temperatures.” Two weeks earlier, her two-year-old son stayed home sick for a week.
Parents are facing a triple avalanche of influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), valiantly meeting work deadlines while struggling to fulfill return-to-office requirements. All three viruses are expected to keep doctor’s offices hopping for the coming months, alongside the spread of old standbys like strep throat and common colds.
