The U.S. is in the midst of a "quademic," with the flu, Covid-19, norovirus and RSV making the rounds. However, another disease is also on the rise: walking pneumonia. While generally mild, it can be severe in some cases, especially among young children.

What is it?
Walking pneumonia is a respiratory tract infection. In many cases, the person "will not even know they were infected, because their body clears the infection and it never causes significant or noticeable illness," said Johns Hopkins University. In some cases, however, it can cause fever, persistent or worsening cough, sore throat, tiredness, and headache. "While uncommon, serious complications can occur that require hospital care," said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The disease is not new but is rising in children. The percentage "grew from 1.0% to 7.2% among children ages 2 to 4 years and from 3.6% to 7.4% among children ages 5 to 17 years since the fall of 2024," said the CDC. Walking pneumonia progresses more gradually than traditional pneumonia, said Donald Dumford, an infectious disease specialist, to PBS News. 

Who's affected?
Traditional pneumonia can result in hospitalization, but walking pneumonia is a much milder form. Walking pneumonia "doesn't tend to cause much nasal or sinus congestion in adults, who tend to experience chest cold symptoms from an infection," said Johns Hopkins. "If someone other than a young child has a runny nose, nasal congestion or sinus buildup, it's more likely they have a viral infection — like the common cold, flu, or Covid — and not pneumonia."

But the disease largely affects younger children, who are more susceptible to worse symptoms. It's also very contagious. If it "enters a family, you actually expect that about 80% of the other kids in the family are going to get sick" and "about 40% of the adults are going to get sick," said Dumford. Luckily, traditional preventative measures can help to stop the spread, including washing your hands and covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze. And walking pneumonia can also be treated with antibiotics.

President-elect Donald Trump's pick to be the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights is an attorney, conservative activist and Fox News personality who raised her national profile during the Covid-19 pandemic by challenging stay-at-home, quarantine and mandatory face mask policies. Harmeet Dhillon has long served as a key part of the right-wing culture war's legal arm and will take on leading the Department of Justice's civil rights program.

Corporate attorney turned MAGA warrior
In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Dhillon worked with the American Civil Liberties Union in cases involving discrimination or harassment of Sikhs. Dhillon served as vice chair of the Republican Party of California from 2008 to 2010 and was one of San Francisco's leading Republican voices, which was the "loneliest job in politics," said SFGate. In 2018, she founded the Center for American Liberty, a legal nonprofit that maintains a "nationwide network of attorneys to zealously advocate for individual liberty and combat illegal discrimination," said the organization.

After the 2020 election, Dhillon "emerged as a fierce advocate of Trump's baseless assertions of widespread election fraud," said The Washington Post. She also challenged Ronna McDaniel for the leadership of the Republican National Committee in 2023, "seeking to make the party organization more Trump-friendly," said The Guardian.

Reactions split along familiar ideological lines
Conservatives lauded the pick. She's "regarded as smart, articulate and tough," said the National Review. Dhillon is an "ardent opponent of the left and a proven legal fighter," and her appointment means that Trump is "seizing what may well be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to undo all of the damage" that the left has done with the power of the DOJ, said Jonathan Tobin at the Jewish News Syndicate. 

Dillon's nomination was met with hostility in liberal and progressive circles. The pick "signals an alarming shift that could make life increasingly difficult for transgender people nationwide," said Erin Reed at Truthout, citing Dhillon's work representing detransitioners. Her career has been spent "eroding public trust in our electoral process and participating in a larger effort to undermine racial equity initiatives," said the Legal Defense Fund.