Cases of the human metapneumovirus (HMPV) are on the rise in China, causing global concern. The respiratory virus is not new, but much of the public was previously unaware of its existence. Experts say the disease is likely not going to be the next pandemic and the worry is a result of heightened wariness for respiratory illness in a post-Covid world.  

What's HMPV?
This respiratory virus circulates during cold and flu season and spreads through coughing, sneezing and coming into contact with contaminated surfaces. It presents as the common cold, with symptoms including cough, fever, shortness of breath, and congestion. While HMPV is not deadly, some cases can be more severe, especially in young children and the immunocompromised. 

While China seems to have a spike in cases, its "reported levels of respiratory infections were along usual and expected rates, said the World Health Organization (WHO). The rise of HMPV is likely because China "underwent one of the world's most restrictive and prolonged lockdowns in response to Covid, reducing people's exposure to other viruses," said The Washington Post. That created a "situation where people became more susceptible during a surge," leading to "unusual cases even in young and middle-aged adults." 

Should people be concerned?
Experts aren't sounding the alarm about HMPV yet. "It's not a new virus," said Margaret Harris, a spokesperson for the WHO. "It was first identified in 2001. It has been in the human population for a long time." 

HMPV is not expected to be a global pandemic like Covid-19. "There's 'broad population-level immunity to this virus globally; there was none for Covid," said The New York Times. "A severe HMPV season can strain hospital capacity, particularly pediatric wards, but does not overwhelm medical centers." While there's no vaccine or antiviral for the disease, it generally passes on its own. 

There's a "tendency post-Covid to treat every infectious disease as an emergency when it's not," Amesh Adalja, an infectious diseases doctor, said to the Post. However, HMPV "should not be ignored," said virologist Connor Bamford in an opinion for The i Paper. "We must continue research into these viruses so we can better deploy interventions like vaccines, antivirals and preventative measures for known and unknown viruses in the future."

Social media giant Meta has deleted a host of fake Facebook and Instagram profiles generated by artificial intelligence. This follows a backlash against what critics have dubbed AI-powered slop.

The AI avatars managed by Meta's platforms include "Liv," which posts images of "children that do not exist," and "Jade," which posts images of a "nonexistent vinyl collection," said Gizmodo. The AI "apocalypse is here, and it's far stupider and more depressing than we were promised." 

Social media slop 
The row over the AI Meta profiles reflects frustration over "how many of our social media spaces feel now," said Gizmodo. Platforms are "populated by undead posters" amplifying a tidal wave of low-quality, AI-generated images and copy. 

Four of the top 20 most-viewed posts on Facebook in the U.S. last fall were "obviously created by AI," said The Times. And that's likely to increase. Social media companies see generative AI technology as a way of "attracting new users and more content to their platforms," said the Financial Times. 

Search engine slop 
Google's search engine has also been "slammed with a tidal wave" of AI-generated content over the past year, said Futurism. For example, the top Google image result for William Shakespeare at the time of writing had been created by AI and with errors. "As far as we can tell, the English writer had five, not six, fingers on his left hand." 

Launched last year, Google's AI Overviews frequently deliver "weird" and sometimes outright incorrect results, while stealing human-written content, said The Verge. And the issue is "likely to get worse before it gets better," generative AI expert Bo Bergstedt said to The Times. It's what happens when "everybody suddenly has tools to create an image or text or music or video or whatever by just typing a prompt." 

Bergstedt's advice for navigating this emerging reality is to "slow down" and adopt more of a "journalistic practice." "If I see something that's strange or odd, I double-check it. I go and search for it afterward to see if I can find other sources."