A substantial number of influenza-associated deaths occurred among U.S. children during the 2003-2004 influenza season. High priority should be given to improvements in influenza-vaccine coverage and improvements in the diagnosis and treatment of influenza to reduce childhood mortality from influenza.

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Early recognition of pertussis in young infants and treatment with appropriate antibiotic therapy are important in preventing death. Several risk factors are strongly associated with fatal pertussis in infants.

With a population of forty million and substantial geographic variation in sociodemographics and health services, California is an important setting in which to study disparities. Its population (37.5 percent White, 39.1 percent Latino, 5.3 percent Black, and 14.4 percent Asian) experienced 59,258 COVID-19 deaths through April 14, 2021-the most of any state. We analyzed California's racial/ethnic disparities in COVID-19 exposure risks, testing rates, test positivity, and case rates through October 2020, combining data from 15.4 million SARS-CoV-2 tests with subcounty exposure risk estimates from the American Community Survey. We defined "high-exposure-risk" households as those with one or more essential workers and fewer rooms than inhabitants. Latino people in California are 8.1 times more likely to live in high-exposure-risk households than White people (23.6 percent versus 2.9 percent), are overrepresented in cumulative cases (3,784 versus 1,112 per 100,000 people), and are underrepresented in cumulative testing (35,635 versus 48,930 per 100,000 people). These risks and outcomes were worse for Latino people than for members of other racial/ ethnic minority groups. Subcounty disparity analyses can inform targeting of interventions and resources, including community-based testing and vaccine access measures. Tracking COVID-19 disparities and developing equity-focused public health programming that mitigates the effects of systemic racism can help improve health outcomes among California's populations of color. T he COVID-19 pandemic in the US has disproportionately affected people with low socioeconomic status, as well as Black, Indigenous, and Latino people, 1-6 all of whom have experienced higher rates of cases, 7,8 hospitalizations, 1,9,10 and deaths. 8,9,11 As a state with a population of forty million with substantial county and regional variation in terms of dem-ographics, socioeconomic status, and health services, California is an important setting in which to study these disparities. As of April 14, 2021, California's 59,258 total COVID-19 deaths represented the highest number among all states, within a statewide population that is 37.5 percent White, 39.1 percent Latino, 5.3 percent Black, and 14.4 percent Asian. 12,13 Previous analyses of COVID-19 disparities in California have focused

SUMMARYAcute respiratory infections (ARI) are the leading cause of death worldwide in children aged <5 years, and understanding contributing factors to their seasonality is important for targeting and implementing prevention strategies. In tropical climates, ARI typically peak during the pre-rainy and rainy seasons. One hypothesis is that rainfall leads to more time spent indoors, thus increasing exposure to other people and in turn increasing the risk of ARI. A case-crossover study design in 718 Bangladeshi children aged <5 years was used to evaluate this hypothesis. During a 3-month period with variable rainfall, rainfall was associated with ARI [odds ratio (OR) 2·97, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1·87-4·70]; some evidence of an increased strength of association as household crowding increased was found (≥3 people/room, OR 3·31, 95% CI 2·03-5·38), but there was a lack of association in some of the most crowded households (≥5 to <6 people/room, OR 1·55, 95% CI 0·54-4·47). These findings suggest that rainfall may be increasing exposure to crowded conditions, thus leading to an increased risk of ARI, but that additional factors not captured by this analysis may also play a role.