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Why is walking pneumonia spiking in young kids?

We have an age of children who didn't get exposure to as many illnesses.

Their immune systems are still getting regulated to all the things are exposed to.

It's Friday, November 15th.

There's a little breeze in the air, and it must be because today is Science Friday.

I'm SciFRI producer Kathleen Davis.

Last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put out a report saying

mycoplasma pneumonia, better known as walking pneumonia, has been spiking this year.

It's not uncommon for school-age kids to get this respiratory illness, but what is unusual is that this spike is the greatest among little kids, age two to four.

So what can we do to protect our little ones and ourselves, especially as the holiday season is right around the corner?

We'll get to that story in just a bit. But first, here's Ira Flato

with the biggest stories in science this week.

The UN's International Climate Conference, known as COP29, got underway this week in Azerbaijan.

We've talked about this conference on the show before, where leaders from around the world

come together to find ways to lower

emissions and coordinate financial efforts. And a big focus this year was to negotiate a deal

for wealthier countries to financially compensate developing nations who've gone through

climate change-related damage. The only problem is that world leaders from the top polluting countries like the U.S.

and China aren't showing up.

Here to explain more and give us an update on other science stories from this week is

Umer Ifan, senior correspondent at Vox based in Washington, D.C.

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