There’s no sugarcoating it: we are in an extremely confusing and frustrating phase of the pandemic. We see the rising (yet undercounted) case numbers, we hear from friends and family members who have recently tested positive. And yet the CDC’s official COVID-19 guidance is still based on a mostly-green map, while local leaders refuse to reinstate mask mandates or other safety measures.
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Over a year after the NIH received $1 billion to study Long COVID, the agency’s flagship study is floundering and frustrating patient advocates. Here are five reasons why Long COVID research is tough in the U.S., taken from my reporting for a recent Grid story.
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This week, many headlines declared that the U.S. has reached one million COVID-19 deaths. While a major milestone, this number is actually far below the full impact of the pandemic; looking at excess deaths and demographic breakdowns allows us to get closer.
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This week, I had a new story published with FiveThirtyEight and the Documenting COVID-19 project about the data and implementation challenges of wastewater surveillance. As bonus material in today’s COVID-19 Data Dispatch, I wanted to share one of the interviews I did for the story, which provides a good case study of the benefits and challenges of COVID-19 surveillance in wastewater.
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Remember how, in December, the CDC changed its recommendations for people who’d tested positive for COVID-19 to isolating for only five days instead of ten? And a bunch of experts were like, “Wait a second, I’m not sure if that’s sound science?” Well, studies since this guidance was changed have shown that, actually, a lot of people with COVID-19 are still contagious after five days. Yet the CDC has not revised its guidance at all.
Read MoreI regret to announce that the Yankee Candle Index is once again suggesting a lot of COVID-19 is circulating in the U.S. right now.
Read MoreSources and updates for the week of May 22 include Paxlovid data, local actions responding to COVID-19, new Long COVID studies, and more.
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Last week, I pointed out a data gap on the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) dashboard: hundreds of sewershed sites on the dashboard have not been updated with recent data in weeks. This week, I’m excited to share an update on the situation, courtesy of Biobot.
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The Omicron BA.2 surge continues in the U.S., with a 19% increase in officially-reported COVID-19 cases in the past week to over 100,000 new cases a day. Of course, the official case numbers severely underestimate true infections, as PCR testing sites close and more people use rapid tests; actual case counts may be five or more times higher.
Read MoreSources and updates for the week of May 15 include COVID-19 deaths that could’ve been prevented by vaccines, the CDC potentially losing access to key data, testing declines, and more.
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Something strange is going on with the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS) data. Hundreds of sites on the CDC NWSS dashboard have been labeled as showing “no recent data” for a couple of weeks.
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Sharing a research funding opportunity from Solve M.E., an advocacy and research initiative focused on myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), Long COVID, and other related post-viral illnesses.
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New COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the U.S., with an average of 85,000 cases reported nationally each day last week—double the daily average from three weeks ago. This is a significant undercount, of course, as the majority of COVID-19 tests conducted these days are done at home.
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