A new, more transmissible strain of COVID-19 (known as B.1.1.7) has caused quite a stir these past few weeks. It surfaced in the United Kingdom and has been detected in eight states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, New York, Texas, and Pennsylvania. The fact that a mutant strain happened isn’t a surprise, as RNA viruses mutate quite often. But as vaccines roll out, the spread of a new strain is yet another reminder that we’re nowhere near out of the woods yet.
For months, public health advocates have called on the federal government to release in-depth data reports that are compiled internally by the White House Coronavirus Task Force. These reports include detailed information on cases, tests, and deaths at the state, county, and city levels. This past Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began releasing all such national COVID-19 reports and the data behind them.
As cases spike, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is focusing on rapid testing as a means to control the pandemic. But data on this type of testing continue to be widely unavailable.
Antigen tests have become a major part of the national testing strategy. Six tests have received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA. After Abbott’s antigen test was given this okay-to-distribute in late August, the White House quickly purchased 150 million tests and made plans to distribute them across the country. Context: the U.S. has done about 131 million total tests since the pandemic began, according to the COVID Tracking Project’s most recent count. Clearly, antigen testing is here—and beginning to scale up. But most states are ill-prepared to report the antigen tests going on in their jurisdictions, and federal public health agencies are barely reporting them at all.
This week, for the first time since I was peer-pressured into watching the Bachelor franchise two-ish years ago, I listened to a recap podcast. To be clear, this was not your typical Bachelor franchise recap podcast. The hosts did not judge contestants on their attractiveness, nor did they speculate about the significance of the First Impression Rose. Instead, it was POLITICO’s Dan Diamond and Jeremy Siegel, discussing COVID-19 safety precautions and public health messaging as seen on The Bachelorette.
The county-level testing dataset published by CMS has become a regular topic for this newsletter since it was released in early September. As a refresher for newer readers: CMS publishes both total PCR tests and test positivity rates for every county in the country; the dataset is intended as a resource for nursing home administrators, who are required to test their residents and staff at regular intervals based on the status of their county. This past Monday, October 5, I was pleasantly surprised to find a new update posted on CMS’ COVID-19 data page.
Abbott ID NOW tests are in use across the country. 11 million of them have been distributed since March. But where are the tests being used, how many of them have returned positive results, and are they being used correctly—to quickly diagnose patients with COVID-19 symptoms? Without these data, it is difficult to determine whether Abbott’s test should be part of America’s testing strategy going forward.
This past Monday, September 28, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) updated the county-level testing dataset which the agency is publishing as a resource for nursing home administrators.
The CMS recently released a new dataset which provides test positivity rates for U.S. counties. The dataset was updated this past week, with some methodology changes.
On September 3, 2020, the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) posted a county-level testing dataset. The dataset specifically provides test positivity rates for every U.S. county, for the week of August 27 to September 2. This is huge. It’s, like, I had to lie down after I saw it, huge. No federal health agency has posted county-level testing data since the pandemic started.
