Sources and updates, September 4
Sources and updates for the week of September 4 include BA.4.6, Long COVID’s impact on work, life expectancy, and more.
Read MoreCategory: Variants
BA.2.75 is the latest Omicron subvariant of concern
As if BA.4 and BA.5 aren’t already enough to worry about: some COVID-19 experts are sounding the alarm about BA.2.75, a new version of Omicron that evolved out of BA.2.
Read MoreNational numbers, July 3
BA.4 and BA.5 are now the dominant coronavirus lineages in the U.S., and they’re reviving our recent surge: from the plateau of recent weeks, national COVID-19 cases are clearly going up again. Reported cases rose 11% last week from the week prior. And, as always, this number is a significant undercount of true infections.
Read MoreAs Omicron keeps mutating, variant surveillance remains important
Sharing perspectives from three variant experts on how to keep monitoring the way that SARS-CoV-2 is mutating, as bonus material from a recent story about BA.4 and BA.5.
Read MoreFAQ: BA.4 and BA.5, potentially the most transmissible Omicron subvariants yet
America’s current COVID-19 surge is being driven by BA.2 and its sublineage BA.2.12.1. But there are other versions of Omicron out there to which we need to pay attention—namely, BA.4 and BA.5. Here’s a brief FAQ on these two subvariants, including why scientists are concerned about them and where they’re spreading in the U.S.
Read MoreMore Omicron mutation in South Africa and the U.S.
As cases rise in the U.S. and other parts of the world, Omicron subvariants are a continued culprit. Experts are watching closely to see if further mutations of the virus may become even more contagious, or may gain the ability to evade immunity from prior infections and vaccinations.
Read MoreHow one wastewater plant became a leading COVID-19 forecasting source
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.
Read MoreNational numbers, April 24
After weeks of me warning about it, a BA.2 surge is upon us. Nationwide, new COVID-19 cases have gone up for the third week in a row; we’ve seen a 68% increase since the last week of March.
Read MoreOmicron keeps mutating as U.S. cases rise
As though it’s not already confusing enough to distinguish between Omicron BA.1 and BA.2, more sublineages have popped up in recent weeks as Omicron continues to spread and mutate. Here are two that I’m watching, though they don’t seem to be major causes for concern at this time.
Read MoreThe US still doesn’t have the data we need to make informed decisions on booster shots
Last fall, I wrote that the U.S. did not have the data we needed to make informed decisions about booster shots. Several months later, we still don’t have the data we need, as questions about a potential BA.2 wave and other future variants abound. Discussions at a recent FDA advisory committee meeting made these data gaps clear.
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