Threads, the new text-based social media platform from Meta (the parent company of Facebook and Instagram), has blocked users from searching about COVID-19 or Long COVID. The block is a harmful choice by Meta, which will make it difficult for health experts, people with Long COVID, and other seeking information to find each other on this platform.
A little-known CDC advisory committee is suddenly in the public spotlight, as it considers recommending fewer safety measures to reduce infection in hospitals and other healthcare settings. Despite major pushback at a recent meeting, it’s unclear whether this committee will actually live up to its infection control duties.
The Nebraska state health department has discontinued its wastewater surveillance data page, depriving residents of important COVID-19 updates at a time when cases are rising.
The CDC expects that our next round of COVID-19 booster shots will be available in early fall, likely late September or early October. But this limited information has been distributed not through formal reports or press releases—rather, through the new CDC director’s media appearances.
The Biden administration has recently boasted that the number of Americans without health insurance hit a “record low” earlier this year. But that statement rings hollow when you consider how millions of people will lose their insurance in the coming months, thanks to the end of the federal COVID-19 emergency.
Longtime readers may remember that I am no fan of “The Morning,” a daily newsletter from the New York Times that has frequently downplayed COVID-19 in recent years. Well, this week, the newsletter has done it again, with a dismissive portrayal of excess deaths data.
On Thursday, the CDC revamped its COVID-19 dashboard in response to changing data availability with the end of the federal public health emergency. The new dashboard downplays continued COVID-19 risk across the U.S., by prioritizing hospitalizations and deaths over other metrics.
Last week, we learned that a CDC conference led to some COVID-19 cases. Well, this past Tuesday, the Post published a follow-up story: more than 30 people got sick following the conference, and the CDC is working with the Georgia Department of Health to investigate.
This past week, the CDC hosted a conference of about 2,000 people in the agency’s epidemic intelligence service. And at least a few of the conference’s attendees tested positive for COVID-19 afterward.
Last week, I wrote about the Iowa health department’s move to end COVID-19 case reporting requirements for labs, and in turn stop reporting these data to the CDC. Well, Montana just became the next state to follow this trend.