Wastewater surveillance is re-starting in some Wyoming sewersheds after an earlier iteration of the program ended in December 2021, according to local news reports. This monitoring is a good sign for expanded coverage across more rural parts of the U.S.
Read MoreThe People’s CDC, a public health advocacy organization that seeks to provide COVID-19 communication and guidance where the federal CDC has failed, recently shared an update to its guide for safer in-person gatherings.
Read MoreEd Yong, a widely-admired science journalist, recently announced that he’s leaving his position at The Atlantic after eight years at the publication. He also published the latest in a series of articles explaining the challenges of Long COVID, a subject that he’s become well-known for covering.
Read MoreIn May 2023, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Walgreens, and Labcorp started offering free PCR tests at select pharmacy locations. The program appears to still be available following the end of the federal public health emergency.
Read MoreThis week, a team of demography researchers published a paper sharing excess death estimates by county, for the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. The team, led by Andrew Stokes at Boston University, has been analyzing excess death data for years in order to understand the true toll of COVID-19 on the U.S.
Read MoreA reader recently sent me this petition to the Illinois state legislature, which asks lawmakers to request that the state health department reconsider its position on masks in healthcare settings. This petition is one of many advocacy efforts that have pushed for healthcare organizations to continue prioritizing COVID-19 safety.
Read MoreMarc Johnson, a molecular virologist and wastewater surveillance expert at the University of Missouri, recently went viral on Twitter with a thread discussing his team’s investigation into a cryptic SARS-CoV-2 lineage in Ohio. I was glad to see the project get some attention, because I find Johnson’s research in this area fascinating and valuable for better understanding the links between coronavirus infection and chronic symptoms.
Read MoreBody Politic, a health justice organization that has led Long COVID organizing over the last three years, shut down its Slack support group this week.
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This past week, Virginia’s health department added a new wastewater surveillance section to its COVID-19 dashboard. The new section includes a map of testing sites, coronavirus trends by site, viral loads over time, and plenty of text explaining how to interpret the data.
Read MoreA few months ago, I wrote about how testing sewage from airplanes could be a valuable way to keep tabs on the coronavirus variants circulating around the world. This spring, San Francisco International Airport became the first in the U.S. to actually start doing this tracking; I covered their new initiative for Science News.
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