November 12, 2023.Reading time 2 minutes.
Two quick updates about the CDC’s surveillance efforts for COVID-19 and other diseases: The CDC has provided a short-term wastewater surveillance contract to Verily, the biotech company that’s affiliated with Google, so that data collection can continue at about 400 sewage testing sites while a longer-term contract is in dispute. And the CDC is expanding its testing program for international travelers arriving at U.S. airports, in a three-month pilot program for the winter virus season.
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February 26, 2023.Reading time 5 minutes.
Sources and updates for the week of February 26 include deaths in U.S. prisons, the future of COVID-19 vaccines, airplane wastewater testing, and more.
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February 5, 2023.Reading time 14 minutes.
This week, I had a new article published in The Atlantic about how COVID-19 wastewater surveillance can be useful beyond entire sewersheds, the setting where this testing usually takes place. Sewershed testing is great for broad trends about large populations (like, an entire city or county), the story explains. But if you’re a public health official seeking truly actionable data to inform policies, it’s helpful to get more specific.
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January 8, 2023.Reading time 4 minutes.
Sources and updates for the week of January 8 include a new NIH program, China’s unreliable COVID-19 surveillance, airplane wastewater, and more.
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November 6, 2022.Reading time 33 minutes.
Last month, the CDC started publishing data from a surveillance program focused on international travelers coming into the U.S. I talked to bioinformatics experts involved with the program to learn more about how it works.
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July 24, 2022.Reading time 3 minutes.
As of last Monday, the CDC is no longer reporting data about COVID-19 outbreaks on cruise ships. This change comes in the middle of a massive surge (including on cruise ships!).
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December 13, 2020.Reading time 2 minutes.
Featured sources for Dec. 13 include White House Coronavirus Task Force reports, small business loans, federal COVID-19 purchases, and travel restrictions.
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