We Are in a Big Covid Wave. But Just How Big?

www.nytimes.com We Are in a Big Covid Wave. But Just How Big?

Wastewater data has become perhaps the best metric to track the spread of the virus in the U.S., but it’s an imperfect tool.

I'll note that an updated booster came out this past fall, and few Americans have gotten it.

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I have the vaccine and every booster available. My partner picked up covid from work and now I have it. I’ve been bed-ridden for the past several days. It hurts when I swallow. Partner got over the worst of it relatively quickly but still has a gentle persistent cough.

Thanks to all the bosses with their RTO policies and anti-vaxxers and all the politicians who let this thing rage on. I hope they all find themselves pushed off the edge of a cliff someday.

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- Just saw this Ars article. https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/01/anti-vaccine-nonsense-will-likely-kill-thousands-this-season-fda-officials-say/
  
  The US may be heading to a "dangerous vaccination tipping point," with immunization rates falling so low that population-level immunity is now at risk, and we will likely see thousands of needless deaths this respiratory virus season, two top officials for the Food and Drug Administration warned in a recent JAMA commentary.
  
  Incredible. We've gone from practically eliminating polio to regressing into vaccine-denialism that's so powerful that we are just risking resurgent communicable diseases. And the people responsible for this get to continue promoting and influencing the world. Hilarious!
  
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- My partner and I were both fully boosted and both caught it in November. I'd been only been boosted for a week, her for 4 weeks. For whatever reason, her case was worse with about a week of fever, sore throat/sinuses, and all that. I never got a fever but was otherwise similar.
  
  We'd both managed to avoid catching it at all before that, despite going on regularly and flying internationally a few times. We've just been good about masking and getting our shots.
  
  I think this current strain must be extremely contagious. It sure was nice back when the government was tracking and reporting on this stuff.
  
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- Similar. Boosted in the fall, got covid yesterday. Same symptoms.. lethargy is so strong.
  
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  Hope you feel better soon. I additionally suffered through muscle/joint aches and chills. I am a bit more on my feet now but I still feel tired and crappy, with a persistent cough and a still sore throat. I'm still mostly taking it easy to recover as best as I can.
  
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Was there another booster? My state stopped emailing me about them over a year ago…

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- Yes, a new monovalent booster this fall. The govt doesn't care any more, you'll need to monitor it yourself.
  
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- Yep, I got it from my local pharmacy recently. I’ve had a total of five COVID shots and I have had zero COVID symptoms after all this time
  
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- New one dropped in September. Get it if you're able
  
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I’ve resigned to the fact that I’m just not gonna do much of anything the next month or 2 and just mask up when I do have to run errands.

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After avoiding Covid since the start my spouse just tested positive. We are both fully vaccinated. She has to socialize to stay sane, I’m fine being a hermit. Sitting here waiting to get sick. Yay endless pandemic!

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- Wash your hands. Sleep in a separate bed if you can. Our second go around in the household, I assumed we were all doomed again, but somehow my wife was the only one that caught it.
  
  Good luck!
  
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  It may sound crazy but my girlfriend and I have avoided getting each other sick by simply wearing cloth masks while sleeping in the same bed. It has worked for several illnesses but I don't think any were covid
  
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This is the best summary I could come up with:

Reported levels of the virus in U.S. wastewater are higher than they have been since the first Omicron wave, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, though severe outcomes still remain rarer than in earlier pandemic winters.

Many of the metrics used early in the pandemic have become much less useful indicators of how widely the virus is spreading, especially since federal officials stopped more comprehensive data tracking efforts when they declared an end to the public health emergency last spring.

Higher population-wide immunity has meant fewer hospitalizations even with high virus spread, and the sharp decline of Covid test results reported to authorities has made case counts far less relevant.

The amount of RNA in the sample will fluctuate depending on many factors, including the local population at any given time — think of a holiday influx into Miami or a college town emptying out for summer — and how much other material, such as industrial waste, is in the system.

(Two companies that analyze wastewater, Verily Life Sciences and Biobot Analytics, also aggregate data from hundreds of sites and offer national and local pictures of virus spread.)

Michael Mina, an epidemiologist and chief science officer for eMed, estimates the real amount of Covid spreading could be quite a bit higher or lower than this time last year.

The original article contains 1,251 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 82%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

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What's a good covid magazine on kbin or lemmy? I'd sub to keep up on covid news.

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- There's !coronavirus@lemmy.ml but it's not very active. There's also some general health communities listed here: https://lemmy.world/post/396561
  
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  Thanks a bunch. I already checked out the first one, but now I'm checking out your link. Much appreciated.
  
  edit Subbed to a few, much appreciated.
  
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- Permanently Deleted
  
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I'm just going to go by the provided graphic.... Dec 30th was already a long time ago in COVID terms. It was already spiking leading into and after Thanksgiving. Now weeks after Christmas, it should begin receding again. This is "normal" (now).

I'm not disagreeing with the article, more that it seems a bit late. With Flu and RSV in the mix, not like precautions shouldn't be taken; I have worn a mask every time I'm at work or in public since March 2020, that's just my new normal.

I appreciate news sources are finally picking up on it, I just wish they'd done it more going into the holiday season.

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- Definitely would have been better to have more coverage before people did get-togethers. eg: get your free tests and use them before people gather; reminders to boost, etc.
  
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Being pretty anti social and born with bland anger for a facial expression, the masking was welcome. Sure when my hood is up I look like I am going to disappear into the shadows and re-emerge with a lethal implement to satisfy my woke urges for violence and combatting murder using death, but i really like the color black. It's not my image or anything, just the wardrobe is all.

That and I am not a healthy human. My physical form is like trash, but without the smell and pleasing taste. So masking up and staying that way has done me pretty well in combination with the shots of mind control serum and jager. Still got covid and it almost killed me. So healthy people not getting the vax kinda blows my mind.

As I was saying, I have remained at large pretty masked up. I am kinda new in my area. It's small town, so the antivax crowd is large by volume, but never say anything, really. Mostly dumb looks, and words amongst themselves. Whatever. They are all masking up now because of the really large retirement community that is practically this towns reason for being here.

just shy of 8k population, everyone has a grandparent here. A hospital that has a dedicated extended care/hospice wing (think terminal and end of life senior citizens) , but no place to donate blood, should paint a picture of what would transpire if a significant outbreak hit the community. There has always been enough seniors at any given time here, that there is a huge focus on their care and wellbeing. While the place is the disneyland of depression and sadness that legit nobody leaves alive, it is very well run. the elderly get treated fairly well by this community which is a shock because coming from a 1m+ city, they almost just disappear.

But I remind you that at a hospital, you can't donate blood. Or have a baby there anymore I last heard, but that's a whole different puddle of soup. A fucking hospital.

So, while it saddens me that we gotta wait for people to die or be at significant risk to take measures, I welcome back the mask. And even those reluctantly masking up, I appreciate y'all "fuck fine" wearing of it.

Good luck, and may your sense of taste be forever in your mouth.

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