The CDC just launched a new wastewater reporting dashboard. Niall Brennan, senior knowledge strategy adviser to Mandy Cohen, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, described the knowledge visualization as “disappointing, to say the least. “Over the past month, with a team called “Poo’s Clues,” the company has redesigned the system to provide more information. As Brennan noted, “national trends in Covid-19 viral activity in wastewater can be seen at one year and six months. “, and 45-day increments. “
You can also view knowledge at the state and territory level. There are also color-coded maps to show the intensity of the virus’s activity.
Another, more confusing graph shows the proportions of the other Covid-19 variants, but it’s hard to understand.
Pathogen levels in tea water are used as an early precaution formula. It can measure the levels of other viruses, adding polio, RSV, Covid-19, and mpox. The national tea water surveillance formula introduced in September 2020 to detect the amount of virus shed in people’s faeces.
This is wonderful because you can stumble upon small degrees of virus in a giant network before there are outbreaks. This is how polio is known in New York State.
But water is only tested in a pattern representative of communities: The government has stopped testing in western Maryland, for example, and we know traditionally that our titles may be different than those in the Baltimore-Washington area.
This may overlook prisons, universities, or hospitals that use decentralized care; It also excludes rural areas that rely on septic systems.
Biobot Analytics has provided a wealth of easy-to-use data on SARS-CoV-2 RNA in tea water since its introduction through the CDC in 2021. In September 2023, he lost the contract and replaced it through Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences). He’s back reporting (more limited) knowledge after filing a protest.
That’s the good news about visualizing new knowledge. There is still a long way to go to the situation. As @TactNowInfo commented on X, formerly known as Twitter, we don’t know how up-to-date the knowledge is on what is classified as “Current Level of Viral Activity in SARS-CoV-2 Wastewater. “
“Tact” also noted, “They say that 350 sites may not be reported until they have six weeks of knowledge from September 15, 2023. We are already past 6 weeks and more than 500 sites do not demonstrate existing knowledge. What’s going on?”
Similarly, Tact wonders about the duration of the reports, as the graph “does not show BA. 2. 86, which CDC variant proportions estimate to be between 8% and 13%. “
Two other notable criticisms have been voiced online. The first is that the CDC made a significant mistake in terms of threat communication. They use this blue icon to imply that the threat of Covid-19 is maximum (above). What color do we use to denote threat?
@TogetherWeMask said, “Covid-19 level is RED Change the color. Representation matters in data communication. Dr. Cohen, our lives are dependent on your awareness efforts. Millions are already suffering from #LongCovid. Add Masks + HEPA to CDC’s recommendations. More tools. More protection.”
On the other hand, others have criticized the color selection as complicated for other people with color blindness.
Another concern, pointed out through @amesrobb, is that the visibility of some lines is very poor. This is a challenge for Vermont, where the near-vertical slope of rising infections almost masks.
But one of the biggest problems is that testing people for Covid-19 infections has plummeted, so we need to really know how tightly the wastewater levels correlate with the number of infections. Even reporting of hospitalizations and deaths is inaccurate now. Mike Hoerger has developed a correlation and predictive model at his Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative – Data Tracker site. It looks grim.
When used correctly, wastewater can reveal the source of outbreaks and high-risk hotspots, for example in resource allocation.
Mother Jones produced an excellent explainer video:
You could narrow down hotspots to particular areas of town and focus your public health efforts on a specific area (a nursing home or prison, for example), to target with education and vaccination, for example.
Things aren’t looking great for a healthy holiday season, and the surge in Covid-19 cases is expected to continue over the holidays with a sharp surge. Cases are rising sharply. It’s critical not to forget that contracting Covid-19 is rarely inevitable – you can reduce the risk by restricting the number of people you interact with in gatherings, masking, and getting better ventilation by opening a window slightly, for example. . Even Brennan retweeted Plague Poems: