Augie RayAug 4, 2023

Three-minute US #COVID19 update 🧵 :

- The CDC wastewater monitoring shows we're at the highest level of sustained growth since last December. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#wastewater-surveillance

- Biobot demonstrates continued growth of COVID in wastewater with acceleration particularly pronounced in the West and Midwest (which are catching up to the higher COVID levels in the South and Northeast). Rates are still relatively low, but they are continuing to rise. https://biobot.io/data/

COVID Data Tracker

CDC’s home for COVID-19 data. Visualizations, graphs, and data in one easy-to-use website.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Show threadAugie RayAug 4, 2023

- The Walgreen's COVID positive rate has never been higher throughout the entire pandemic (although this is based on low test volume). https://www.walgreens.com/healthcare-solutions/covid-19-index

- The CDC's test positivity rate is based on a much larger sample. It has doubled in just two weeks and is still rising. If the current trend continues, we'll have the highest positive rate since last July within ten days. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#trends_select_testpositivity_00

- The CDC reports COVID hospitalizations are up 12% over last week. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#maps_new-admissions-rate-county

Walgreens Respiratory Index | Walgreens Healthcare Solutions

Explore the Walgreens COVID-19 Index, taking data from our stores to visualize trends and patterns in COVID-19 across the United States.

Show threadAugie Ray

COVID risks are rising. COVID isn't just an acute illness but can leave people with chronic and possibly permanent reduction in health. Repeat infections increase risks. And you've probably not been jabbed for six to 12 months.

All of that means now is a good time to be cautious with crowds indoors, particularly places where people will be breathing heavy (gyms, bars with lots of loud talking, rooms with people singing, etc.)

Aug 4, 2023 at 2:56pmWeb
Show threadAugie RayAug 4, 2023
I also think it is WAY past time for hospitals and medical facilities that serve patients with health risks to put their damn masks back on. (Seriously, the data is SO solid on the risks of nosocomial infections and the adverse impacts to patient health that I consider the unmasking a blatant violent of ethical mission and patient rights.)
Show threadAugie RayAug 4, 2023
Over in Ireland, their COVID spike has gotten so bad that hospitals are again asking people not to show up unless it's urgent and to avoid visiting if they feel unwell. (What is the point of hospitals that can only serve the healthy, exactly?) Every nation has a diverse situation (current and historic) regarding COVID variants, so it's hard to draw conclusions from one nation to another, but the US could be about four to six weeks behind Ireland with its current surge. https://www.thesun.ie/health/11133402/warning-covid-cases-spike-patients-hospitals-hse/
Major warning as Covid-19 cases spike and ICU patients rise as hospitals close to visitors amid outbreaks...

COVID-19 cases are on the rise in Ireland as hospitals cope with outbreaks. Increasing virus rates are causing a surge of hospital and ICU patients across the country. Some hospitals, including St …

The Irish Sun
Show threadAugie RayAug 4, 2023

Be a bit safer to protect yourself and your loved ones. As I keep saying, COVID wasn't a temporary situation. We must live with it forever, but that should mean striving to avoid the long-term health risks of repeat infections and not pretending COVID doesn't exist.

#WearAMask

Show threadAugie RayAug 4, 2023
Also, if you aren't well--if you have sniffles, a scratchy throat, watering eyes and other symptoms--STAY HOME. We need to lose that bad habit of thinking it's okay to get everyone else sick so that we can do whatever we want in public settings. Someone's mild COVID infection can become someone else's chronic, Long COVID struggle. If you're not feeling healthy, limit your activities to protect others, please.
Show threadErik SagenAug 4, 2023
@augieray @Alan 100% agree. There’s a local news person who is proud that he’s never taken a sick day in his 40+ year career. Except, when I’ve talked to his co-workers they all say it’s because he comes into work sick and others in proximity have to take a day or two.
Show threadDae bow bowAug 4, 2023

@kartooner @augieray @Alan This was one messed up part about my last job. Had a coworker who would cry foul about anyone taking a day and constantly imply they were faking. Knew she was shit talking me anytime I took a day too. Blaming coworkers instead of greedy management that always left us understaffed.

I know for a fact she was part of the reason we were all getting sick. Put down the mucinex and get in bed, Carmen. No one is impressed with you wrecking yourself just to huff plague on us.

Show threadKim Spence-Jones 🇬🇧😷Aug 4, 2023

@augieray This is not just about Covid. We need to limit the transmission of all endemic disease! The more and faster people get infected, the quicker the strains of things like the common cold will mutate enough to reinfect people.

Apparently, endemic disease didn’t really exist until we started living in cities above a certain size (I think ~50,000 in close proximity, but I may have mis-remembered). You need a big enough population for mutations to circumvent immunity in those first infected.

Show threadShantell PowellAug 4, 2023
@augieray amen. Even a common cold leaves me sick for months and sometimes lands me in emergency.
Show threadJenKAug 4, 2023
@augieray it's okay not to spread colds, too.
Show threadPetrichor ᚄᚔᚅᚐᚁᚆᚃᚒᚔᚂAug 4, 2023
@augieray Not only that. First person to come into a local nursing home here, and go in for the hug, with "a bit of a bug" killed five people
Show threadBarbara MonacoAug 4, 2023
@augieray It's unfortunate that work places often demand your presence even if you are sick. Every hospital I worked at told staff not to report to work if ill. Every hospital also had a demerit system that issued penalties for absences, often even with a doctor's note. You could be fired for what they considered excessive absences.
People therefore reported to work and spread disease amongst themselves and patients.
Show threadReal_JamesCainAug 4, 2023
@augieray But that's how I get better: getting stronger by infecting coworkers at their expense.
Show threadUrsidinoj/The BjornsdottirsAug 4, 2023
@augieray avoid *visiting patients* I think is the idea.
Show threadbirdpoofAug 4, 2023

@augieray

That medical facilities of all places stopped masking made the least sense to me....

Show threadCraig FroehleAug 4, 2023
@augieray Hospital-acquired infections actually *increased* during the COVID pandemic when masking was at its most common. So it's not a great argument that masking somehow prevents NIs to any significant degree. Hand washing and proper sterilization, in contrast, are hugely influential.
https://www.cdc.gov/hai/data/portal/covid-impact-hai.html
COVID-19 Impact on HAIs | HAI | CDC

Healthcare-associated infections increased during the first two years of the COVID-19 pandemic

Show threadAugie RayAug 4, 2023
@cra1g I think that's a misinterpretation of the data. Of course, hospital infections increased when COVID was running wild. That doesn't mean masks don't work. Moreover, no hospitals (to my knowledge) required N-95s and instead relied on the blue masks with MUCH lower efficacy. There is zero data that suggests hand-washing is a better way to protect against airborne viruses compared to effective masks.
Show threadCraig FroehleAug 4, 2023

@augieray Well, no. First, EVERY hospital I work with required N95s in patient areas for at least 15 months starting March 2020. Several maintained that practice through 2022.

Second, there's no "data" to interpret here...those are summaries of actual experts' (CDC biostatisticians and health quality scientists) analyses of massive amounts of data. If you can do a better analysis, please do.

Third, HAIs are rarely due to airborne viruses, with bacteria causing the vast majority of cases.

Show threadAugie RayAug 4, 2023

@cra1g I visited three hospitals during the pandemic. Every single one of them made me take off my N95 and put on a baggy, blue surgical mask.

And of course you're interpreting the data! You think it shows masks don't work. I contend a more cautious evaluation of masking policies and other factors show they do. In fact, many studies say as much. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/masks-work-distorting-science-to-dispute-the-evidence-doesnt/

Masks Work. Distorting Science to Dispute the Evidence Doesn't

New mask studies relying on a medical paradigm do not erase decades of engineering and occupational science that show they work

Scientific American
Show threadAdam Jacobs 🇺🇦Aug 4, 2023

@augieray I went to visit my Mum at the weekend. She lives in a care home.

When I arrived, the receptionist asked me "why are you still wearing a mask"?

Sometimes I despair for humanity.

Show threadEzmeAug 5, 2023
@augieray Yes, mask mandates must be permanent. Yet, how do we insist on it when most folx’s are fine with mass death? I’ve spoken to every hospital admin, disability rights orgs, legislators, Oregon Health Auth, and they won’t budge and don’t give a shit. Even our own family and friends refuse to mask (we only do remote chats) and they know my child who is considered medically fragile could die if she catches Covid19 again. The #ableism and #eugenics is socially accepted