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Augie Ray Aug 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

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Augie Ray Aug 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.

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Augie Ray Aug 4, 2023

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.)

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Augie Ray Aug 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.)

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Craig Froehle Aug 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

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Augie Ray Aug 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.

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Craig Froehle

@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.

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Augie Ray Aug 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