Capacity Level has been elevated since independence from the virus was declared two summers ago—as fewer and fewer professionals have been available to staff hospital beds.

Critical Staffing Level, already at 2021 levels, has been further elevated for months now—with over one in nine reporting hospitals at critical shortage.

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #hospitals #LongCovid #CovidIsNotOver #nurses #MassDisablingEvent #CovidIsAirborne #BringBackMasks #dataviz #datavis

Pediatric staffing never recovered to pre-omicron levels. Rather, near one in five pediatric beds reported May of 2022: now missing.

PICU Capacity Level (not shown): 69%.

Weekly average ~170 PICU beds were covid patients.

We're failing our kids. The emergency is over.

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #hospitals #LongCovid #CovidIsNotOver #nurses #MassDisablingEvent #CovidIsAirborne #BringBackMasks #dataviz #datavis

[HHS didn't update data this week.]

Some 238 counties have pediatric care near or over capacity (≥90%).

Of 268 counties reporting any PICU capacity, over one in five are near or over full.

So many places where there ain't enough staff for sick or injured kids to receive required care.

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #pediatric #hospitals #pedsICU #RSV #Strep #Flu #LongCovidKids #CovidIsNotOver #nurses #MassDisablingEvent #CovidIsAirborne #BringBackMasks #dataviz #dataviz

[HHS failed to update facilities data this week.]

Counties by pediatric capacity (darkest counties on map above):

⒈ Seminole, GA ≥150%
⒉ Kenai Peninsula Borough, AK ≥133⅓%
⒊ San Juan, UT ≥133⅓%

⒋ Fairfax, VA—114%

Idaho—114%

⒌ Shelby, TN—102%

⒍ Collin, TX—100%
⒎ Bonneville, ID—100%
⒏ Anoka, MN—100%
⒐ Onslow, NC—100%
⒑ Salem city, VA—100%

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #RSV #Strep #Flu #LongCovidKids #CovidIsNotOver #BringBackMasks

[HHS didn't update data this week.]

Some 51 counties ≥ 100% capacity per HHS data.

Reporting ≥ 90%: 204—near 8½% of those with any capacity. This includes surge and overflow beds: near full can mean E/Rs with day-long wait times.

For counties w/ ICUs—over one in six are full or near full.

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #hospitals #LongCovid #CovidIsNotOver #nurses #MassDisablingEvent #CovidIsAirborne #BringBackMasks #dataviz #datavis

[HHS failed to update facilities data this week.]

Counties by adult hospital capacity (darkest counties on map above):

⒈ Berkeley, SC ≥150%
⒉ Chatham, GA ≥150%
⒊ Seminole, GA ≥150%
⒋ Charleston, SC ≥150%
⒌ Marshall, KY ≥150%

⒍ Scott, TN—144%
⒎ Smyth, VA—131%

⒏ Buchanan, MO—115%

⒐ Yuma, AZ—105%
⒑ Harlan, KY—105%

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #hospitals #LongCovid #CovidIsNotOver #nurses #MassDisablingEvent #CovidIsAirborne #BringBackMasks

After some five months of post-Kraken soup, we essentially entered an XBB.1.9 wave late September.

Hyperion-2 XBB.1.9.2/EG wave kicked off this week.

For 3-week GISAID sequences, Hyperion-2 now over ⅖ share; Hyperion 1.9.1/FL holds at ⅛.

Arcturus XBB.1.16 family still over ⅕. Kraken under ¹⁄₁₁.

[Srcs: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#variant-proportions

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/raj.rajnarayanan/viz/USAVariantDB/VariantDashboard]

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #Covid #Covid19 #SARS2 #CDC #variants #CovidIsNotOver #CovidIsAirborne #WearAMask #BetterMasks

After 10 weeks, CDC still had no estimates for New Eng and NW, droped Middle South again.

EG.5 near ³⁄₁₀ of samples in Mtn/Dakotas & SW; near ¼ in Gr Lks & Mid-Atlantic; around ⅕ in Lower Midwest, NY/NJ & Southeast.

HV.1 over ¼ in Mid-Atl; near ¼ L Midw. FL.1.5.1 near ¼ in NY/NJ.

[See toot above for variants CDC map color key & links to sources for charts.]

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #Covid #Covid19 #SARS2 #CDC #variants #CovidIsNotOver #CovidIsAirborne #WearAMask #BetterMasks

Spent some time this week refining the tile bundling and family grouping logic of experimental variant proportions #dataviz, before finishing refactoring #AnnoPlot decorated pie charts and beginning same for decorated legends. Both of the latter will be incorporated into variant proportions #datavis.

Work on area-chart capacity & levels choropleth dataviz still planned for the coming weeks, along with scripts for working with CDC Wonder mortality data.

Folk are dying at record numbers, of comorbidities of severe acute covid that are also implicated as post-acute sequelae of covid infection. ↺

Of course, ongoing hospital staffing attrition also contributes to elevated death tolls. Said attrition continues. ↺

[CDC ended excess death reporting Sep 27.]

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #LongCovidKills #LongCovid #CovidIsNotOver #hospitals #nurses #HeartDisease #Diabetes #Alzheimers #Dementia #Sepsis #Cancer #Covid19 #DeathCult

Given evidence linking covid infection to sudden onset liver damage, recent increased liver disease mortality is hardly surprising.

Final mortality data for 2020—released in Sept.—reveals spike in accidental deaths driven by poisonings & exposure to noxious substances.

[CDC data for 2021 due this year.]

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #LongCovidKills #CovidIsNotOver #hospitals #nurses #LongCovid #MassDisablingEvent #liver #accident #Covid19 #SARS2 #DeathCult #LifeExpectancy

Per WHO, every 12 minutes four people die of acute covid. Three of those deaths are in the United States.

Entering April, for every three covid deaths, U.S. saw another excess death not attributed to covid.

The emergency is over—covid is not done with us.

[Shares of death down as countries trickle data.]

❖ #ThisIsOurPolio #LongCovidKills #LongCovid #Covid #Covid19 #SARS2 #DeathCult #LifeExpectancy #CovidIsNotOver #CovidIsAirborne #WearAMask #BetterMasks