Nationally, we appear to have passed the peak of our late-summer wave, and it's not pretty.
At peak:
🔹>1.3 million daily infections
🔹2.8% (1 in 36) actively infectious
🔹Transmission higher than 90.5% of the pandemic
We are showing a peak around Aug 10, but as you look closely at the graph and in later Tweets, you'll see it was bimodal, with near-identical transmission on Aug 10 and Aug 24.
The CDC consistently corrects historical data, so in hindsight, we might expect the official peak date to flip to the 24th, or for the stats on the 10th to jump higher.
We had expected that Friday's data release might show this was the largest summer peak all-time (by the slimmest of margins), but the prior week's data were retroactively corrected downward by about 5%.
This is a common occurrence, which is why it's important to focus on the big-picture forecast (very bad transmission the remainder of 2024) as opposed to minute details.
Let's walk through the details in this Thread....
PMC COVID-19 Forecasting Model, Sept 9, 2024
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The current year-over-year graph on Covid transmission is troubling. We just had the worst August of Covid transmission in the U.S.
We are likely to have our worst September, worst October, and potentially worst November of transmission.
We expect to bottom out around 850,000 daily infections in early November, before the winter surge picks up.
These new monthly records for Covid transmission are the consequence of #LaissezFairePublicHealth, especially the 1-day isolation policy, but more generally that public health officials are not describing transmission frankly and the need for multi-layered mitigation.
PMC COVID-19 Forecasting Model, Sept 9, 2024
🧵3/7
Zooming in, see the forest for the trees: About 74 days in a row with 1 million daily infections.
The peak date is somewhat arbitrary, and either Aug 10 or 24 may be estimated the peak in hindsight.
PMC COVID-19 Forecasting Model, Sept 9, 2024
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Statistics to reinforce the significance of the ongoing pandemic:
🔹1.1 million daily infections on average the next month
🔹2.2% (1 in 45) actively infectious any given day of the next month
🔹High-risk in classroom-sized settings
🔹>1.5 million resulting Long COVID cases from infections derived during the next month
PMC COVID-19 Forecasting Model, Sept 9, 2024
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This is the current heat map for Covid transmission. We released this Friday, given the ongoing debate about the CDC coloring their map in cool blue using the same data.
Here are regional estimates of transmission. Note that you can estimate the percent of your state actively infectious by looking up the CDC Level on their website and multiplying it by 0.330.
These are approximate estimates and higher quality in states with more and longer-standing wastewater sites.
Go here, select a state from the drop-down:
For example, in Louisiana the most recently-reported CDC Level is 8.31.
8.31 * 0.330 = 2.74, signifying that 2.74% of the state is estimated to be actively infectious with Covid.
Take 100 divided by that number to get the "1 in ____" statistic. For example, 100/2.74 = 36.45, signifying that 1 in 36 people in Louisiana are estimated to be actively infectious.
Watch your decimals, and remember these formulas can't just be thrown at any random wastewater tracker.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVID1…
PMC COVID-19 Forecasting Model, Sept 9, 2024
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Here's the complete dashboard. Use, crop, improve, and share as desired across other platforms and the web. Tag me if helpful.
Read the full report and technical appendix online: pmc19.com/data
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During this 12th COVlD wave, the CDC reports 1-in-3 states have "High" or "Very High" levels.
PMC estimates the proportion of residents actively infectious (prevalence):
◾️USA: 1 in 67
◾️IA: 1 in 27
◾️MI: 1 in 25
◾️IN & CT: 1 in 23
◾️ME: 1 in 21
◾️OK & SD: 1 in 17
🧵1/
On average, Americans have have 5.0 cumulative SARS-CoV-2 infections.
This week's infections are expected to result in 1/4 to 1 million new #LongCOVID conditions and ≈2,000 excess deaths.
🧵2/
The wave peak is now estimated >10% higher than last week at 1.2 million new daily infections, nearly double the Delta wave.
We expect sustained high transmission (≈600,000 to 750,000 new daily infections) the next few weeks as COVlD circulates through schools/families.
🧵3/
Based on today's CDC & Biobot data, we estimate the following for the week of Jan 19:
🔸1 in 52 people in the U.S. actively infectious
🔸25% chance of exposure in a room of 15 ppl
🔸Nearly 1 million new daily infections
🔸5 cumulative infections per person all-time (avg)
🧵1/5
Transmission estimates have been marginally corrected upward.
11 states have Very High COVlD levels:
🔸PA: 1 in 25 estimated actively infectious
🔸MI: 1 in 23
🔸OH & KY: 1 in 22
🔸SD: 1 in 20
🔸NE & IA: 1 in 18
🔸IL & ME: 1 in 17
🔸IN: 1 in 16
🔸WV: 1 in 11
🧵2/5
We're in the middle of a 12th COVlD wave.
The peak has likely passed, but with students headed back to school, transmission is expected to remain high for at least the next several weeks.
The size of the winter COVlD wave has been revised upward as post-holiday data come in.
We estimated 1 in 55 people in the U.S. are actively infectious.
🔥WV: 1 in 14
🔥IN: 1 in 15
🔥MI & OH: 1 in 21
🔥MO: 1 in 22
🔥CT: 1 in 24
🔥KS: 1 in 25
🔥MA & IL: 1 in 27
Quick 🧵 1/4
Nationally, we are seeing an estimated 892,000 new daily SARS-CoV-2 infections, meaning a 1 in 4 chance of exposure in a room of 15 people. Risk varies considerably by state.
We are approaching an average of 5 infections per person since pandemic onset.
🧵 2/4
We are in the 12th COVlD wave of the U.S.
Current transmission is higher than 68% of all days since the pandemic onset in 2020.
🧵 3/4
You might not have heard, but the northeastern U.S. is in a COVlD surge.
We use wastewater levels to derive estimates of the proportion of people actively infectious in each state (prevalence), e.g., 1 in 24 people in Connecticut.
We told you that 109,000-175,000 Americans would died of COVID (excess deaths) in 2025.
Today, the CDC estimates 101,000 deaths/year (flat from Oct 2022 to Sep 2024), and likely higher when considering more nebulous non-acute excess deaths (heart attack 6 months later). 1/5
The CDC estimates are actually higher than I would have guessed, given their methodology, which models estimates based on easily countable factors in healthcare and expert input on multiplier values. It lends credence to the PMC upper bound of excess deaths of 175,000/yr.
2/5
What's troubling is the CDC has annual mortality flat. My expectation based on mortality displacement and Swiss Re data is that it should be declining. If is stays flat, we're running on something like breast+prostate cancer or lung cancer deaths per year in perpetuity.
3/5