In addition to our new state-level table (continued here), you can always scroll down further on the dashboard to find links to more CDC and non-CDC data in your area (if available).
Our forecast continues to show levels likely rising.
There are many sites offline and huge data lags, so these real-time estimates are imperfect. Notice the low versus high estimates in the forecast.
Much uncertainty. Track locally as best you can.
🧵7/12
Notice that current transmission (red) is closely tracking that of the Delta wave (blue, 4 years ago).
I cannot imagine transmission peaking much lower than that. With uncertainty (NY mostly offline), the peak could be marginally higher or wider.
🧵8/12
We remain in a pandemic. An estimated 1 in 93 are actively infectious today.
Expect the real-time estimates to bounce up or down a bit with the sites offline and lags in reporting. Biobot (20% model weight) took the week off entirely.
🧵9/12
Today in the U.S.
🔥More transmission than 53% of days from pandemic onset to present
🔥3.6 million weekly infections
🔥Actuarial-derived estimates suggest this week's infections will cause 1,300-2,100 excess deaths
🧵10/12
Register and join us Sunday for the "Back-to-School Health Forum."
Could you comment here with any questions you'd like me to answer on Sunday?
The 11th wave is still rising.
🔥23 states/territories High/Very High
🔥Very High: Alabama, DC, Guam, Hawai'i, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, Utah
🔥1 in 56 estimated actively infectious
🔥876,000 new daily infections
PMC Dashboard Update (U.S.) 🧵2 of 8
Note that the CDC has modified 📉 how transmission levels correspond to the categorical bins.
Take California. We estimate 1 in 30 actively infectious statewide. This would have previously been "Very High," now just "High."
#NewNormal
PMC Dashboard Update (U.S.) 🧵3 of 8
Here are the prevalence estimates for the first half of states/territories.
Notice how high the levels are in some of the "Moderate" states.
Second, a lot of people can sustain a strong denial of reality about the ongoing pandemic during lulls. They suppress the existence of COVlD waves and excess deaths, disability, and retirements.
During waves, those defenses burst. Loss of control = anger...
Third, a lot of people (many reading this) understand COVlD correctly & experience righteous indignation during COVlD waves. We quite reasonably do not like all of the unjust and gratuitous suffering.
I find it helpful to channel that intensity into helping other people....
🚩🚩🚩
As a vigorous defender of #CDC data, their switch from using normalized to non-normalized COVlD wastewater surveillance data today harms data quality.
"Normalizing" means accounting for basic confounders like rain levels. It is a choice to use worse data.
1/5🧵
Historically, the CDC data have correlated near-perfectly with similar metrics, such as Biobot's wastewater estimates (still active) or the IHME true case estimates (through mid-2023).
The changes reduce those correlations. It's like going from an A+ to a B.
2/5🧵
You can readily see the loss of data quality in the PMC "whole pandemic" graph (preview shown, subject to change) with choppier waves, caused by the CDC adding extra noise to the data and applying retroactively from BA.1 Omicron to present.
U.S. CDC numbers just released. Good news (for those not in Louisiana). "Only" a 5% national increase.
2025 has closely tracked with summer 2023 transmission. A 12-13% increase would have been expected based on those numbers. That said...
real-time data have been prone to retroactive corrections. This is frustrating, of course, because it leaves people making decisions based on data that are only of good quality when 2 weeks old.
If we saw a 12% increase this week, I'd say look at 2023 for a glimpse...
at the future. Instead, I would consider these plausible scenarios:
🔹Wave still similar to 2023
🔹Later wave with schools more implicated
🔹Something temporarily much better