- antigen tests aren't free in the US any more, and nobody reported positives on them even when they were
- as of the middle of last year antigen tests only had a 63% true positive rate against omicron variants (78% against symptomatic cases, which is still not great) and that probably hasn't gone up
- you can't get a PCR test without a prescription now so basically the only people showing up in public test positivity statistics are being hospitalized
if you're in seattle, you want to hit up https://doh.wa.gov/emergencies/covid-19/data-dashboard#WasteWater and set the code of the water treatment plant to BWT (the Brightwater treatment plant, up in Bothell)
Biobot Analytics also has collated wastewater data for the whole US. This is what the graph looks like:
There are a few interesting things to note here:
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Wastewater was pretty much lockstep with reported case rates until at-home tests were introduced in the latter half of 2021. This suggests that wastewater data is quite accurate, which is good!
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Once at-home tests were introduced, reported cases consistently undershot actual COVID prevalence. Whose advantage this underreporting serves is left as an exercise to the reader.
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After the global minimum of 40 copies/mL in May 2021, we've never even come close to reaching that number again.
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COVID is on the rise again after a local minimum in mid-June. Reported cases don't reflect this at all anymore, which is bad!
Barely anyone masks in public anymore and it hasn't actually gotten more safe to do that. People have been perpetually lied to about the pandemic being "over" or efficacy of masks, but the fact of the matter is that you should still be wearing N95 masks in public and that isn't gonna change any time soon. Even hospitals are making it optional now, which is some of the most ridiculous shit.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so get vaccinated and wear a mask.
