vogon
@vogon
  • 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)


nex3
@nex3

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:

  • 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!

  • 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.

  • After the global minimum of 40 copies/mL in May 2021, we've never even come close to reaching that number again.

  • 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!


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