The ask in this thread mentions in passing "covid does seem to be going down overall" and I just want to point out that this is not accurate. The best data we have for actual COVID prevalence (in the US) is based on wastewater analysis, and the current effective wastewater levels are 859 copies/mL and climbing. That's worse than at any point before Omicron hit, worse than all but the highest levels since the Omicron spike as well, and 21x higher than the lowest point in May 2021. Just because people are ignoring it doesn't mean COVID is going down.
I'm not sure what this looks like outside the US because I'm not sure where to find the data, but given that travel is pretty easy again I would bet that the trend in developed countries largely follows the same curve.
Viral particles in sewershed in the Netherlands have literally never been higher and I saw a post on mastodon a week ago indicating its pretty much just as bad in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland. It's definitely not just the US.
So no, covid isn't going down at all. In fact this winter surge may become the worst one on record in terms of number of infections since this shit started.
