96% of flights with COVID. Decoupling of hospitalizations & wastewater versus cases

[SuperCoder]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Omaha Steve (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Dr. Eric Ding (former 16yr Harvard Epidemiologist)

We need to talk about how COVID hospitalization is surging in Massachusetts- doubling in a month - but cases are flat. But is COVID truly flat? No, not at all if you look at the wastewater levels of SARSCov2 RNA in Boston. Thus we have now lost the reliability of simple case counts. But unlike the good uncoupling of low hospitalization vs rising cases, we now have the opposite bad uncoupling of rising hospitalization vs flat cases. Wastewater seems to be only only good early warning indicator now.

Speaking of water water surveillance — 96% of flights in a study of airplane toilet water in SE Asia region last year found SARS2 virus. We have to use this as a warning indicator that likely most flights have someone with COVID in this pandemic era. If you don’t still mask on flight— you are playing with fire— playing Russian roulette with your health and Long COVID.

Hospitalization ⬆️ 2x surging…

—but cases flat??

What’s going on is testing has crashed and #COVID19 case numbers are unreliable.
📌 Cases and hospitalizations are uncoupling—but in the WRONG WAY… opposite of last year.

📌 Wastewater doesn’t lie. See wastewater data from Massachusetts below.

📌 More wastewater data: SarsCoV-2 was detected in wastewater from 95.7% of flights

📌 Driven by the highly evasive and infectious #XBB15 variant.

Don’t ignore the #Kraken. #MaskUp




Read more: https://drericding.substack.com/p/96-of-flights-with-covid-decoupling?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=233203&post_id=95152506&isFreemail=true&utm_medium=email

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This is not opinion or analysis. This is medical fact, from renowned epidemiologist Dr. Eric Ding.

[area51]

10. Me too. n/t

[pazzyanne]

16. Same! nt

[paleotn]

20. A wise assessment of risk in many cases....

It's not like Covid magically disappeared when the mask came off for commercial travel. It's still around doing its thing. We'll simply have to learn to live with it.

[Fiendish Thingy]

2. Blogs don't belong in LBN

Good article, but belongs in GD or OpEd.

[dem4decades]

3. Funny we had covid last month and I kept thinking of all the Covid being flushed into the sewer.

[FBaggins]

4. Not a valid conclusion to draw.

The virus has been found in fecal matter several months after even mild infections. And while waste tanks are emptied after each flight, they aren't decontaminated. It's no surprise at all that any given flight has multiple people who have been infected at some point in the last six months.

It's a respiratory virus. Why weren't they testing the air filtration?

[BigmanPigman]

5. It is still bad out there.....

"People who haven't had COVID will likely catch XBB.1.5 – and many will get reinfected, experts say
Variant XBB.1.5 is very contagious, meaning everyone is at risk even if you've already been infected. As the U.S. enters year 3 of the pandemic, here's an update on the state of COVID."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/01/06/covid-update-xbb-variant-symptoms-reinfection/10995204002/

Japan is currently experiencing their 2nd highest outbreak.....

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/japan/

I see about 6 masks every time I go into a crowded supermarket in Southern CA. This is beyond ridiculous. Why doesn't anyone mask anymore? Did the right-wing's politicizing of Covid make us this way?

[Rebl2]

6. I am in

red Missouri and still mask because I take chemo and visit parent in nursing home and don’t want to give it to my husband. He still masks as well.

[BigmanPigman]

7. The two of you have more common sense than millions of

Americans combined.

[IronLionZion]

8. American made N95 masks are cheap and widely available

Maskholes will be breathing on you in crowded lines and waiting areas of airports. Seasonal winter spikes are each year now. Massachusetts is highly vaccinated so I wouldn't count on that alone.

Good luck DUers, be safe.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. I still wear my mask when i am out in public

The last time I flew I masked the entire trip

[agingdem]

14. so did I...

the guy sitting in front of me was coughing and sneezing..no mask and no covering his mouth...the woman sitting next to him looked uncomfortable and asked the flight attendant if she could change seats..full flight.. but by then she had already been exposed and, more than likely, infected

[paleotn]

19. Especially on aircraft....

I got so use to it in 2021 when we started traveling again that it feels weird to not wear one on a commercial flight.

[SheltieLover]

11. I love Dr. Ding's tweets!

Ty for sharing.

I have been wearing an N95 at grocery store & other places since 2/2020 because of Dr. Ding's alerts.

No intention of stopping this practice anytime soon!

[PSPS]

12. We have no reliable case counts in the US anymore. All testing is now "voluntary and self-reported."

[FBaggins]

13. But we do have reliable counts of deaths

And can compare them to norms.

The more unreported cases we speculate occur… the less deadly the virus currently is.

[paleotn]

18. Always was voluntary and self reported from day 1.

Or did I miss that notice back in 2020 about mandatory testing?

[cstanleytech]

15. "This is not opinion or analysis. This is medical fact" True but I fail to understand why

its been posted here rather than over in the science forum.

[paleotn]

17. In my mind, case counts were never a terribly accurate measure

of levels of infection. It completely misses the asymptomatic and those with varying levels of mild symptoms who never get terribly sick. That slice of infections is and was a guesstimate at best.

It's endemic now globally since China finally accepted the inevitable. Vax up, and mask up if you feel the need. It ain't going away.

[Omaha Steve]

21. After a review by forum hosts, locking........

Source is not a NEWS blog.

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