People's CDC COVID-19 Weather report

Statement: Last week, President Biden stated that “the pandemic is over.” The People’s CDC rejects this statement entirely.

We refuse to consider a pandemic that is still killing about 400+ people every day in the US, disabling many with Long COVID, and (re)infecting millions because of lack of mitigations, “over.” This statement concedes to mass disability and death. This cannot be normalized!

Saying the pandemic is over is especially dismissive of the communities and individuals who have been most affected by COVID–the elderly, incarcerated people, immigrants, immunocompromised folks, those with chronic conditions, BIPOC people, frontline workers, to name a few.

Join us in demanding that Biden & Congress promote safety & equity: We need layers of protection via free, quality masking & testing, ventilation, universal health care, treatments, and more.

The Weather: As has been the case since early June, over 98 percent of the population lives in areas with substantial or higher COVID transmission.

This map and table show COVID community transmission in the US by county, with High broken into 3 subcategories: High, Very High, and Extremely High. Transmission is indicated via shades of red, with the darkest shade indicating areas of Extremely High transmission, and the palest shade representing Low to Moderate transmission. Text indicates that 98.5 percent of the US population lives in an area with substantial or higher COVID transmission level, which is also represented via the three darkest shades of red covering most of the map itself. Most of the country is experiencing High transmission, at 64.26 percent of counties representing 73.74 percent of the population; 16.01 of counties representing 18.94 percent of the population are experiencing substantial transmission. Only 9.23 percent of counties, representing 1.51 percent of the population, are experiencing Low to Moderate transmission.The graphic is visualized by the People’s CDC and the data are from the CDC.

On Variants: BA.5 remains the overwhelming majority variant at 83 percent while BA.4.6 has become a slightly larger share of cases. BF.7 and BA.2.75 also show modest growth.

A bar chart shows data for the weeks of 6/25/2022 through 9/24/2022 with levels for each viral lineage shown vertically. Since late June, BA5 has been the dominant lineage, growing from about 42 percent of cases to just over 80% by August and peaking in mid August at about 86%. Since then, it has receded, but as of 9/24 still makes up about 83.1% of cases. The lineages that appear to be growing over the past few weeks are BA 4.6 (now at 11.9%) and BF 7 (now at 2.3%).

Wastewater Monitoring: As of the time of this writing, @biobotanalytics has not posted new wastewater data. They report that they will post an update early this week. For our next report, we will have data to show.

Vaccinations: We strongly recommend that people get vaccinated with the new bivalent booster. In the past few weeks, we have reported on the booster; take a look & share this information.

Three weeks into the rollout, only 2 percent of those eligible have signed up for the vaccine. With the winter fast approaching & the limitations of infection-induced immunity, COVID cases are expected to surge beyond the plateau we have seen all summer.

To address misinformation about COVID vaccination impacting fertility, a new systematic review –a study of studies–has been published, showing no association between vaccination and fertility.

Hospitalizations: Hospitalizations again declined this past week for adults and children.

However, the hospitalization rate remains fairly high for children compared to the rate throughout the rest of the pandemic. The rate may increase as children return to school without masking requirements or upgraded air ventilation.

Two line charts representing new admissions of patients with confirmed COVID in the United States over time. The chart has “United States, All Ages,” as its title, “New Admissions per 100,000 Population” on its y-axis, and dates from January 2021 to July 2022 on its x-axis, though actual dates range from August 2020 to August 2022. The dotted line represents new admissions of patients with confirmed COVID in the US over time across all age ranges. The line indicates peak hospitalizations occurred in January 2021, August 2021, and January 2022, with smaller peaks happening in April 2021 and July 2022. At its latest data point, the line indicates that hospitalizations are currently moving in a downward trend. The solid yellow line shows new hospitalizations for children ages 0 to 17 years. Their hospitalizations have remained stable in recent months and are starting to decrease.

A new genomic blood test has been developed that can detect and predict the severity of COVID for patients with an accuracy of over 90 percent. This can help reduce the chances of hospitalization.

Deaths: From September 15th through September 21st, 2,470 people died of COVID nationally.

On Long COVID: A new longitudinal cohort study found that prolonged symptoms can persist two years after acute COVID infection.

A bar graph representing the proportion of patients with specific symptoms at 1 year (shown in grey) and 2 years (shown in yellow). The following symptoms are listed along the x axis: Palpitations, dizziness, headache, shortness of breath, sweating, expectoration, cough, myalgia, dyspnea, chest tightness, anxiety, fatigue. At one year, about 18 percent of patients had sweating, about 8 percent had myalgia, about 13 percent had chest tightness, just over 10 percent had anxiety, and about 27 percent had fatigue. The other symptoms were present in under 5 percent of patients. At two years, fewer than 2 percent of patients reported most of the symptoms. Chest tightness was present in about 3 percent of patients, anxiety in just under 5 percent, and fatigue in just over 10 percent of patients.

Forecast: @Oxfam responded to the Lancet COVID Commission report on lessons from the pandemic.

They emphasize the role of “nationalism, racism, profiteering, and an overreaching intellectual property system” as barriers to vaccine access in low income countries.

They write: “Saving lives must come before profits and decisions about who lives and who dies are never again outsourced to the CEOs of big pharma.” Read more here.

We know that workers have and continue to bear the brunt of COVID mortality, as demonstrated in a @thelancet study. Emergency workers in particular had a higher death rate during the 2021 than any other sector.

On Friday, the CDC issued new guidance significantly weakening infection control for patients and workers in healthcare settings. It waters down language from requiring to “recommending” or “considering” crucial measures around mask wearing, testing, and indoor air quality.

As @mattbc summarized, “CDC is making healthcare facilities even more dangerous for chronically ill, disabled, immunocompromised, and older Americans.”

This new CDC guidance is horrific. It lowers standards for infection control and is part of a deliberate campaign to ratchet down any remaining efforts to avoid mass disability and death.

Actions to Take: In addition to sending letters to Biden & Congress, mentioned on the top of this report, sign this petition to OSHA to issue permanent COVID protections for healthcare workers! We need to fight against the CDC’s ableist and eugenic policies.

Check out our Fighting for Worker Safety infosheet, hot off the press! In it, there are resources on campaigning for safety in the workplace, through policy, and more.

Dr. Marwa Zaatari, a scientist and whistleblower who brought attention to Global Plasma Solution (GPS) products that claimed to kill COVID without evidence, is being sued by GPS. Read more about this here. We denounce this move to put profits over people’s lives.

Notes: 1) The numbers in this report were current as of 9/23. The CDC updates data frequently as it receives refreshed information. Today’s numbers may be slightly different from the data here. 2) Check out the links throughout & see our website for more! https://bej.gbh.mybluehost.me.