People's CDC COVID-19 Weather Report

The Weather: As we’ve seen all summer, >99 percent of the population lives in areas with substantial or higher COVID transmission. The two highest map levels here show how very high case levels are, at 100-199 and 200-299 cases per 100,000 respectively.

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 99.6 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. Only 5.1 percent of counties, representing 0.5 percent of the population, are experiencing Low to Moderate transmission. Most of the country is experiencing High transmission, at 58.6 percent of counties representing 73.4 percent of the population; followed by Very High transmission, at 17 percent of counties representing 14 percent of the population. The graphic is visualized by the People’s CDC and the data are from the CDC.

On Variants: Though BA5 still makes up most US cases, it showed a slight decline for the first time. We see BA4.6 continuing to grow slowly & a tiny increase in BA2. While the variant picture is somewhat unclear now, reducing spread would help slow the emergence of new variants.

A bar chart shows data for the weeks of 6/5/2022 through 9/10/2022 with levels for each viral lineage shown vertically. In mid-June, BA.2.12.1 and BA.2 were the dominant lineages, with only small amounts of BA.4 and BA.5 circulating. As time goes on, BA.4 and BA.5 quickly grow and BA.2.12.1 and BA.2 begin to shrink. By early July, BA.5 had become the dominant variant. As of 9/10/2022, BA.5 makes up the vast majority of cases at 87.5 percent, followed by BA.4.6 at 9.2 percent. The pattern of growth of BA.5 over the aforementioned time period appears to be exponential.

Wastewater Monitoring: National wastewater data, after a brief decline, rose again this week–in all regions except the West. It is unclear if this trend will continue or if it is being driven by BA4.6.

A line graph with overlapping lines indicates wastewater viral concentration in dark blue & daily clinical cases in light blue from January 2020 to September 2022. The x-axis is the date & the y-axis on the left states “Wastewater: Effective SARS-CoV-2 virus concentration, copies per mL, or milliliter, of sewage” and the y-axis on the right states “Clinical: daily new cases.” The clinical cases & daily average wastewaters have corresponding peaks & valleys, though the wastewater levels are consistently higher than the daily clinical cases, especially during surges, and the discrepancy has persisted since May 2022, confirming an ongoing summer surge. On 9/6, clinical daily cases shot up, resulting in an uptick of the clinical cases daily average line. Time will tell if this trend persists. Source: “Wastewater data from Biobot Analytics, Inc.; Clinical data from USAFacts.”

Hospitalizations: Overall hospitalizations are declining. However, among children 0-17–who are returning to school–we see stable hospitalizations. (The data in the light grey section is still being collected.)

A line chart 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.

A second line chart representing new admissions of patients with confirmed COVID in the United States over time. The chart has “United States, 0-17 Years,” 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 solid yellow line shows new hospitalizations for children ages 0 to 17 years. Their hospitalizations have remained stable since mid-July.

Deaths: From September 1st through September 7th, 2,196 people died of COVID nationally.

On Long COVID: The Long COVID Research Initiative announced its plan to understand the causes AND identify treatments for Long COVID, focusing particularly on the hypothesis that the virus can remain hidden in the body.

Long COVID Families recently hosted a virtual conference on research and advocacy with a focus on students returning to school. You can view the recordings here.

Forecast: The AFL-CIO issued a statement highlighting the need for ongoing worker protections. A new Urgency of Equity toolkit was also released this week, making the case for continuing to use layers of protection to keep our school communities safer.

We need to use all layers of protection–including the new bivalent booster. This booster matches both BA4 & BA5 and could help reduce spread. In a shortsighted move, this may be the last dose that the government pays for. Everyone should have access to the booster vaccine and all available health care tools.

Text explaining that the vaccine is provided through a federal program and is to be provided for free: “Vaccination providers may not charge any fee for the vaccine and may not charge the vaccine recipient any out-of-pocket charge for administration. However, vaccination providers may seek appropriate reimbursement from a program or plan that covers COVID-19 vaccine administration fees for the vaccine recipient (private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Health Resources & Services Administration [HRSA] COVID-19 Uninsured Program for non-insured recipients).” Violations are to be reported to HHS at 1-800-HHS-TIPS or online at https://TIPS.HHS.GOV

There are many questions about when to get the bivalent booster, especially if you’ve recently gotten a vaccine or infection. There’s limited data, with a nice summary here.

In a continued effort to renege on its responsibilities, the government rolled out the idea of shifting to a yearly booster. This is putting policy before science. While we hope to someday have better vaccines & fewer variants, a yearly shot at this time is insufficient.

Notes:

1) The numbers in this report were current as of 9/7. 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.