According to the latest wastewater data, #COVID is surging in the Northeast of the US again.
After a short decline, COVID spread in the rest of the country has plateaued, and expected to rise again as we enter fall and winter.
Source: biobot.io
🇳🇱
As a fellow COVID19 research scientist, specifically one who focuses on the data side, I want to point out a criticism here.
An increase of COVID in wastewater is not an indication of a surge in COVID cases... mutations cause different shedding rates, by a huge margin. Seeing a surge in waste water covid particles can just as easily be explained away by the strains present in an area, the strains dominant may either be strains that shed more, and the number of cases are the same or even less, or may be strains that for whatever reason specifically show up more in urine (rather than viral shedding)..
A lot more research might need to be done (or I need to be pointed to if I havent seen it) that would address this before we can assert anything about how this correlates to changes in cases of covid.
@freemo @luckytran
In the Netherlands we seem to be having the opposite. Coughing everywhere. Colleagues who are too ill to even video call. And wastewater levels are quite low compared to previous waves.
The only other explanation I can think of is that because it has been a while since people's last booster, there may be more symptoms this round (or this variant causes more symptoms).
https://www.corona-lokaal.nl/locatie/Nederland/waterzuivering/Nederland