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I understand the need for a clickbait headline, but it sounds like your conclusion is that Covid wastewater monitoring *does* mean what it used to, while hospitalization numbers don't. Since I'm using the MWRA numbers to guide my risk assessment for things like going to shul, your headline worried me (and your article reassured me).

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Hi Andrew, I didn't really intend anything as clickbait. (In general, clicks don't drive success here--paying members like you do!)

Glad the piece helped, though I do think the message might be that hospitalizations are higher than we are detecting right now.

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It appears politics is once again messing with quality & quantification of useful public health data 😕 Thank you for continuing to put forth good information.

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Fascinating!

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Isn’t there some possibility that COVID hospitalizations will be required reporting again in October? And isn’t there a stable group of hospitals that report?

I agree— clickbait and then confirmation that wastewater is still meaningful data. We have nothing else to guide us about circulating levels.

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YES! I need to see how that initiative is coming along. I'll ask.

Sorry re: the headline. Not my intent!

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So if all hospitals in our country were reporting covid and covid “ tip over hospitalizations” or all covid ER visit data… how many covid related hospitalizations would be happening now in our country? Estimate ? More than the CDC is currently posting based on less data ?

How does our entire country improve respiratory illness reporting year round ?

Also wondering, how many covid infections and variants exposed does it possibly take for an individual to be considered “covid immune “ in data and charts? Like how much potential covid immunity exists for a person with new variants emerging constantly?

I’ve read that 2 or more mild covid infections can cause long covid in vaccinated or unvaccinated women particularly and people under age 55…(employees and students theme, younger families)

What’s your opinion on vaccinating everyone twice a year until better options exist since covid isn’t seasonal? Would this decrease long covid impacts for humanity? Wondering what family primary care doctors are thinking and pediatricians during school, camp, holiday illness outbreaks? Maybe 🤔 a nasal or oral vaccine will be here by 2025 ??? Would a twice a year vaccine 💉 help reduce long covid and reduce infections overall ? Any new data would be appreciated..

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Hi Ellen,

I'd say multiply whatever you see nationally by 4 or so.

My opinion on twice yearly vaccines is that it is likely quite useful for very high risk people (think: immunocompromised to the extent of chemotherapy or organ transplant). For others, the juice isn't worth the squeeze.

I make no predictions re: future vaccines but I hope we get them!

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