When we first published the Inside Medicine Covid metrics dashboard, many readers were confused by the CDC Covid-19 wastewater data. You weren’t alone. It even took Inside Medicine data guru Benjy Renton and me a few minutes to figure out that the CDC wastewater data being published at the time were
This is very helpful--I have a sense that cases are rising, and the JN.1 variant is coming, but it's so hard to understand what is going on--this is very appreciated.
Great post!! The reporting on COVID by the CDC has been miserable. “A picture is worth a thousands words” is a sentence I have always loved but it can be corrupted by the poor implementation of input choices. The importance of adequate history to provide context is also vital and CDC reporting has been very lacking in that. As is there report(s) on the percentage increases in hospitalizations from week to week - no perspective on actual numbers over a meaningful timeline. I’d (sort of) like to believe these things are just ingrained bureaucratic communications failures, but it seems so repetitive and in a consistent manner in its misleading data presentation that it seems more like deliberate attempt to confuse the issue. Keep after them👍
You are exactly right that we want to trust data AND we have to understand it before we can! One thing I think that is still missing is that science has to meet people where they are. By that I mean we need to know when masks need to go on in the stores, public transportation. There are many doctors who are not recommending the boost if you have had the three, in good health and had a previous infection, then you have some who make it seem like we are playing with fire if we don’t get updated vaccine. I know there are no guarantees, but it is confusing for those not in the world of data, science or medicine. Thank you to you, Benjy for doing the hard work to make it easier! Don’t stop we still need you!
CDC should have arranged for a six month overlap between the end of its contract with Biobot and the start of its contract with the new provider so as to ensure continuity of the previous data stream while they and the data presentaton and modeling community learned how to use the new data source.
“But giving people epidemiological data that leaves them confused (and misled, at times) is no better than no data at all.”
Precisely!
You never want to know less after you read something!
Amen!
This is very helpful--I have a sense that cases are rising, and the JN.1 variant is coming, but it's so hard to understand what is going on--this is very appreciated.
Great post!! The reporting on COVID by the CDC has been miserable. “A picture is worth a thousands words” is a sentence I have always loved but it can be corrupted by the poor implementation of input choices. The importance of adequate history to provide context is also vital and CDC reporting has been very lacking in that. As is there report(s) on the percentage increases in hospitalizations from week to week - no perspective on actual numbers over a meaningful timeline. I’d (sort of) like to believe these things are just ingrained bureaucratic communications failures, but it seems so repetitive and in a consistent manner in its misleading data presentation that it seems more like deliberate attempt to confuse the issue. Keep after them👍
You are exactly right that we want to trust data AND we have to understand it before we can! One thing I think that is still missing is that science has to meet people where they are. By that I mean we need to know when masks need to go on in the stores, public transportation. There are many doctors who are not recommending the boost if you have had the three, in good health and had a previous infection, then you have some who make it seem like we are playing with fire if we don’t get updated vaccine. I know there are no guarantees, but it is confusing for those not in the world of data, science or medicine. Thank you to you, Benjy for doing the hard work to make it easier! Don’t stop we still need you!
CDC should have arranged for a six month overlap between the end of its contract with Biobot and the start of its contract with the new provider so as to ensure continuity of the previous data stream while they and the data presentaton and modeling community learned how to use the new data source.
I think we actually do have that data. I’ll see if we can update that. (For MA, at least). Thank you!