No no no… DO NOT question the usefullness! Your work is really precious. Here in Canada, I use your info to correlate with was is going on up here. For example, I see wastewater Flu A is up in Maine, so it gets me wondering if H5N1 is going to make an appearance in New Brunswick… 🤔
Me too. High quality info concisely presented. I feel “informed” after reading your posts. Keep up the great work. It’s a pleasure being a “paid” subscriber to support your work.
CDC identified that there may be as many as 450,000 individuals living in the United States with AGS in their July 2023 MMWR report. Analysis of Viracore Eurofins data for the years 2017-2019, as included in the CDC's July MMWR report on AGS, reveals that when these positive AGS cases are combined with the surveillance data for other tickborne diseases (including Lyme disease, Spotted Fever Rickettsiosis, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichia chaffeensis ehrlichiosis, Tularemia, undetermined ehrlichiosis/anaplasmosis, Ehrlichia ewingii ehrlichiosis, and Powassan virus disease), AGS emerges as the second most "reported" tickborne disease in the US. Yet AGS is only a mandatorily reportable condition in one state at this time.
Thanks, as always, to you and all the YLE team for keeping us so well informed, including with hugely helpful YLE-annotated charts. Brilliant work, and much appreciated!
We're starting to see alpha-gal here in the Northeast--the epicenter of tick borne diseases. My state has the highest amount and we're the smallest state..
Yes! My friend has had it for about 10 years although diagnosed ~3 years ago. I trace it in me to ~ 6-8 years ago, but diagnosed last year. Many may be infected in the NE but undiagnosed. :(
Weird condition, and need to be more vigilant for it. I have 2 patients here in NJ with alpha-gal.
Also just pulled a deer tick off our daughter after a school camping trip in southeast PA. In her class of 35 kids there were 3 others with ticks discovered by parents after the recommended tick check, according to parental text thread intel :)
Thank you for this type of weather report. Something to remember about heat related illnesses, persons with disabilities are at a much higher risk as well. Many people who use wheelchairs have issues with temperature regulation, as well as those with Down's Syndrome and other disabilities.
If you're setting up cooling stations or other services, make sure they're inclusive and fully accessible.
I highly value these newsletters. But I must disagree with one statement in this newsletter. COVID in wastewater, at least in the Boston area, is NOT at an all-time low. In fact, every month in 2024 the average value has been higher than the previous years except for when Omicron hit us. I point out to friends all the time that there is a LOT of COVID circulating, even though people are tired of talking about it. Fortunately, vaccines and treatments, as well as the mutations themselves, have significantly reduced the death rate for MOST people. But there are many people with insufficient immune systems who simply cannot fight the virus successfully. These people need to know that they should continue to take precautions.
High quality info concisely presented. I feel “informed” after reading your posts. Keep up the great work. It’s a pleasure being a “paid” subscriber to support your work.
I wonder if the link to the Heat Risk index where a zip code may be entered needs to be corrected to this one: https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/Applications/HeatRisk/. (Thank you, as always, for this vital information!)
Invaluable, as always! Thanks to you and the entire YLE team for keeping us so well informed, and always with those handy-dandy YLE-annotated graphs. Brilliant work!
Excellent update! I appreciate your good notes. Been reading your emails for sevewl years. A friend in isolated with long Covid makes early 30’s, otherwise good health. Suggestions?
I know so many people who have suffered from Lyme Disease. I was as frightened of Lyme as COVID before the vaccine. Any hope for a vaccine on the horizon?
I have corresponded with Kris Newbie (Bitten) about the potential for perchlorate in the tick's saliva and/or human skin to increase risk of Lyme Disease infection. In terms of spatio-temporal coincidence the numbers are much tighter though with mosquito-borne Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Saint Louis Encephalitis, and Japanese Encephalitis, so that's what I talk about with the US EPA. Lyme Disease is a much broader, more difficult to track issue.
I really appreciate these summaries.
Thanks so much for the feedback! I actually question if these are useful, often, so this is helpful!!
No no no… DO NOT question the usefullness! Your work is really precious. Here in Canada, I use your info to correlate with was is going on up here. For example, I see wastewater Flu A is up in Maine, so it gets me wondering if H5N1 is going to make an appearance in New Brunswick… 🤔
So… THANK YOU for all your work!!!
These state-of-things posts are incredibly useful!
Me too. High quality info concisely presented. I feel “informed” after reading your posts. Keep up the great work. It’s a pleasure being a “paid” subscriber to support your work.
Thanks so much for everything you do to keep us informed and prepared. It’s very appreciated!
Thank you for mentioning ticks. We have lots of problems with Alpha-Gal Syndrome in the South.
Same on Long Island (and probably broader in the Northeast).
CDC identified that there may be as many as 450,000 individuals living in the United States with AGS in their July 2023 MMWR report. Analysis of Viracore Eurofins data for the years 2017-2019, as included in the CDC's July MMWR report on AGS, reveals that when these positive AGS cases are combined with the surveillance data for other tickborne diseases (including Lyme disease, Spotted Fever Rickettsiosis, Anaplasmosis, Babesiosis, Ehrlichia chaffeensis ehrlichiosis, Tularemia, undetermined ehrlichiosis/anaplasmosis, Ehrlichia ewingii ehrlichiosis, and Powassan virus disease), AGS emerges as the second most "reported" tickborne disease in the US. Yet AGS is only a mandatorily reportable condition in one state at this time.
https://www.tbcunited.org/help-us-turn-the-ags-state-reporting-map-green/
Thank you for this.
Thanks, as always, to you and all the YLE team for keeping us so well informed, including with hugely helpful YLE-annotated charts. Brilliant work, and much appreciated!
We're starting to see alpha-gal here in the Northeast--the epicenter of tick borne diseases. My state has the highest amount and we're the smallest state..
Thank you for this update!
Yes! My friend has had it for about 10 years although diagnosed ~3 years ago. I trace it in me to ~ 6-8 years ago, but diagnosed last year. Many may be infected in the NE but undiagnosed. :(
I have had AGS for 8 years as well. My daughter was diagnosed last year, as well as another 16 year old friend.
Weird condition, and need to be more vigilant for it. I have 2 patients here in NJ with alpha-gal.
Also just pulled a deer tick off our daughter after a school camping trip in southeast PA. In her class of 35 kids there were 3 others with ticks discovered by parents after the recommended tick check, according to parental text thread intel :)
Please explain why using a fan in 90+ degree weather ‘does more harm than good.’
Thank you for this type of weather report. Something to remember about heat related illnesses, persons with disabilities are at a much higher risk as well. Many people who use wheelchairs have issues with temperature regulation, as well as those with Down's Syndrome and other disabilities.
If you're setting up cooling stations or other services, make sure they're inclusive and fully accessible.
I appreciate the succinct updates AND letting us know the significance of each!
I appreciate this reports, especially with the current lack of data in the US.
SARS-2 infections are not at their lowest in wastewater, however. According to Biobot, these are the three most recent minima:
4/2022 124,592
5/2023 152,790
5/2024 162,229 (leveled off)
(Estimated daily infections)
All the previous lows in 2020 and 2021 were much lower, under 100k.
I can't link to the data since Biobot has now gone dark like so many other sources.
I highly value these newsletters. But I must disagree with one statement in this newsletter. COVID in wastewater, at least in the Boston area, is NOT at an all-time low. In fact, every month in 2024 the average value has been higher than the previous years except for when Omicron hit us. I point out to friends all the time that there is a LOT of COVID circulating, even though people are tired of talking about it. Fortunately, vaccines and treatments, as well as the mutations themselves, have significantly reduced the death rate for MOST people. But there are many people with insufficient immune systems who simply cannot fight the virus successfully. These people need to know that they should continue to take precautions.
High quality info concisely presented. I feel “informed” after reading your posts. Keep up the great work. It’s a pleasure being a “paid” subscriber to support your work.
I wonder if the link to the Heat Risk index where a zip code may be entered needs to be corrected to this one: https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/Applications/HeatRisk/. (Thank you, as always, for this vital information!)
Invaluable, as always! Thanks to you and the entire YLE team for keeping us so well informed, and always with those handy-dandy YLE-annotated graphs. Brilliant work!
Excellent update! I appreciate your good notes. Been reading your emails for sevewl years. A friend in isolated with long Covid makes early 30’s, otherwise good health. Suggestions?
I know so many people who have suffered from Lyme Disease. I was as frightened of Lyme as COVID before the vaccine. Any hope for a vaccine on the horizon?
I have corresponded with Kris Newbie (Bitten) about the potential for perchlorate in the tick's saliva and/or human skin to increase risk of Lyme Disease infection. In terms of spatio-temporal coincidence the numbers are much tighter though with mosquito-borne Eastern Equine Encephalitis, Saint Louis Encephalitis, and Japanese Encephalitis, so that's what I talk about with the US EPA. Lyme Disease is a much broader, more difficult to track issue.