Earlier today, we reported something on our Facebook page about Harrisburg PA having a huge increase in COVID in wastewater.. As usual with COVID posts, either because Facebook limited the info or people are just mentally finished and ignoring COVID news, it received 3.1x lower reach to less than 1,000 people seeing it at the time this is being typed:
But it is interesting and important.
SOCIAL MEDIA SPREAD
The post from former Harvard professor and expert COVID Tweeter Eric Feigl-Ding showcased a story about Harrisburg (along with other NE cities like Boston) seeing an increase of COVID in wastewater..
The information is coming via Biobot Analytics..
The website for the company describes itself,
Inspired by the potential of wastewater epidemiology, Biobot is the first company in the world to commercialize data from sewage. After winning multiple entrepreneurship competitions at MIT, including a place in the DeltaV and DesignX accelerators, Biobot completed the Y Combinator accelerator in San Francisco. Headquartered in the Boston area, we aim to extend our wastewater epidemiology platform across all five continents.
The company has been gaining a number of followers this week as its reporting has been spread quickly on social media.
According to what is being showcased through studies, there are increases in wastewater that contains SarsCoV2.. It is happening in a number of cities and seems to back up data on positivity rates, such as Harrisburg’s now 16%+, and reports from hospitals in Northeastern Pennsylvania having up to 110% capacity with COVID patients requiring medical attention…
Coal Speaker can PERSONALLY attest to the numbers as several in family have acquired the virus or have been hospitalized
DELTA VS OMICRON
The company itself even Tweeted today that it believes its numbers are showing a rapidly evolving and quickly increasing number of COVID cases happening in areas it is studying..
There are some who predict the omicron variant will be faster spreading but less severe (God we hope so) … so based on that, Biobot seems pretty confident that this wastewater data is showing a wave of Delta, not Omicron..
They write,
Is this increase due to more per-capita shedding from Omicron? Likely not. Omicron makes up a small fraction of cases right now and so can’t be driving this spike. This is a second Delta wave. The Omicron wave is not here yet.
And they follow up further on their Twitter thread,
Is this increase due to increased vaccination? No. Getting vaccinated does not cause fecal virus shedding or lead the body to produce the viral RNA gene we use to track Covid-19 in WW. Vaccination decreases case counts & affects WW data by reducing the total number of cases.
But how can this spike be happening so fast? National case rates are among the highest they’ve ever been, and infections can spread exponentially. Exponential growth starting from this very high baseline means that cases can climb very quickly.
NPR reported that “poop sleuths” are hunting for omicron data in excrement. Surprisingly Biobot was not mentioned. They reported
Scientists have detected traces of omicron in wastewater in Houston, Boulder, Colo., and two cities in Northern California. It’s a signal that indicates the coronavirus variant is present in those cities, and it highlights the useful data produced by wastewater surveillance research as omicron looms.
If Biobot is right, we have double the worries: A fast spreading Omicron variant–that we hope has weakened and bringing us closer to endemic than pandemic–and Delta.. Delta, which replaced Beta and Alpha, is the stronger of the variants to date. The fast increase in hospitalizations may prove Delta is still very active in the Northeast… A transition to Omicron may occur within weeks, as that variant seemingly has learned to survive by spreading faster but growing weaker, in order for its hosts not to die quickly.. Fascinating, right?
JUST THE STATS MA’AM
Biobot publicly has revealed its research information on its site.
At this point it appears there is a massive nationwide spike in Covid being found in wastewater, indicating widespread activity .. As a matter of fact, compared to all months since April 2020, it has never been higher.
A county by county breakdown from the company is showing an increase in a number of locations..
The School District of Harrisburg used information from Biobot in a December 7 letter to parents explaining the quickly rising concerns over COVID positivity in the State Capitol — or should we use a fun and just get it out of the way, the state Craptiol. (Sorry.)
Meanwhile, trends and cases…
Coronavirus in PA: 6,694 new cases, 1,806,671 total as of Dec. 9, 2021…
***MAP OF PA CASES BY COUNTY, ZIP***
***TRENDS: PA NEW CASES***
The Pennsylvania statewide percent positivity for the week of Nov. 26 to Dec. 2 was 15.3%.
There are currently 4,404 individuals hospitalized with COVID-19 in the state, with 923 adult coronavirus patients in the intensive care unit. There have been a cumulative total of 34,271 deaths attributed to the virus in Pennsylvania as of December 9..
Meanwhile….
