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Some scientists and fitness experts see the option of possibly overlooking the first symptoms of a new outbreak, while others say measures such as hospitalizations and sewage tracking are more applicable than daily reports.
By Adéel Hassan
A growing number of U. S. states The U. S. Department of Homeland Security has stopped providing daily updates on the number of new coronavirus cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, which, combined with the backlog of internal tests whose effects are not officially recorded, creates a more asymmetric real-time. Look at the state of the pandemic.
While most states still report each and every day of the week, more than a dozen have returned once or twice a week, according to a New York Times database. Arizona, Hawaii, Kentucky, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma and South Carolina switched to weekly reports, as did the District of Columbia. Wyoming has moved on to biweekly reports. More cuts are expected, public fitness officials said.
Nationally, the decline in new cases, hospitalizations and deaths is declining, and some experts worry that the drop in reporting could create blind spots if the pandemic begins to resurface.
Many states have recently abandoned pandemic restrictions, even as cases rise again in Europe, which has served as a barometer of the trajectory of the pandemic in the U. S. Two weeks in the U. S. , according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Some states also reduced their frequency of reporting knowledge last summer, just as a wave of new cases of the Delta variant arrived. But this time there are key differences, fitness said.
“We’ve moved to a position where we don’t want to know the absolute numbers,” said Dr. Marcus Plescia, medical director of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, which represents public fitness agencies in all 50 states. Washington DC and U. S. territories. ” We can monitor the trends of other people who are tested in public office. We have a smart concept of where absolute numbers are going. “
He said cutting reports wouldn’t necessarily mean states would be less prepared for new waves. The above peaks come from variants that have been discovered and sequenced internationally, adding Delta and Omicron. , noted Dr. Plescia.
The benefits of knowledge communication have also changed, according to Dr. Gigi Gronvall, testing expert and principal investigator at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security.
“We saw that in June, the attempt to report it more like a flu, and then it was justified,” he said. “By June, cases had dropped and we didn’t have Delta yet. and had no immediate antigen controls. Now, the government has literally put everyone through controls. People who check and test positive almost don’t actually tell their fitness services. Therefore, knowledge is unstable.
He said signals are more valuable at this stage, such as the number of hospitalizations and vaccinations and wastewater monitoring.
Dr. Plescia agreed and said it was the right time to align Covid reporting with the way public fitness agencies track other infectious diseases. He said the result would be a more complete picture of the coronavirus’ trajectory, as there would be more time to smooth out fluctuations. in daily knowledge. In fact, daily knowledge “doesn’t necessarily influence the interventions we’re considering,” he said.
However, some researchers have warned that cutting state reporting on pandemic measures poses a risk to reaction times.
“Infectious diseases like SARS-CoV-2 are evolving very temporarily, so we want to respond temporarily to the first symptoms of an accumulation of instances or a new variant,” said Dr. Sam Scarpino, director general of pathogen surveillance at the Rockefeller Foundation. Institute for the Prevention of Pandemics. . « Early action prevents school closures, demands masks and saves lives. However, if we wait days, weeks, or months for new data, it’s hard to see the signals fast enough.
Sarah Cahalan and Lisa Waananen Jones contributed to the report.
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