<![CDATA[Now is a great time to get to the dentist or do other things you may put off due to #COVID19 risks.]]>Now is a great time to get to the dentist or do other things you may put off due to risks. COVID is at 5-year lows.

We're even lower than this today (since NWSS's data is 2 weeks old), but COVID risks as of 4/18 were:

80% lower than January's surge
1/3 lower than last fall's lull
2/3 lower than at the same time last year

Data from the US:

WastewaterSCAN: https://data.wastewaterscan.org/?charts=CjIQACABSABaBk4gR2VuZXIKMjAyNi0wMy0xOXIKMjAyNi0wNC0zMIoBBmE3NjM3Y8ABAQ%3D%3D&selectedChartId=a7637c

Positive rate of testing: https://www.syndromictrends.com/

NWSS wastewater: https://www.cdc.gov/wastewater/respiratory-viruses/national.html?cove-tab=1

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/topic/76504377-be3e-40ae-829c-afbf98923b27/now-is-a-great-time-to-get-to-the-dentist-or-do-other-things-you-may-put-off-due-to-covid19-risks.RSS for NodeFri, 15 May 2026 02:11:53 GMTThu, 30 Apr 2026 14:17:08 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Now is a great time to get to the dentist or do other things you may put off due to #COVID19 risks. on Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:49:48 GMT]]>@augieray thanks for the reminder. I've been procrastinating on scheduling a dental visit.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://masto.ai/users/temporal_spider/statuses/116494210700728347https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://masto.ai/users/temporal_spider/statuses/116494210700728347Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:49:48 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Now is a great time to get to the dentist or do other things you may put off due to #COVID19 risks. on Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:48:04 GMT]]>@jensilber Right now, WastewaterSCAN's more current data is only showing more declines in recent weeks.

If we have record low COVID activity--as we do now--that's the time to get the stuff done that we need to. IMO, we can't stay paralyzed forever because a surge MIGHT be starting. (And, right now, I am very confident we are a month or longer away from even the beginnings of a new surge.)

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/augieray/statuses/116494203895364937https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/augieray/statuses/116494203895364937Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:48:04 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Now is a great time to get to the dentist or do other things you may put off due to #COVID19 risks. on Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:45:15 GMT]]>@jensilber I'm not concerned about lag time. 1st, we have the WastwaterSCAN dashboard (less complete but more current). 2nd, there are no variants that are currently causing any serious concerns (apart from that the current ones seem more transmissible to kids.) Given this, lag time is less risky when we're at record lows.

Perhaps most important, we've had two years with four surges that have been consecutively smaller. Surges don't develop in 2 weeks--they start small, and we have signals.

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/augieray/statuses/116494192830557783https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/augieray/statuses/116494192830557783Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:45:15 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Now is a great time to get to the dentist or do other things you may put off due to #COVID19 risks. on Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:34:04 GMT]]>@augieray I appreciate this. The thing that worries me in the back of my mind is that lag time -- when (if) it starts to rebound, how long before we start to catch on?

]]>https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/jensilber/statuses/116494148880039265https://board.circlewithadot.net/post/https://mastodon.social/users/jensilber/statuses/116494148880039265Thu, 30 Apr 2026 14:34:04 GMT