The Blaz is jukin' the COVID stats

 

Progress New York 

 The weekly Coronavirus sequencing data report released Wednesday showed the fifth, consecutive week of a drop in the number of Coronavirus specimen samples used for the sequencing of variants by the de Blasio administration. The sequencing data, for the week of May 10-16, reported that the trend in a highly contagious Coronavirus variant that has been deemed a “variant of concern” by the World Health Organisation has only increased by one tenth of one per cent. from the prior week. The B.1.617.2 variant has been reported to be roughly 50 per cent. more communicable than another variant prominent in the United Kingdom, and in some parts of England this variant is causing the majority of infections. Infections by variants, like B.1.617.2, have possible attributes that are “predicted to affect” vaccine escape, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet, the sequencing data released Wednesday showed almost no change in this particular Coronavirus substrain from the prior week week.

The collapse in the number of sample sizes raises questions about the Coronavirus variant trend data published by NYC Health, the Municipal Agency reporting the data.

For this report, Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) refused to admit that he was tampering with the sample sizes in order to distort the sequencing study findings. As Progress New York has reported, Mayor de Blasio has been solely focused on reopening the economy after the confinement orders issued beginning in March 2020 closed all nonessential business activity in New York City. An interview request made to the Mayor’s Office was never answered for this report.

 As reported by Progress New York, the sample size for the weekly Coronavirus sequencing reports has been falling since a peak of 1,831 samples were sequenced for the week of April 5-11. This week’s report showed that a mere 361 samples were sequenced, a fall to 19,7 per cent. of its April high.

Because the de Blasio administration has refused to explain the drop, it is not known how a sample size that is less than 20 per cent. of what it was five weeks ago remains random enough to be able to ethically make generalisations about trends in Coronavirus variants that are infecting the general population, particularly since confidence levels and the margins of error of studies influence sample sizes in statistical analyses.

The drop in the sample size is taking place as the number of individuals, who are getting tested for the Coronavirus, is also dropping. According to NYC Health Coronavirus testing data, the seven-day moving average of combined antigen and molecular testing for 23 May stood at 68,6 per cent. of the number of tests taken when compared with the similar metric for 11 April.

At Wednesday’s press conference, Dr. Dave A. Chokshi, the commissioner for NYC Health, and Dr. Jay Varma, the mayor’s senior advisor on public health, acknowledged the drop in the number of Coronavirus tests being administered and explained the drop in testing as working in an inverse relationship to the number of increased Coronavirus vaccinations being given.

Placing so much emphasis on testing of the unvaccinated ignores asymptomatic vaccine escape infections, as well as the known concern with waning vaccine immunity that may require boosters, the latter an issue yet to be addressed by U.S. Government health ministers. Since Coronavirus testing appears to now be focused on the unvaccinated, that also can skew the randomness of weekly sequencing report data.

The India COVID strain has been in New York City for over a month

 

Progress New York 

 The de Blasio administration updated online records about Coronavirus variants on Sunday, but the newly-released trend and cumulative data for various strains don’t add up.

 The Municipal Agency tasked with ensuring public health, NYC Health, released on Sunday a long-awaited update to Coronavirus variants sequencing that revealed, for the first time, the presence in New York City of the B.1.617 strain that appeared to originate in India and that has been ravaging that Asian nation. Not only did the update report, for data pulled from the GISAID database as of May 11, disclose the first cases of the B.1.617 variant in New York City, but the report also made retroactive disclosures, showing that the strain was first detected in COVID-19 cases from sequencing of specimens collected from April 5 – 11.

Notwithstanding the disclosures, the trend data and the cumulative data don’t add up. In the cumulative table, the B.1.617.2 strain showed 12 cases, whereas the trend table showed 16 cases for the most current week. Furthermore, the sample size was the second-lowest and less than half of recent peaks in March, according to the report’s figures. The press office supporting Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) did not immediately answer a media request to offer explanations.

As reported by Progress New York, the de Blasio administration has for several days refused to account for the missing data.

For the week of April 26-May 2, the P.1 variant, first detected in Brasil in 2020, was observed in 5,9 per cent. of COVID-19 cases, as noted in a social media post. The rate of detection has been steadily increasing since early March. The upward trend in that strain has been happening as New York City residents have increasingly received vaccinations against the Coronavirus.

Separately, the number of cases of the B.1.526 strain subclassified as S:E484K+ plunged from 229 in the May 4 report to 34 in the May 11 report for the week of April 19-25 without explanation. The change was first observed on social media.

As reported by Progress New York, it not known why Mayor de Blasio hasn’t faced a Federal inquiry over apparent violations of open records laws, even when they may be detrimental to public health. The press office supporting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, whose office would have jurisdiction, have again refused to answer questions submitted in advance for this report.

 Can't have a recovery for all of us without jukin' the stats...

COVID variant tied to resurgence in infections and surge in reinfections

 

 NY Post

New York’s homegrown COVID-19 variant may be infecting people who have already had the virus — or even been vaccinated, the former head of the Food and Drug Administration said Sunday.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb said it remains unclear if the COVID-19 variant, known as B.1.526, is driving viral surges in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

“What we don’t understand with 1.526 is whether or not people are being reinfected with it and whether or not people who might have been vaccinated are now getting infected with it,” Gottlieb told CBS anchor Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.”

The New York variant contains a mutation similar to the South African variant B.1.351, which has shown “in certain cases” to reinfect people who have already had the bug, Gottlieb said.

“The question is whether [B.1.526] is responsible for some of the increases that we’re seeing in New York right now and whether this is the beginning of a new outbreak inside the city,” he said.

The former Trump administration official said public health experts currently lack sufficient data to draw any clear conclusions.

He called on the CDC to work with New York officials to identify potential coronavirus reinfections tied to B.1.526, which he warned are “probably more prevalent than what we’re detecting.