Christina Cat

christinacat on bsky

[Christina Cat @tinawind]

For full protection, what’s most important is that the mask is legitimate and fits you tightly with a good seal However, even with an imperfect seal, any mask is ALWAYS better than no mask.

Volunteer-run resource collection of mask deals

https://t.co/SEJQUEPbUt

[tern @1goodtern]

🙄

[Christina Cat @tinawind]

@yogastephy And it was still weeks of back and forth email about my customer support ticket.

I know a dozen people at least who have lost their facebook accounts, maybe half who managed to get them back.

[Christina Cat @tinawind]

@yogastephy Different countries could well be part of the difference.

I think I had to access customer support through my linked instagram account too - its easier to get to human beings instead of AI via instagram, after paying the stupid monthly meta fee.

[Prof. Jose-Luis Jimenez @jljcolorado]

8/ - The same historical and political reasons that slowed recognition of airborne trans. for COVID-19 for more than a year, also impacted other diseases (e.g. flu)

- Once you accept it is airborne, there are *many* effective things we can do to reduce the spread of a virus

[Prof. Jose-Luis Jimenez @jljcolorado]

7/ The short version of new review in @ScienceMagazine (TL;DR -- too long, didn't read it):

- It is not just COVID-19, but all or almost all respiratory diseases likely have an important component of airborne transmission

[Plague Poems @PlaguePoems]

I’ve been feeling nostalgic
for the summers of the past,
not the fashion,
not the movies,
not the music,
but how it used to be
that a “summer wave”
was something
you’d catch at the beach,
unlike now
when “summer wave”
refers to a virus
people are catching everywhere.

[Plague Poems @PlaguePoems]

Apparently: “The traditional
respiratory virus season
hasn’t started
but Covid is already climbing,”
which is really just
another way of saying
that “virus season”
is now every season.

*

A compendium of the 337th week of plague poems…
https://t.co/2ZudD78VyN

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

PMC COVlD Update, Week of Aug 29, 2026

▪️Outbreaks in 29 states/territories (see Alt)
▪️A projected 13th wave is under way
▪️1 in 95 Americans estimated actively infectious
▪️Peak anticipated around Labor Day

THREAD 🧵(1/4)

[Christina Cat @tinawind]

@michael_hoerger The first of several times the CDC has changed what counts as high and low to make the disease seem less common & dangerous, in Feburary 2022

Exact same numbers of covid infections that changed a mostly red& orange High/Substantial map to a mostly green Low.

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

🚨BREAKING 🦠
On Friday, the US CDC arbitrarily shifted higher COVlD levels into lower categories depicted with cooler colors.

Much of what was Very High is now "High." What was High is now "Moderate" or "Low." Low is "Very Low."

🔹2 states/territories artificially shifted from High to Moderate (MS, GU)
🔹5 shifted from Moderate to Low (CA, TX, AK, WA, NV)
🔹4 shifted from Low to Very Low (AZ, AR, LA, NC)

During intense surges, states will rarely get classified as Very High anymore. Presently, transmission is rising across the US, with a 75% chance of a wave, but states will be depicted in blue (Very Low) much longer, making communities less prepared. #Bluewashing

Normally, when the CDC makes a methodology change, they flag it prominently on each of their COVlD monitoring pages. This time, there was no alert and no explanation. Major changes were confined to COVlD, not Influenza A, and not RSV. The questionable change was made in the middle of rising transmission across most of the country; 15 states already have COVlD outbreaks, and others may soon join the ranks. These are serious ethics concerns that warrant investigative journalism.

These issues are aggravated by delayed reporting at High/Very High monitoring sites. Sites with 1-week reporting delays get excluded when the CDC calculates current levels. For example, only 16% of the sites online in Texas (3 of 19) report High/Very High levels, but 90% of those with a 1-week reporting delay (18 of 20) have High/Very High levels, leading the state to get classified as "Low" when really High. These issues snowball and can easily push a state down 1-2 categories when experiencing significant COVlD outbreaks.

The good news is that the individual wastewater monitoring site data are still valid. The bad news is that the CDC maps and level descriptions will now mislead the casual user. Think: "Good data, bad use of data." At PMC, we told you that if there was any funny business at the CDC, we would warn you right away. We diagnosed the issue immediately and will still report accurate COVlD information.

Expect further national news coverage this week. Journalists are welcome to reach out.

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

PMC COVlD Update, Week of Aug 10, 2026 (US)

🔹National levels rise to their highest in 130 days
🔹5 major regional outbreaks, 4 isolated hot spots
🔹1 in 156 people estimated actively infectious
🔹2 million estimated new weekly infections

See Alt text for details.
THREAD🧵1/10

[Christina Cat @tinawind]

@bitterbichon @michaelryan756 this was my first thought too.

[Christina Cat @tinawind]

@jasonhickel @threadreaderapp unroll

[Marc Johnson @SolidEvidence]

Maybe I should call cryptic lineages by a more descriptive name.

They are 'Gain of Function lineages', and they are far more dangerous than anything going on in any lab.

Do you hear any of these disingenuous blow hards worry about them? I don't think so.

[Ryan Hisner @LongDesertTrain]

Haven't seen this shared, but it's a great one by a giant in the field, Trevor Bedford. Finds that fastest SARS-2 fitness growth was 2021 to mid-2022. Since then there's been a steady rate of evolution >4x faster than H3N2 flu A, a benchmark for rapidly evolving RNA viruses.
1/2

[Marc Johnson @SolidEvidence]

Nationwide, COVID wastewater levels are near all-time lows, but the numbers are rising. Does not seem to be driven by any particular lineage.

Just FYI.

[Aṅgulimarketing @antiviral_mktng]

ReadiMask has a customer survey everyone can fill out below. Be kind and let them know how they can better serve the community!

https://t.co/M4R1spCY7q

[Mike Hoerger, PhD MSCR MBA @michael_hoerger]

As of July 20, the US has 10 COVlD outbreaks.
✴️1 in 243 Americans estimated actively infectious
✴️200,000 estimated new daily infections
✴️Enduring outbreaks persist in Texas + Guam
✴️Outbreaks in the Bay Area (CA), NV, ID, CO, KS, KY, SC, HI

Details in Alt text, link in next

[Covid Solidarity @CovidSolidarit1]

SarsCov2 can dysregulate the immune system enough to trigger a variety of short and long-term health issues - notably through the reactivation of latent viruses.

That is in addition to the issue of viral persistence.

The public really needs to know these things.