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ev @evly.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Throwing in CA for good measure as this basically tracks my local experience and the WW data we have available here.

Same data for CA: big peak summer 2024, smaller peak late summer 2025, little to no activity through summer 2026, and a smaller uptick since then

ev @evly.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

I used to look at the CDC's % ED admitted data in concert with WW but I'm not sure where to find that now. Seems like you can still play with the raw data here. I did that for TX and HI (but it's crude as it's a simple average over county data in those states): data.cdc.gov/d/rdmq-nq56/...

% ED visits for COVID-19 in Hawaii Oct 2023-Sep 2026 (average of all county measures within the state) showing a rise but lower than peaks of previous two summers, following a lengthy quiet period in 2026

ED visits for COVID-19 in Texas Oct 2023-Sep 2026 (average of all county measures within the state) showing a rise but lower than last summer's peak and much lower than summer 2024 peak

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

I was curious about this, and I did not get the same result in Originality or Pangram. Text in alt if you'd like to replicate. Originality flagged only the sentence with the unusual em dash syntax (no spaces around the dash; not a very human habit to my eyes?) while Pangram gave it 100% human

The gold-plated dome of Sparrow Bridge Station glowed against the blue, distant and unreachable, a ship's bell, a diver's lantern.

Andrew had told Nina he was going out, but in reality, he'd slipped into the corridor, down two landings, and into Room 7. This was one of the 'closed for renovation' apartments, and he hoped it would stay that way at least until the next Equinox. The place had an almost organic feel to it: dark walnut panels lining the walls, furniture painted with oriental cranes and reeds. More importantly, it was the only spot in the hotel from where you could see the golden dome.

To Andrew, the dome was always the end of the summer. In 1870, right before his last school year, parents had allowed him to spend three weeks at his friend's house next to Sparrow Bridge. The station still under construction back then, they spent evenings scaling the scaffolds under the unfinished dome. While Andrew still performed, this had been a nice memory; now, it became the last moment of a life unmarred by the disappointments of adulthood, with all the opportunities in the world lying ahead.

Presently, he stretched on a couch, put the porcelain cup he'd borrowed from Nina's collection on the floor, and watched the gold through the tall transomed windows. He almost finished the tea when rain started, pulling a veil between him and the Sparrow Station. A waste pipe gurgled in the wall, and that sound, rhythmical, along with the water tapping on the glass, lulled him to sleep.

He woke when something banged outside, and it took him a moment to understand it was a motor car's door. Outside, the sky had cleared—he'd slept into late afternoon.

Same text in Pangram: 100% human written result

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 19/10/2025

trending (not necessarily strictly) towards ~1 wave / yr like other coronaviruses as shifts broaden population immunity?

Boston wastewater showing muted late summer wave and before that, 24 winter

Bay Area wastewater showing summer 25 wave and muted 24-25 winter wave

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 12/09/2025

The masking page is really quite good and has this nice graphic www.cdph.ca.gov/Programs/CID... (emphasis on wearing after testing positive for a respiratory virus; personally what I go by instead is "if you feel ill or are still recovering from illness")

Masks and respirator from least (cloth) to most (N95 respirators) effective

Cloth masks: Poor seal (has gaps), fabric does not filter out hazardous materials
Surgical masks: Varied material, poor seal (has gaps)
KN95/KF94: International respirators, has ear loops causing a poor seal (has gaps)
N95 respirator: Domestic respirators, head straps, highly recommended for most everyday hazards like infectious diseases, wildfire smoke, and air pollution

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 03/09/2025

Also I distinctly remember in-person schooling having returned by Fall of '21, *as* we were staring down two severe and disruptive waves of deaths (delta, BA.1 omicron) Things would have been a lot different with better vaccination rates, etc. But we didn't have that!

CDC covid deaths & weekly % ED visits diagnosed COVID from start of pandemic to present, with yellow highlight over Sept 21-Jan 22, during which period two very high peaks of deaths occurred

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 29/07/2025

well that's interesting - I suppose this is from the reported HPAI cases in CA dairy milking cows in July? www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-po... (also, hooray for wastewater testing)

Palo Alto showing a wastewater Flu A spike out of season in July (presumably not human cases)

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 19/05/2025

US lagging vaccination and boosting rates left a bad plate of options, cf. the UK drop-off in deaths by fall/winter 2021-22 (when there were also Delta/Omicron waves, like here). The US was in a significantly different place on that metric alone.

UK daily deaths from COVID with sharp peaks in spring 2020 and winter 2020-21 but much less after that

US COVID weekly deaths showing high levels in 2020 spring, 2020-21 winter, and 2021-22 winter

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 03/04/2025

I mean, it really was much worse in 2022, and much, much, much worse in 2021 and 2020. And improved further in 2024 from 2023 as immunity acquisition + broadening built up. Death reporting has been a pretty stable metric: buttondown.com/abbycartus/a...

CDC COVID deaths and weekly % ED diagnosed COVID showing steep declines after 2021 and further declines year on year after 2022, despite continued pace of infections

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

🤷 penny for your clarifications @tribelaw.bsky.social

June 12, 2024: Tribe on X posting: "@KatyTurNBC
just argued on @MSNBC
that the 22nd Amendment might get ignored in 2028/29 if Trump is then the incumbent president. She’s right. It’s easy to see Trump and his MAGA cult blowing past the fact that the Constitution bars a third term, with SCOTUS looking the other way."

March 31, 2024: Tribe on X posting "These hard-core MAGA-ites don’t hide their plans: Trump, Dictator for Life, 22nd Amendment be damned!" as a QT of a Charlie Sykes post which reads, "Folks..." above a screenshot of a headline from The American Conservative which reads "Trump 2028: The Twenty-second Amendment is an arbitrary restraint on presidents who serve nonconsecutive terms - and on democracy itself"

Tribe post from May 12, 2022 which reads: "I posed that very question to my students right after Trump started insisting he’d won both in 2016 and 2020 and would probably run again in 2024. Pretty much all of them replied that Trump would deny that the 22nd Amendment was a thing or refuse to answer a 'trick hypothetical.'"

As a QT to a post from Harry Litman which reads: "Trump maintains he has been elected twice. So if he runs in 2024 he would be violating the 22nd Amendment! What would he say if presented w/ this point? Not a legal one but a nice rhetorical one. Any thoughts @tribelaw
@ProfMMurray
@LeahLitman
@kateashaw1
other legal beagles?"

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

Were you mocking us then, or are you mocking us now? 🤷 x.com/tribelaw/sta...

Laurence Tribe @tribelaw's Twitter post from Sep 6, 2017 which reads:

"Sorry, but the 22d Amendment says he can't serve a third term as POTUS. So if he were Speaker, succession wd skip to Sec of State Tillerson."

As a QT in response to a since-deleted tweet from @gussruralwa, an account which no longer exists

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 28/03/2025

post the first video game you remember playing

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

One more thought (and thanks to @famulare.bsky.social for sharing this one), the King's County public health dash is the best I mean how cool is this!

% +ve lab tests for respiratory viruses covering: adenovirus, HMPV, influenza, parainfluenza, rhino/enterovirus, RSV, seasonal coronavirus, and SARS COV-2

seasonal coronavirus (excluding SARS CoV-2) year-to-year comparing 2024-25, 2023-24, and 2022-23 seasons

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

(Oh the first pic was Boston; here's another set of data using % ED +ve comparing CA and NY)

CA %ED +ve for COVID showing a large summer 2024 spike rivaling that of the previous winter, and very little activity above baseline in winter 2024-25

%ED +ve for NY showing a modest summer 2024 spike (well below previous winter and comparable to the previous summer) and a smaller but pronounced peak in winter 2024-25

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

I'm happy to see this year's winter COVID wave as muted as it was (strikingly, pretty absent it seems on the West Coast!) Additional observation re: influenza. With the benefit of tests, fairly confident now that the old adage "that's not flu, you'll know when it's flu" was ...mistaken 😅

Boston wastewater (MWRA): down from peak

WA King County ED visits: low for COVID through winter, but high for influenza. RSV down from peak

Santa Clara CA wastewater: low for COVID through the winter; Flu A down from peak; Flu B just peaking; RSV down from peak

NWSS COVID wastewater; winter peaked at levels lower than any Omicron summer peak (not that it is so directly comparable for technical reasons) and declining

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 22/12/2024

I'm sure this will change at some point but FWIW we appear to be substantially more into flu/RSV season than C19 at this point in CA, likely reflecting just how extensive last summer's C19 wave was (as well as the only token evolutionary drift that has taken place since then) Data as of Dec 17-18

COVID wastewater signal in four Santa Clara sewersheds showing a small bump but not yet any sustained growth, data as of Dec 17-18

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Popped back over to download archive & make what I intend to be a final good-bye to X. Grateful for connections made and convos had there, about COVID and Democratic politics (Go Liz!) and everything else - immensely TBH. But also, and let's be real, a regrettably long stay. Glad to be here 💙🤍

Had neglected to get my archive earlier and then wanted to search for something 🤦‍♂️

Now I've got it. Deactivating permanently this time. Please find me elsewhere, all! 🩵🤍  (glances around)

I see that nowadays #onhere you can bravely bat down arguments that Sydney Sweeney is mid or Holocaust denial. Nice place El*n's got here. Shame we all have to live in it, to the extent it remains relevant.

I...can't stomach being a part of that. *Any* part

(Those are all of course the correct positions to take but, predominantly, and also of course, this site is not about winning over minds so much as amplifying such toxicity to begin with)

And now there's "Reply Boost Premium," lol

So very few will read this anyway, and more people will be encouraged to actually shell out $ for an obvious con man.

Don't fall for it. Please.

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 14/12/2024

Ah. Well, *finally* picking up now (data as of 12/7, always a lag), and visible in local data in Boston and Santa Clara as well. I'd defer to the CDC's winter respiratory virus forecast, which is still pending a COVID specific forecast: www.cdc.gov/forecast-out...

NWSS COVID data finally showing an uptick in wastewater signal

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 05/12/2024

Quick look at our respiratory virus dash after updates resumed post-Thanksgiving: certainly looks like flu & RSV season are starting to pick up. The COVID lull continues Going off memory, I can't remember a time it's been even remotely like this for COVID in *December* - enjoy it!

Santa Clara County respiratory virus dashboard for COVID (technically SARS-CoV-2 virus), Flu A, Flu B, and RSV concentrations in wastewater (all time)

Santa Clara County respiratory virus dashboard showing SARS-CoV-2 in the four local sewersheds over the last 30 days, all low and if anything on a slight decline over this period

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

I'm going to try to largely steer clear from this here I think, as these convos can be less than helfpul But I hope people will refrain from boosting unqualified dot-connecting like this and seek out reliable sources. And for everyone to nonetheless take care towards one another - and themselves

A bluesky post, part of a thread, which reads "Given that at least a quarter of people are susceptible, and everyone is on track for infinite COVID reinfections, and that every reinfection may make these people worse, it's entirely plausible that we may soon be living in a world where a large chunk of the population is significantly disabled"

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 17/11/2024

If you see this post your favorite Pokémon

a piplup, which looks like a cute baby penguin with light and dark blue feathers, prances in the forest

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Oh dear. Tbh I don't like to do this* but that's gonna be a block from me fam. Take this 🗑️ back to Twitter where it belongs *for personal accounts, no problem really with engagement farmers

post from @calltoactivisim.bsky.social which reads: "There should be a manual recount anywhere Starlink was used.

Drop a 💙 and follow if you agree. 👍"

It has 1.4K replies, 1.7K reposts, and 11.4K likes

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

Palmieri essentially retracted this. I think the key is whatever reservations anyone had the campaign put it aside and tried to get on Rogan. That didn’t happen for other reasons

Jennifer Palmieri tweet commenting on this passage of the article. It reads: “ I messed this up…important background should have included here. As campaign said in real time, VP didn’t appear on Rogan because of schedule (hard to get to TX twice in a 107 day campaign). 1/2
Regardless of any blowback, the campaign had made decision to pursue the interview and the Vice President was prepared to do it. 2/2“

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Reminds me of a scene/line I have always loved. "That's how we win. Not fighting what we hate. Saving what we love."

still from Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), scene where Rose saves and kisses Finn. They are talking in the wreckage of her ship as a cannon blast fires towards the resistance stronghold in the background behind them.

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ev @evly.bsky.social · 07/09/2024

Neat! The Santa Clara County (CA) public health dept’s respiratory virus dashboard got a big revamp. Here's the latest update, which shows the summer's COVID wave scooting on out as of early Sept, as corroborated by CDC data (as of end of Aug) publichealth.santaclaracounty.gov/health-infor...