Vaccination reminder. Updated Covid-19 and flu vaccines are available. I was able to get the new updated Moderna Covid-19 vaccine (first time diverging from Pfizer for that). Got it in opposite arms, keeping my covid and flu arms the same. Some research shows this can help enhance responsiveness

-HI: Big Island is a raging inferno of COVlD w/levels seemingly unimaginable. -TX: On par w/the all-time largest national wave, BA.1 Omicron -CA: Many places at 1/2 an Omicron -NY: Suffolk is Very High (2/2)

Weird combination of errors today - computer went into an auto do not disturb mode (which I never set, so must have been an update thing) , which blocked signal to the 3d printer. So wasted about 45 minutes troubleshooting something that I only saw inadvertently from my computer’s daily log.

It’s important to note that the absence of counting the Pennsylvania 2 measles deaths is coming from the same playbook they used for Covid to downplay it. The died “as a result of measles” or “died but happened to die with a measles infection”.

Adding in another thing you can do - I was on the CDC NWSS page today (the color map shown), and they are doing a survey currently on that page. I wrote a paragraph explaining these types of things with reccs of what to do better in the very last part of the survey. Something to try at least 🤷🏻‍♂️

Mike Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, MBA@michael-hoerger.bsky.social · 2w ago

The CDC recently downshifted current and historical COVlD levels into lower categories. For example, 6 of the 8 states normally classified as High or Very High have been downshifted to "Moderate." This is Part 2 in our series on the CDC "Bluewashing" ethics crisis.

The CDC recently downshifted current and historical COVlD levels into lower categories. For example, 6 of the 8 states normally classified as High or Very High have been downshifted to "Moderate." This is Part 2 in our series on the CDC "Bluewashing" ethics crisis.

Mike Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, MBA@michael-hoerger.bsky.social · last mo.

🚨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." 1/

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)

Friday, the CDC started #bluewashing the COVlD maps. Today, the COVlD nursing home dashboard did not update, as they are modifying the site to comply with Presidential orders.

Another CDC Viral Activity Update to Artificially Lower COVID Wastewater Levels youtu.be/yPGms-SfBzQ

Another CDC Viral Activity Update to Artificially Lower COVID Wastewater Levels

YouTube video by PatricktheBioSTEAMist

youtu.be

Mike Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, MBA@michael-hoerger.bsky.social · last mo.

🚨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." 1/

Here’s a take from another person (with more credentials), further explaining what I had been documenting for the past few years, ever since the CDC shifted to viral activity levels. I’ll tag the posts I’ve made or link the YouTube videos under this.

Mike Hoerger, PhD, MSCR, MBA@michael-hoerger.bsky.social · last mo.

🚨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." 1/

After months of presumably low Covid-19 levels - barring some sort of signal attenuation from new variants (confounding variable) - we are starting to see some early activity from the Kinston, North Carolina facility. Also, 99% chance growing Covid activity from ED visits.

Murv is another excellent reporter who I was grateful to have been interviewed by over the last few weeks at the Corey Ruiz encampment in Madison, WI. pbswisconsin.org/news-item/wh...

What's next for Madison after the Ruiz shooting encampment?

The city of Madison cleared a protest encampment 13 days after Corey Ruiz was killed.

pbswisconsin.org

The new names of what is currently circulating in the past 5 weeks: PQ.16.1.1 at 30% RF.5 at 11% RK.1 at 11% RW.1.1 at 7% SW.2.1 at 6% BA.3.2.2 (mostly RE.1*) at 6% RV.1 at 5% XFG.14.1.1 at 2% under 2% and over 1% PJ.2.1, XFZ.4.1, SZ.3.1, TB.1,XFG.6.13 As predicted a dozen of branches survived.

Mike Honey@mikehoney.bsky.social · last mo.

Here's the latest variant picture for the United States, to mid-July. XFG.* "Stratus" remained dominant but fell as low as 33% before rebounding to finish at 52%. #COVID19 #SARSCoV2 #USA 🧵

Jesus Christ. Doing a new housing application and to verify I am me (who is filling out the form post-scanning my government ID), I had to do a prisoners photo set of front, left, and right side photos in the application portal. What the literal fuck…

Fourteen more PJ.2.1 wastewater detections. It is dominant in many sites. NYC (8), Maui (2). Maine, Virginia, Florida and DC. No obvious uptick in cases in any of these places that I could find though.

Another finding: The number of S1 mutations in lineages predicts fitness at least as accurately as machine learning and fancy protein-language models. Here's a link to the interactive version "the intended reading experience of this paper." blab.github.io/fitness-flux/ 2/2

I ve said it would have been fast, BB+4 variants rapidly taking over worldwide: PQ.16.1.1 and SZ.3.1 both NB.1.8.1+420N dominating in HK, SW.2.1 outcompeting everything else in Mexico and leading by far in California over all the other new variants (RW.1.1,SV*,RV* ,RF.5)

Masked Fitness - hit a new PR today at 425lb on the deadlift #maskedfitness #wearamask #maskatthegym

425lb Deadlift - Masked Fitness youtu.be/7T33Tz-z790

425lb Deadlift - Masked Fitness

YouTube video by PatricktheBioSTEAMist

youtu.be

This chronic-infection variant now has a name: PJ.2.1. You can see how divergent it is from other current lineages in the @neher.io/Roemer BA.2.86 tree below. It originated in Ontario but has been detected in wastewater by @solidevidence.bsky.social in New York, Florida, Alabama, & Utah I think. 1/3

Ryan Hisner@ryanhisner.bsky.social · 2mo ago

A mysterious, unusually diverse saltation lineage descended from KP.3.1.1 (last seen early 2025) has circulated at a low level for ~8 months in Ontario (see 🧵 on next post). Seemed a local anomaly, but @solidevidence.bsky.social just spied a weird spike in NYC wastewater—& it's the same one! 1/14

I hate interviewing. It is so mentally draining.

Forcing a long halftime show during the final match of the World Cup is the most American thing ever. I’d hate to be a player during this, as I’d start getting stiff, and it would disrupt the normal flow of the match.

ORF6 is a SARS-2 protein that shuts down traffic between the nucleus & cytoplasm in host cells, inhibiting host mRNA export & immune responses. But in all variants since early 2023, ORF6's abilities are hampered by the ORF6:D61L mutation. Two newish ORF6 observations.... 1/15

Friday's CDC data show a COVlD outbreak in the Bay Area. Median levels are "High" in Alameda County. The 6 wastewater monitoring sites read Very High, Very High, High, High, Low, and Very Low. #MaskUp PMC: pmc19.com CDC data (click CA from the dropdown menu): www.cdc.gov/wastewater/r...

This is a great concept for people to understand - it’s not always about the # of mutations of a variant, but how the mutation impacts the protein structure itself. Sometimes a single point mutation/deletion can change the shape of a protein. Like a load bearing wall, it shifts the foundation

Ryan Hisner@ryanhisner.bsky.social · last yr.

The effect of even a single AA deletion in this area can have major effects in distant spike regions. ∆S31, in KP.3.1.1 and LP.8.1, seems to have a substantial effect on spike cleavage. FCS-weakening mutations do great in JN.1 without ∆S31, but terrible when ∆S31 is present. 13/16

So much news this morning - Graham dead, McConnell likely dead, Bondi Thyroid cancer. What coven is casting at the moment? 🧙🏻‍♀️ Practicing for the big one?

RW.1.1 the XFJ descendant which became dominant (13/30) in Dominican Republic becomes nearly dominant in NY ( which is home of the biggest Dominican Community outside Dominican Republic)

Saturday surprises in the last NY batch: RW.1.1 nearly dominant 2 more samples of the MC.10.1.7 saltation, found&well described by @ryanhisner.bsky.social ,which was previously present only in Ontario and found first outside Ontario in NY WW by @solidevidence.bsky.social github.com/cov-lineages...

For the 35 states where we are still getting ED visit data for COVID-19, we are seeing growing levels in Texas, Nevada, Kansas, Louisiana, Georgia, and Tennessee. Growing is pink/purple on the map.

Patrickthebiosteamist@patbiosteamist.bsky.social · 3mo ago

The states that are no longer providing ED data for Covid-19 to the CDC are: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Missouri, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin

I see usually in media social and public health reports to variants which doesn't exist anymore. I understand that could be hard to cope with sub branches but it is very delusional to see using still XFG /NB.1.8.1 categories.

Denis - The COVID Info Guy@thecovidinfoguy.bsky.social · 2mo ago

USA: The NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus" subvariant is now dominant in the US, causing about 43% of COVID cases as of late June 2026. At the same time, multiple states in the South and West are experiencing an uptick in transmission, reporting "high" or "very high" viral levels in community wastewater.