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IMPORTANT The US CDC has announced that, going forward, reported SARS-CoV-2 wastewater levels will be normalized to an endemic baseline "Zero" on this baseline will be levels in the previous year @evanblake17.bsky.social @benjaminmateus.bsky.social

can you provide a link to this?

www.cdc.gov/nwss/rv/COVI...

My read* on this is that the CDC reporting of WVAL was always reported as SD relative to a baseline, (rather than absolute values). Up until Dec. '24 was this baseline simply zero, or calculated with a different method than now? *backed by a minimal exposure to post-secondary stats decades ago

This doesn’t seem like they’re zeroing out the previous years’ data to me

That’s pretty standard statistical methodology… how far things deviate from a baseline determines statistical significance, right? And the baseline is calculated at 10th percentile, not 100th percentile of the previous years’s data, so it’s not zeroing out last year

Absolutely The act of establishing a baseline, however, is a fundamentally political act since the baseline is what is understood to define "normal" The CDC, like all public health institutions that report to political executives, is a political actor But don't take my word for it