https://makemytestcount.org/

This is from the federal NIH (National Institutes of Health) and is anonymous (re your personal identity, obviously you share your location).

Thank you for reporting your results!

thank you!!

Thank you for helping our community have accurate statistics! I hope you feel better soon.

It is a nice gesture, and commendable. Unfortunately, our stats (and those of most other countries now) are utterly useless in trying to gauge what is actually happening beyond some basic trends. If people are even testing when feeling sick (a big if) they are seldom reporting their results anywhere (whether positive or negative) and the result itself may not change their decision to go out or stay home. I have heard from multiple people that they have tested positive and they didnt think it was worth it or necessary to not go out. Some may not even wear a mask after testing positive and will instead try to keep their distance.

o_O

The only data that's still remotely accurate is from wastewater readings.

They were barely doing this even at the height of the pandemic. I got tested in JC and was positive in Aug. 2021, the NYC dept. of health contacted me but then said that NJ would be calling me back. They never did.

I hear you, and I don’t disagree! Wastewater surveillance is more accurate but I don’t think we’re doing that here. (Correct me if I’m wrong!) And I think the current standard is to assume positivity rate is 3x what the official number is, because people test at home (or not at all).

Limiting transmission went out the window a long time ago. Like 2020. And public health has been made into a series of personal choices, but some people do use the official counts as a (imperfect but only) way to track surges and adjust their personal activities.

IME, there are people who just don’t give a fuck or believe it’s real etc etc but there are more people who want to do the right thing(s) but can’t (ex paid sick leave) or just don’t even know how/why (and you can’t blame them, not their fault). So for those people, I just try to share accurate info. Maybe that’s pointless. But maybe it’s a tiny ripple against misinformation? Dunno.

They're right, but as a professional COVID tracker, thank you anyway! The best days for tracking now is probably hospitalizations, though it is slower than cases.

When the federal Covid money ended so did anyone tracking cases

Why? Do you report the flu?

I feel like with the flu, we have a decent sense of how it ebbs and flows already. But it seems like with covid, we don’t have that yet. But i could be convinced we should be tracking flu more closely.

Even in places they do wastewater surveillance they delay results by weeks for “privacy” even keeping it from health experts.

It’s good for research by epidemiologists but 2-3 weeks after is not really useful for being proactive, which is the real reason they don’t release it quickly.

Doctors report all flu cases they encounter. It’s standard operating procedure for decades.

Same for STD’s.

Biden said COVID was over …. So there you have it.

Fair enough, I meant in context I’d you feel like crap, stay home and don’t go to doctor - why bother …. OP is clearly not that sick if no medical attention is required.

Yeah, that’s true about contact tracing unfortunately. But OP was looking to have their case of Covid added to official counts, which is slightly different. They are still being done and get posted to places like:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-cases-deaths-tracker.html

https://covidactnow.org/us/new_jersey-nj/county/hudson_county/

What's the COVID risk in your area? CDC maps leave some people confused https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/03/10/1085797307/cdcs-new-covid-metrics-can-leave-individuals-struggling-to-understand-their-risk

Flu version (like /u/pixel_of_moral_decay says below) Weekly US Map: Influenza Summary Update | CDC https://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly/usmap.htm

Oh, interesting! I didn’t know about that lag, thank you.