Marked difference to last year's evolution at this date...

So grateful for all he did

Yes, that's my thinking as well. Sequencing's so bad everywhere, it's like trying to guess the size of an elephant looking through a keyhole.

Could it be a BA.3.2 hotspot? Now I'm getting worried

My feeling is that the DZF is de facto a national average and there can be quite a lot of variation at regional level. So it's meaningful at national level, but can give silly values if we apply it to states where testing and reporting are far from the average.

For Europe (excluding the UK), BA.3.2.* is holding a strong growth advantage of 4.6% per day (32% per week) over XFG.* "Stratus".

At that pace, any crossover looks to be around the holiday season.
🧵

I found out about this via @ralfwittenbrink.bsky.social , who summarised the article in German,

I would contact @u12schutz.bsky.social or @bildungabersicher.net

@bildungabersicher.net @u12schutz.bsky.social @winslowsp.bsky.social @sanderlab.bsky.social @javierpadillab.bsky.social @covidmadrid.bsky.social

Despite the caveats, this suggests seasonal boosters should be more widely recommended for the population at risk of Long COVID (i.e.: the whole population).

"These findings indicate that booster vaccination can provide additional protection against long COVID, highlighting the importance of seasonal vaccination [...]. They should, however, be interpreted cautiously, given the small number of studies and the low quality of evidence."