diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index fec01d09..5da4f330 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,6 +1,8 @@
 # wwinference dev
+
 - Add wastewater data into the forecast period to output in `generate_simulated_data()` function and as package data. Also adds subpopulation-level
 hospital admissions to output of function and package data. ([#184](https://github.com/CDCgov/ww-inference-model/issues/184))
+- Modify `plot_forecasted_counts()` so that it does not require an evaluation dataset ([#218](https://github.com/CDCgov/ww-inference-model/pull/218))
 
 # wwinference 0.1.0
 
@@ -14,4 +16,4 @@ As it's written, the package is intended to allow users to do the following:
 - Validate input data validation with informative error messaging ([#37](https://github.com/CDCgov/ww-inference-model/issues/37), [#54](https://github.com/CDCgov/ww-inference-model/issues/54))
 - Provide a wrapper function to generate forward simulated data with user-specified variables. It calls a number of functions to perform specific model components ([#27](https://github.com/CDCgov/ww-inference-model/issues/27))
 - Contains S3 class methods applied to the output of the main model wrapper function, the `wwinference_fit` class object ([#58](https://github.com/CDCgov/ww-inference-model/issues/58)).
-- Wastewater concentration data is expected to be in log scale ([#122](https://onetakeda.box.com/s/pju273g5khx3y3cwoae2zwv3e7vu03x3)).
+- Wastewater concentration data is expected to be in log scale ([#122](https://github.com/CDCgov/ww-inference-model/pull/122)).
diff --git a/R/figures.R b/R/figures.R
index 475fd7c7..ce40b45e 100644
--- a/R/figures.R
+++ b/R/figures.R
@@ -7,9 +7,11 @@
 #' @param count_data_eval A dataframe containing the count data we will
 #' evaluate the forecasts against. Must contain the columns `date` and
 #' a column indicating the count data to evaluate against, with the name
-#' of that column specified as the `count_data_eval_col_name`
+#' of that column specified as the `count_data_eval_col_name`. Default is
+#' NULL, which will result in no evaluation data being plotted.
 #' @param count_data_eval_col_name string indicating the name of the count
-#' data to evaluate against the forecasted count data
+#' data to evaluate against the forecasted count data. Default is NULL,
+#' corresponding to no evaluation data being plotted.
 #' @param forecast_date A string indicating the date we made the forecast, for
 #' plotting, in ISO8601 format YYYY-MM-DD
 #' @param count_type A string indicating what data the counts refer to,
@@ -25,9 +27,9 @@
 #' @export
 #'
 get_plot_forecasted_counts <- function(draws,
-                                       count_data_eval,
-                                       count_data_eval_col_name,
                                        forecast_date,
+                                       count_data_eval = NULL,
+                                       count_data_eval_col_name = NULL,
                                        count_type = "hospital admissions",
                                        n_draws_to_plot = 100) {
   n_draws_available <- max(draws$draw)
@@ -55,11 +57,6 @@ get_plot_forecasted_counts <- function(draws,
       aes(x = .data$date, y = .data$pred_value, group = .data$draw),
       color = "red4", alpha = 0.1, linewidth = 0.2
     ) +
-    geom_point(
-      data = count_data_eval,
-      aes(x = .data$date, y = .data[[count_data_eval_col_name]]),
-      shape = 21, color = "black", fill = "white"
-    ) +
     geom_point(aes(x = .data$date, y = .data$observed_value)) +
     geom_vline(
       xintercept = lubridate::ymd(forecast_date),
@@ -85,6 +82,15 @@ get_plot_forecasted_counts <- function(draws,
         vjust = 0.5, hjust = 0.5
       )
     )
+
+  if (!is.null(count_data_eval)) {
+    p <- p +
+      geom_point(
+        data = count_data_eval,
+        aes(x = .data$date, y = .data[[count_data_eval_col_name]]),
+        shape = 21, color = "black", fill = "white"
+      )
+  }
   return(p)
 }
 
@@ -132,7 +138,7 @@ get_plot_ww_conc <- function(draws,
       aes(x = .data$date, y = .data$observed_value),
       color = "blue", show.legend = FALSE, size = 0.5
     ) +
-    facet_wrap(~lab_site_name, scales = "free") +
+    facet_wrap(~lab_site_name, scales = "free_y") +
     geom_vline(
       xintercept = lubridate::ymd(forecast_date),
       linetype = "dashed"
diff --git a/R/get_stan_data.R b/R/get_stan_data.R
index 20dd5565..ce9ae67b 100644
--- a/R/get_stan_data.R
+++ b/R/get_stan_data.R
@@ -431,7 +431,8 @@ get_stan_data <- function(input_count_data,
     arg_max_date = "forecast date"
   )
 
-  # Validate both datasets if both are used----------------------------------
+  # if both datasets are used, validate that that they are
+  # compatible and consistent with each other
   if (include_ww == 1) {
     validate_data_jointly(
       input_count_data = input_count_data,
diff --git a/man/get_plot_forecasted_counts.Rd b/man/get_plot_forecasted_counts.Rd
index 0309682f..122482a2 100644
--- a/man/get_plot_forecasted_counts.Rd
+++ b/man/get_plot_forecasted_counts.Rd
@@ -6,9 +6,9 @@
 \usage{
 get_plot_forecasted_counts(
   draws,
-  count_data_eval,
-  count_data_eval_col_name,
   forecast_date,
+  count_data_eval = NULL,
+  count_data_eval_col_name = NULL,
   count_type = "hospital admissions",
   n_draws_to_plot = 100
 )
@@ -19,16 +19,18 @@ to it. This is the \code{draws_df} output of a call to \code{\link[=wwinference]
 expects the following column names: \code{date}, \code{pred_value}, \code{draw},
 and \code{name}}
 
+\item{forecast_date}{A string indicating the date we made the forecast, for
+plotting, in ISO8601 format YYYY-MM-DD}
+
 \item{count_data_eval}{A dataframe containing the count data we will
 evaluate the forecasts against. Must contain the columns \code{date} and
 a column indicating the count data to evaluate against, with the name
-of that column specified as the \code{count_data_eval_col_name}}
+of that column specified as the \code{count_data_eval_col_name}. Default is
+NULL, which will result in no evaluation data being plotted.}
 
 \item{count_data_eval_col_name}{string indicating the name of the count
-data to evaluate against the forecasted count data}
-
-\item{forecast_date}{A string indicating the date we made the forecast, for
-plotting, in ISO8601 format YYYY-MM-DD}
+data to evaluate against the forecasted count data. Default is NULL,
+corresponding to no evaluation data being plotted.}
 
 \item{count_type}{A string indicating what data the counts refer to,
 default is \verb{hospital admissions}}
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test_plots.R b/tests/testthat/test_plots.R
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..e84a8569
--- /dev/null
+++ b/tests/testthat/test_plots.R
@@ -0,0 +1,53 @@
+t_length <- 127
+forecast_date <- "2024-01-01"
+data <- tibble::tibble(
+  date = seq(
+    from = lubridate::ymd("2023-10-01"),
+    to = lubridate::ymd("2023-10-01") + lubridate::days(t_length - 1),
+    by = "days"
+  ),
+  observed_value = sample(10:25, t_length, replace = TRUE)
+)
+
+draws <- tibble::tibble()
+for (i in 1:100) {
+  draws_i <- data |>
+    dplyr::mutate(
+      pred_value = observed_value +
+        runif(t_length, min = -10, max = 10),
+      draw = i
+    )
+  draws <- dplyr::bind_rows(draws, draws_i)
+}
+
+test_draws <- draws |>
+  dplyr::mutate(
+    observed_value = ifelse(date < forecast_date, observed_value, NA)
+  )
+
+test_eval_data <- data |>
+  dplyr::rename("daily_hosp_admits_eval" = observed_value)
+
+
+
+
+test_that("Test there is no error with eval data", {
+  expect_no_error(
+    get_plot_forecasted_counts(
+      draws = test_draws,
+      forecast_date = forecast_date,
+      count_data_eval = test_eval_data,
+      count_data_eval_col_name = "daily_hosp_admits_eval"
+    )
+  )
+})
+
+
+test_that("Test there is no error without eval data", {
+  expect_no_error(
+    get_plot_forecasted_counts(
+      draws = test_draws,
+      forecast_date = forecast_date
+    )
+  )
+})
diff --git a/vignettes/wwinference.Rmd b/vignettes/wwinference.Rmd
index 8ad6033c..c6847fe8 100644
--- a/vignettes/wwinference.Rmd
+++ b/vignettes/wwinference.Rmd
@@ -465,13 +465,14 @@ will not include outliers that were flagged for exclusion. Data points
 that are below the LOD will be plotted in blue.
 
 ```{r generating-figures,  out.width='100%'}
-plot_hosp <- get_plot_forecasted_counts(
+plot_hosp_with_eval <- get_plot_forecasted_counts(
   draws = draws$predicted_counts,
+  forecast_date = forecast_date,
   count_data_eval = hosp_data_eval,
-  count_data_eval_col_name = "daily_hosp_admits_for_eval",
-  forecast_date = forecast_date
+  count_data_eval_col_name = "daily_hosp_admits_for_eval"
 )
-plot_hosp
+plot_hosp_with_eval
+
 
 plot_ww <- get_plot_ww_conc(draws$predicted_ww, forecast_date)
 plot_ww
@@ -483,6 +484,16 @@ plot_subpop_rt <- get_plot_subpop_rt(draws$subpop_rt, forecast_date)
 plot_subpop_rt
 ```
 
+To plot the forecasts without the retrospectively observed hospital admissions,
+simply don't pass them to the plotting function.
+```{r plot-only-count-forecasts, out.width='100%'}
+plot_hosp <- get_plot_forecasted_counts(
+  draws = draws$predicted_counts,
+  forecast_date = forecast_date
+)
+plot_hosp
+```
+
 The previous three are equivalent to calling the `plot` method of `wwinference_fit_draws` using the `what` argument:
 
 ```{r, out.width='100%'}