COVID-19 charges within the Southwestern United States reached 12.5% — the best within the nation — in keeping with new information from the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention launched this week. In the meantime, Los Angeles County recorded the best COVID ranges in its wastewater since February.
The spike, due to the brand new extremely contagious “Stratus” variant, comes as college students throughout California return to the classroom, now with out a CDC suggestion that they obtain up to date COVID photographs. That change in coverage, pushed by Well being and Human Providers Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has been criticized by many public well being consultants.
The COVID-19 virus, SARS-CoV-2, mutates typically, studying to raised transmit itself from individual to individual and evade immunity created by vaccinations and former infections.
The Stratus variant, first detected in Asia in January, reached the U.S. in March and have become the predominant pressure by the top of June. It now accounts for two-thirds of virus variants detected in wastewater within the U.S., in keeping with the CDC.
The nationwide COVID positivity fee hit 9% in early August, surpassing the January post-holiday surge, however nonetheless under final August’s spike to 18%. Weekly deaths, a metric that lags behind positivity charges, has to date remained low.
In Could, RFK Jr. introduced the CDC had eliminated the COVID vaccine from its really helpful immunization schedule for wholesome kids and wholesome pregnant ladies.
The secretary argued it was the fitting transfer to reverse the Biden administration’s coverage, which in 2024, “urged wholesome kids to get yet one more COVID shot, regardless of the dearth of any scientific information to help the repeat booster technique in kids.”
That assertion promptly spurred a lawsuit from a gaggle of main medical organizations — together with the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Faculty of Physicians and the American Public Well being Assn. — which argued the “baseless and uninformed” choice violated federal legislation by failing to floor the coverage on the advice of the scientific committee that appears at immunization practices within the U.S.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has been routinely recommending up to date COVID vaccinations alongside the everyday yearly flu vaccination schedule. In its replace for the autumn 2024-spring 2025 season, it famous that within the earlier yr, a COVID booster decreased the danger of hospitalization by 44% and loss of life by 23%.
The panel argued the profit outweighed remoted instances of coronary heart circumstances and allergic reactions related to the vaccine.
The panel additionally acknowledged that booster effectiveness decreases as new COVID strains — for which the boosters weren’t designed — emerge. Nonetheless, it nonetheless felt that the majority People ought to get booster photographs.
The CDC estimates that solely about 23% of adults and 13% of kids acquired the 2024-25 COVID booster — even with the vaccine suggestion nonetheless in place. That’s in comparison with roughly half of adults and kids who acquired the up to date flu shot in the identical timeframe.
