COVID infections hovering at low as summer travel starts (Table 1). Although the Omicron LP.8.1 subvariant still dominates in the US at 73% of new infections (CDC), another, NB.1.8.1, has started summer surges abroad (WHO). There’s not enough of this emerging virus yet to show up on the roll call here, but it will soon. The Traveler-based Genomic Surveillance Program at 8 US airports (3 West, 5 East coast) monitoring visitors from more than 25 countries with nasal swabs (and the wastewater from arriving planes) is catching increasing levels of NB.1.8.1. The latest data from the week of May 19 showed a 12% positive rate for COVID, the highest since last October (CDC). Sequencing identified 33% of the viruses to be NB.1.8.1 and 29% as LP.8.1.
Although the deaths accounted for a low of 0.4% of all causes of death in the latest weekly count, they remain a gauge of the persisting seriousness of COVID infections. For the 10th week, COVID surpassed flu in deaths (0.1% COD), totaling 2904 v. 1591 for the period, almost a 2-fold difference with COVID near a weekly average of 300 (from CDC data).
Flu deaths in children are up to 241, the highest since the 2009 swine flu pandemic.
Measles cases to become most since elimination in 2000 At 1168 confirmed cases by CDC’s count Thursday with South Dakota as the 33rd state, the US is only 106 cases from overtaking the 25-year high in 2019. With Texas slowing to a total of 775, new outbreaks are occurring elsewhere in the US.
It's not just here. Canada has 2755 cases with the most in Ontario, where an infant of an unvaccinated mother recently became the first measles death (Public Health Agency).
As summer travel starts, outbreaks are also hitting popular destinations in Europe, where another 25-year high is occurring (BBC).
Vaccines
• Waiting for ACIP: In ACIP we trust Although most people are no longer vaccinating against COVID, there are still healthy people who want the extra protection against the still emerging variants and the impending summer and winter surges. We examine the eligibility of the healthy population for the COVID booster vaccines (current 2024-2025 shots and those anticipated for 2025-2026), in order to shed light on the recent radically opaque messaging from FDA and HHS leadership. The latest official CDC posts as of Sunday at 9 p.m. ET are dated May 29 and summarized in Table 2.
(a) Although hardly legal policy, a “framework” was published as an opinion piece by FDA heads Makary and Prasad in the “Sounding Board” section of the New England Journal of Medicine on May 20 (https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsb2506929).
(b) A directive, initially kept under wraps, was announced by HHS head Kennedy on X May 27 without the input from CDC’s ACIP experts (Update June 2).
(c) This contradicted FDA’s new framework, which listed pregnancy as a high-risk condition eligible for the boosters. But then again, an opinion is not legitimate policy.
(d) There is no public official FDA document implementing the framework as policy. However, the latest CDC schedule of vaccinations posted May 29 shows not-immunocompromised children ages 6 months to 17 years, presumably including healthy kids, now under “shared clinical decision-making” and “may receive” COVID shots (Table 1 – By Age at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/child-adolescent-age.html#table-1 and the Notes at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/child-adolescent-notes.html#note-covid-19). This change is a countermeasure for both the FDA framework and Kennedy’s May 27 directive. Under the same note, the oldest kids at 18 remain eligible for “routine” vaccination.
Healthy adults 19 to 64 also appear to remain eligible according to Table 1 – By Age for their shots at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/adult-age.html#table-age and the Notes at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/adult-notes.html#note-covid-19. This could be due to FDA’s new framework not being official policy and Kennedy’s directive not addressing adults under 65. See below for the status of pregnant women.
(e) As described in (d), healthy kids may get the vaccines for now despite the FDA framework and Kennedy’s directive. We’ll see if CDC’s ACIP will uphold or change this at their meeting June 25-27.
(f) Kennedy’s fiat blocks pregnant women from access to COVID shots. They don’t have the shared-decision choice that CDC gave to kids and they’re denied the eligibility opined in the FDA framework. Instead, in the color-coding of Table 2 – By Medical Condition at https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/imz-schedules/adult-medical-condition.html, they are relegated to “No Guidance/Not Applicable.”
This could prevent access to the vaccines because providers would not be indemnified under the PREP Act (Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act) and health insurance would not cover the cost of the shots.
It all boils down to what ACIP will recommend to CDC, and without a CDC Director in place, what Kennedy will decide.
Monday morning, breaking from STAT News: Four members of ACIP have been fired.
BTW the CDC website has become a nightmare to navigate in researching COVID vaccine policy. In place of the previous dedicated page, which would have been useful in giving both the public and healthcare providers radical transparency to the information, there are multiple links to chase down. And curiously on the kids page, there are no children 16-17 months old. Gold standard.
© 2025 Henry A. Choy. All rights reserved.