People's CDC, August 19, 2024, COVID-19 Weather Report
Take Action to strengthen infection control in healthcare, COVID wastewater levels continue to increase nationally, New Mpox Strain, and FDA Approval for Updated COVID Vaccines Coming Soon.
Wins
The Coalition to March on the DNC 2024 on August 19th and 22nd is requiring masks for all protest attendees and providing 18,000 masks on-site to give to those who could not source one. Their safety guide asks participants to “please wear a mask and test before attending the march” and requests that they stay home if their test is positive or if they’re generally not feeling well. We commend The Coalition to March on the DNC 2024 for their efforts to make the movement more accessible and to make sure that their community can expend their energy on the fight instead of on battling COVID. For more resources on how to implement COVID safety during your demonstrations, visit our resource on peoplescdc.org.
The Weather
The CDC’s reported COVID wastewater levels by state show that viral activity is currently “Very High” or “High” in 44 states. This represents an increase in the number of states/territories that are currently “Very High,” (33) compared to CDC reporting earlier this month where only 23 states met this criteria.
Over the last several weeks, wastewater data across all US regions shows a continued increase. Currently, wastewater trends in the West are the highest they have been in all of 2024. According to data from WastewaterSCAN, these are the highest summertime wastewater concentrations recorded in at least two years. Now is a great time to begin masking again if you have stopped.
Variants
According to Nowcast predictive trends for 8/4/2024 - 8/17/2024, KP.3.1.1 has overtaken KP.3 at an estimated 36.8% of circulating variants, as per CDC’s variant tracking dashboard. According to Nowcast modeling, KP.3 has fallen to an estimated 16.8%, with KP.2.3 and LB.1 trailing at 14.4% and 14.1%, respectively. Genomic surveillance from Spain suggests that KP.3.1.1 could have an effective reproductive rate that is at least 1.2 times higher than that of LB.1, KP.3, and KP.2.
Graphic source: CDC Variant Tracker
Vaccines
The People’s CDC joins in celebrating the 30 year anniversary of ‘Vaccines for Children,’ (VFC) Program. VFC covered all CDC recommended vaccines for kids 18 and younger. “Research shows that routine vaccinations for children born during 1994–2023 will have prevented about 508 million illnesses and 32 million hospitalizations and saved over 1.1 million lives.” A similar program for adults, called “Vaccines for Adults” has been proposed in federal budgets but has not yet been funded or implemented.
Updated COVID vaccines could be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as soon as this week. It is imperative that everyone ages 6 months or older gets these updated COVID vaccines, regardless of risk group (and all are eligible in the US thanks to our community’s advocacy!). Now is a great time to spread the word that getting the latest vaccines is needed to boost waning immunity from previous vaccination as well as better match current variants.
The CDC’s Bridge Access program has provided free COVID vaccines for uninsured adults and is ending this month. Use our letter campaign to tell congress to demand ongoing COVID vaccine access for uninsured adults.
Mpox
A new strain of mpox (MPXV), Clade Ib, has been spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and neighboring countries, with a recent case reported in Sweden. The current outbreak, which has grown to an estimated 17,500 cases with 500+ deaths, prompted the Africa Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare it a public health emergency of international concern on August 13th and 14th. Clade I has been associated with a higher death rate and also seems to be more contagious than Clade II, which caused the global outbreak in 2022 and continues to spread in the US in small clusters (see current Clade II mpox wastewater data from WastewaterScan and CDC’s information on the 2022 mpox outbreak, including recent data). The virus is characterized by headache and painful, pus-filled lesions, and is mainly transmitted through skin-to-skin contact, sexual contact, and via respiratory droplets and aerosols. Compared to Clade II, Clade I’s current mortality rate could be at least ten times higher at 4-11%. However, the ongoing humanitarian crises and poor healthcare infrastructure among early cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo also contributes to these mortality estimates.
Unclear transmission dynamics, poor genomic surveillance, and little access to prophylactics are hampering efforts to control the outbreak. Although an mpox vaccine was made available in 2022 in Western nations, the system of vaccine apartheid hoards these life-saving interventions from the Global South. An estimated 10 million vaccine doses are needed to mitigate the ongoing outbreak in Africa, but biotechnology firm Bavarian Nordic is currently only in negotiations for 200,000 doses of the Jynneos vaccine. In the US, mpox vaccines can be found through the CDC’s vaccine finder.
Take Action
This Thursday, August 22nd, 2004, the CDC Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC) will be meeting to review infection control guidelines for healthcare settings.
Please join our Action Network Campaign to demand public accountability from HICPAC and contact your elected officials to call for strengthening these guidelines. Click here to learn more.
With the impending end of the CDC’s Bridge vaccine program this month, use our letter campaign to tell congress to demand ongoing COVID vaccine access for uninsured adults.
If you are planning a protest, check out our guide to help make your event more accessible and safer for everyone.
Notes: 1) The numbers in this report were current as of 8/17/2024. 2) Check out the links throughout & see our website for more at https://peoplescdc.org. 3) Subscribe to our newsletter: People’s CDC | Substack.