People's CDC, COVID-19, Weather Report, January 27, 2025
COVID levels are decreasing except in Southern US, NIH Long COVID Research Program Invites Public Participation, Oppose HHS and NIH Nominations, and Extend Telehealth Indefinitely
The Weather
Although the Trump administration has placed a pause on all health communications until February 1 as an attempt to develop a strategy for controlling health information, the CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System remains updated and available to the public. The most recent CDC national wastewater map with data from January 12 through January 18, 2025 shows 25 states remaining at ‘High’ or ‘Very High’ levels of SARS-CoV-2 in wastewater. These high levels are found throughout the country except in the West Coast. The states of Arizona, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota have limited coverage, meaning that data from those states are based on less than 5% of the population. There is no data for Guam, North Dakota, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The CDC has determined that national levels are “moderate,” which does not translate into the risk of an infection being low.
Wastewater trends indicate that nationally, the US is seeing improvement in wastewater levels. Many regions in the US are seeing decreasing levels after reaching a peak in early January of 2025, except in the South, where wastewater levels seem to be increasing again after a brief plateau in early January.
As always, remember that the determination of the categories of “Very High,” “High,” “Moderate,” “Low,” and “Minimal” is independent of any relationship to community transmission. In other words, these categories do not necessarily reflect one’s risk of getting sick within each region at any given time. Wastewater data is best suited to reveal if levels in your area are increasing or decreasing, or how levels in your area compare with other times throughout the course of the pandemic.
Although SARS-CoV-2 levels are improving, flu levels have reached high according to the CDC. You can protect yourself and your community from all of these viruses through layers of protection such as masking, testing, cleaning indoor air using adequate air purification systems and ensuring ventilation, and/or gathering outdoors. We anticipate releasing our updated Safer Gatherings Guide very soon to provide information on making in-person gatherings safer.
As of January 27, 2025, according to the CDC, COVID transmission levels are “likely growing” nationally reported by the CDC Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics dashboard. Eighteen states have reached “not changing” levels, and 18 states are seeing “declining” or “likely declining”, while levels are “not estimated” at 6 states. Bearing in mind, these estimates are based on COVID-positive emergency department visits, and not on the total numbers of new COVID infections. While wastewater levels appear to be on the decline for several US regions, emergency department visits have not decreased and the impact of change in wastewater levels may not be reflected for several weeks.
Note, this model utilizes emergency department visit data to estimate COVID transmission’s Rt, which is an estimate of the average number of new infections caused by each infectious person. An Rt greater than 1.0 indicates that infections are growing, while an Rt less than 1.0 indicates that they’re declining.
Variants
According to the CDC’s variant tracking dashboard updated on January 17, 2025, only two major regions in the US have available variant data. In these two regions, the recombinant variant XEC (a combination of two JN.1-derived variants: KS.1.1 and KP.3.3) has increased to 47%. LP.8.1 has grown to 15% and KP.3.1.1 has decreased to 14%. At 5%, MC.10.1 has not changed and MC.1 has dropped to 4%, while LF.7 and XEK are also at 4%.
Graphic source: CDC Variant Tracker
Hospitalizations
Hospitalization data comes from COVID-NET, “a population-based surveillance system that collects data on laboratory-confirmed COVID-19-associated hospitalizations among children and adults. The current network comprises over 300 acute-care hospitals in 13 states.” Hospitalizations increased over the holiday season and often the most updated hospitalization data is delayed usually by several weeks.
Wins
Many hospitals and state health departments throughout the country continue to maintain, reinstate, or urge universal masking during the ongoing high levels of COVID, flu, and RSV (Rhode Island, Washington, and Maryland). Healthcare settings must be proactive with protections for patients as a baseline expectation for care by instating year-round universal masking policies to protect all workers in healthcare settings. Universal masking and pre-admission testing are effective tools in lowering the risk of developing healthcare acquired COVID infections.
Vaccines, Testing, and Treatment
COVID vaccines remain one of the most important steps among the layers of protection against a COVID infection or serious health outcome. Those without insurance or who are underinsured, we recommend that you contact your local city or state health department, as they may have their own programs that offer no cost access to vaccines.
Testing for COVID is important. If you have not ordered them yet, no-cost COVID rapid antigen tests continue to be available and can be ordered to your home address. The CDC was previously providing access through their Increasing Community Access to Testing (ICATT) program, a program with no-cost access to COVID testing to those who are uninsured or underinsured, but the program appears to be on pause. Some places are still providing no cost testing including Walgreens (Rapid Antigen Tests or NAATs) and other local sites through their public health departments such as in Brooklyn, New York, where PCR testing is supported by the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
We continue to urge those with COVID infections to seek treatment including the use of nirmatrelvir/ritonavir (Paxlovid). Although the Test-to-Treat program was discontinued, there continue to be programs available to the public to ensure affordable access to Paxlovid.
Long COVID
Preventing COVID infections ultimately reduces the risks of developing Long COVID, a serious debilitating condition that can occur with anyone following any COVID infection. The NIH recently reported that a Long COVID study assessed 4.5% of individuals with a prior COVID infection may have myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) compared to 0.6% of individuals without a previous COVID infection.
The NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has a Long COVID research program, Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery–Treating Long COVID (RECOVER-TLC). This program has several opportunities for the public, due by midnight of February 1, 2025, to submit ideas for potential therapeutics and biologics to address Long COVID to, serve on RECOVER-TLC working groups, and to provide feedback on the RECOVER-TLC initiative. Frustratingly, the Trump administration’s pause on health communications has led to the cancellation or delay of important meetings that affect the future of health and medical research grants and other related events. If the current nominee for NIH is selected, he most likely will not support Long COVID research based on his past public comments on social media that dismisses this serious condition.
Take Action
First, the current nominees for Secretary of Health and Human Services (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.) and the Director of the National Institutes of Health (Jay Bhattacharya, MD, PhD) are inappropriate and must be replaced. Ask your US Senators by January 28, 2025 to oppose the current nominations. Contact them to oppose their nominations through our Action Network or send your Senator a message directly through their communication pages.
Second, funding for telehealth services through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for Medicare was successfully extended until March of 2025 due to your outreach. However, in three months many people will lose access to telehealth services. Private insurance companies will likely follow suit, resulting in many more millions of Americans losing access to this important type of care. You can ask them to fund telehealth indefinitely by submitting a letter to your members of Congress both the House and the Senate via our Action Network or contact members Congress using their contact information, keeping our letter in full or editing it as you wish.
Last, volunteer and find support with a Mask Bloc or other COVID Action group in your area. By taking action together, we create larger and larger waves of change.
H5N1 Updates
As bird flu continues to affect animals and wildstock nationwide, we will continue to monitor the situation and provide any updates that become available. The future of a bird flu vaccine for humans remains unclear given the current administration’s potential nominations of leaders of our major health agencies. It is vital to prioritize infection prevention methods that are currently at our disposal. Farm employers and local officials must provide the necessary PPE to workers, ramp up testing of animals and staff, provide paid sick leave to reduce and prevent transmission, and ensure a safe mechanism for people to report outbreaks of bird flu occurring in the agricultural industry.
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Notes: 1) The numbers in this report were current as of 1/27/2024. 2) Check out the links throughout & see our website for more at https://peoplescdc.org. 3) Subscribe to our newsletter: People’s CDC | Substack.