Public Health Communication Update, RFK Jr., Secretary of HHS, and the Dismantling of the Public Health Infrastructure
As a consequence of the ongoing pause on public health communications since January 21, many important health reports and guidelines have been removed or completely deleted. Even though the Judicial branch ordered the Trump administration to restore these agency reports, recent guidelines such as those by OSHA remain removed.
With RFK Jr.’s recent installation as the secretary of Health and Human Services, he has already begun his term by deceiving the public. Though he had committed to protect public access to vaccines, he instead has paused future CDC’s vaccine committee (Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) meetings and considered the replacement of committee members. Though he committed to addressing Long COVID, he instead ended the Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Long COVID.
The Trump administration has further dismantled the public health infrastructure by firing thousands of public health workers across multiple federal health agencies including Health and Human Services (HHS), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), workers who have an invaluable role for carrying out disease investigation and implementation of public health programs.
At the end of this report, we have provided a list of specific action items in response to these recent announcements. During this time, it is also essential that you support and seek information from local health departments. Unfortunately, some of these agencies have new leaders that have no interest in doing right by the public, instead stripping their own ability to protect public health.
The Weather
The CDC-based wastewater map was updated on February 20. It shows 25 states with “High” or “Very High” levels of SARS-CoV-2 in the wastewater. These high levels are found throughout the country. Mississippi, New Hampshire, Oklahoma , 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.”
Wastewater trends indicate slight decreases in all regions except the Midwest, which slightly increased this past week and remains in the “high” zone. The South decreased from “high” to the “moderate” zone and the Northeast and West dropped slightly into the “low” zone. Overall, national levels are in the “moderate” zone which is lower than they were previously.
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.
Flu wastewater levels remain at “high” levels according to the CDC’s National wastewater surveillance system. Last week, the percent of samples which tested positive for flu and laboratory confirmed influenza-associated hospitalizations were higher than any period as far back as 2011. This week, the CDC estimates nearly 33 million illnesses nationwide, 430,000 hospitalizations, and 19,000 deaths caused by the flu. According to the CDC, the high wastewater levels may be attributed to both influenza A infections among humans and an ongoing avian influenza A (H5) (bird flu) outbreak among U.S dairy cows and poultry. We will continue to report on the bird flu further down in this report.
With the ongoing spread of infectious disease nationwide, we need to keep ourselves and our communities safe using KF94/KN95/N95 masking and as many layers of protection as possible. Our Safer Gathering Guide provides recommendations to be safer. Continue to share it!
Variants
According to the CDC’s variant tracking dashboard, updated on February 14, 2025, there are now three major regions in the US with available variant data. According to data from these three regions, variant XEC (a combination of two JN.1-derived variants: KS.1.1 and KP.3.3) has dropped to 37% and LP.8.1 has increased further to 31% and KP.3.1.1 has further decreased to 9%. MC.10.1 increased to 6% and MC.1 has dropped to 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.” This data shows no change in national COVID-related hospitalizations and the subsequent drop is not certain due to incomplete data.
Wins
Although a federal level judge ordered the end of the block on public health data, the threat by the Trump administration remains. You may find archived information from federal health agencies at ACA Signups, an independent online project started in 2013, including websites for the CDC, FDA, and CMS websites as they existed pre-the Trump administration.
With the recent wave of attempts to ban masking, the public is stepping up to counteract these attempts by proposing pro-masking policies that protect masking in the states of Massachusetts and Illinois. Massachusetts State Senator William Brownsberger proposed Bill SD.245 in the state senate to prohibit mask bans on January 9, 2025. Massachusetts residents, contact your local State Senator to voice support of this bill. Illinois State Representative Hoan Huynh proposed Bill HB3853 in the General Assembly to protect the right to mask on February 7, 2025. Illinois residents, contact your local State Representative to voice support of this bill and learn more ways with Care Not COVID Chicago to support this bill.
Although HHS was planning on ending no-cost access to COVID rapid antigen tests, this decision was reversed and the public can continue to order COVID rapid tests if they have not done so this past year.
Take Action
Funding for telehealth services through Medicare by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid was extended until the end of March of 2025 due to your outreach. However, the Trump administration plans on limiting access beginning April 2025 by bringing back rural and facility restrictions. 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.
The Trump administration continues to destroy current and future public health programs by deeply cutting health agency budgets. Join us and National Nurses United (NNU) in signing a petition to tell the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought to protect public health and stop the cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services.
More anti-mask bills are being proposed this week. Maryland has proposed two bills banning masks this week, Bill HB1081 in the State House and SB0709 in the State Senate. We need the public, especially Maryland residents, to oppose these bills. #NoMaskBanMD has organized outreach initiatives with a phone bank on Tuesday, Feb 25 at 7 pm EST and shared instructions on how to sign-up to testify in opposition of these bills. Maryland residents should contact your state legislatures and elected politicians at the Judiciary Committee members on the House side, the Judicial Proceeding Committee members on the Senate side, your other Maryland elected officials, and Governor Moore.
Do you have an organizing home yet? 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.
There are a lot of protests happening, and rightfully so! Plug in. This page includes tips about organizing and attending safer protests.
Continue to keep watch as more terrible federal appointees on the schedule for consideration in the next few weeks. Call and tell your elected politicians to oppose them.
H5N1 Updates
The Trump administration fired members of the USDA who were working on the government response to the bird flu and will be rehiring these important federal workers. Since our last update, there have been two new confirmed cases of bird flu infections in Ohio and Wyoming. Bird flu continues to be detected among wild birds and poultry throughout the country.
As the virus continues to spread to more animals, places, and potentially to more people, the risk of a devastating human pandemic increases. People working around animals– in particular birds and poultry–or residing near large farms with these animals must take extra precautions to protect against a potential infection.
Measles Update
There is also an outbreak of measles in Texas (90 cases) and New Mexico (9 cases) as of February 19. According to public health officials, this has been the largest outbreak in Texas in over 30 years. But of course, the anti-public health agenda of the Trump administration threatens efforts to keep us safe. Although measles was eliminated in 2000, it returns especially among populations who are unvaccinated. There is no known treatment for measles, and it can result in several complications such as the irritation of the lungs, irritation or swelling of the brain, ear infections, dangerous diarrhea, or pneumonia. This infectious disease is highly infective and known to be airborne, and vaccination remains the most effective method of prevention.
Notes: 1) The numbers in this report were current as of 2/22/2024. 2) Check out the links throughout & see our website for more at https://peoplescdc.org. 3) Subscribe to our newsletter: People’s CDC | Substack.
If you’re donating to us through substack, consider getting the substack for free (it’s not paywalled!) and donating to us directly. That way, there are fewer fees between your bank account and ours! Also, get your FIGHT FASCISM–WEAR A MASK T-shirt today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The People’s CDC is a coalition of public health practitioners, scientists, healthcare workers, educators, advocates and people from all walks of life working to reduce the harmful impacts of COVID-19.
We provide guidance and policy recommendations to governments and the public on COVID-19, disseminating evidence-based updates that are grounded in equity, public health principles, and the latest scientific literature.
Working alongside community organizations, we are building collective power and centering equity as we work together to end the pandemic. The People’s CDC is volunteer-run and independent of partisan political and corporate interests and includes anonymous local health department and other government employees. The People’s CDC is completely volunteer run with infrastructure support being provided by the People’s Science Network.
Though the People’s CDC was supported initially through a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grant, that grant has long expired. We no longer pursue or accept grant funding. We are now entirely funded by people who donate to us. Most of these donations make their way to us through our Substack platform (which anyone can access for free!) or through purchases of People’s CDC swag. Our website now has a donate link for anonymous donations.
The content that we put out is entirely created by volunteers who receive no funding for their work. We pay one person for their labor–a digital organizer. They help us update and maintain our website, make sure we all know what meetings are happening and when, post our content on social media, and monitor our email. They also act as the point person between our organization and our fiscal sponsor, People’s Science Network.
We also pay for a People’s CDC T-shirt for any volunteer who wants one.