People’s CDC COVID-19 Weather Report

By /

CDC Updates

The acting CDC Director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, withheld an invaluable report in the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on March 19, 2026, which showed that COVID vaccines reduced hospitalizations by 55% and emergency department visits by 50% among healthy adults between September 2025 and December 2025. The acting CDC director claims he delayed publishing this important report because of concerns about the methodology. The methodology used an approach routinely used to determine vaccine effectiveness. Learn more about the CDC’s approach using observational studies to study vaccine effectiveness.  

The CDC also has not had an appointed director since the HHS Secretary RFK Jr. unreasonably removed Dr. Susan Monarez in August 2025 for her willingness to protect CDC scientists, support vaccines, and maintain the CDC’s integrity. Dr. Erica Schwartz has since been nominated this week to lead the CDC with an extensive background in healthcare and medicine. It is important that she maintains scientific integrity and prevents the spread of false information at the CDC. In addition, other agency staff were also appointed, including the CDC deputy director as chief operating officer, chief medical officer, and a senior counselor for public health at HHS. 

With all of the issues at CDC and Health and Human Services, public health needs solidarity and unity. To that end, The People’s CDC signed onto the People’s Health Platform by Defend Public Health. Their platform supports a variety of important health topics and policies, including equitable universal healthcare, science-based public health, and restoring public health infrastructure.

The Weather

The CDC-based wastewater map was updated on April 16th, and depicts wastewater levels for the period April 5 to April 11. The CDC map has some new changes: moderate, high, and very high levels are now shown in yellow, orange, and red, which depict high intensity or danger.

The CDC reports one state with “very high” and one state and one territory with “moderate” levels, and most other states and territories as “low” or “very low” levels. Four states report limited coverage, meaning only some of the state’s wastewater centers are reporting, so the data are based on less than 5% of the population, and they may not be accurate for the entire state. North Dakota and the Virgin Islands continue to report no data available. Regional data indicate that all regions have decreased to very low levels.

A map of the United States with the CDC’s newly updated color code which uses shades of blue, green, orange, pink and purple to depict COVID Wastewater Viral Activity levels. The header reads “one state with ‘High’ levels.” This map is based on CDC Data last updated on April 16, 2026 with a time period of April 5th to April 11th. Pink and purple correlate with higher viral activity, while the cool colors blue and green represent lower activity. Orange represents moderate. Gray indicates “limited/no data” and stripes indicate “limited coverage” where data is based on less than 5% of the population and may not be accurate for the whole state. West Virginia is purple meaning “Very High”, Mississippi is orange meaning “Moderate. North Dakota and the Virgin Islands are grey meaning “limited/no data”, and 8 other states are green meaning “Low”. All remaining states and Guam are blue meaning “Very Low”. Map header: 7 States reporting “high” levels. There is limited coverage for Oklahoma, Arkansas, Washington, and Mississippi. Text at the bottom reads “People’s CDC. Source: CDC.”Graphic source: CDC

A line graph’s title reads “wastewater levels continue to decrease.” The Y-axis is COVID concentration levels from “Very Low” to “Very High”. The X-axis dates are from November 23, 2024 through April 11, 2026. The line graph peaks in December 2024 - February 2025, then again in August and September of 2025, and then most recently in December 2025 - February 2026. Currently all regions have decreased to the “Very Low” level of concentration. This is the first time that the South has decreased to this category since November of 2025. Text at the bottom reads “People’s CDC. Source: CDC."

Graphic source: CDC

Other Respiratory and Infectious Diseases

The CDC indicates that flu season is nearly over, with wastewater levels for flu at “very low” nationally. This season, there have been 30 million illnesses, 370,000 hospitalizations, and 23,000 deaths. We have all been taught to tolerate the flu as a baseline annoyance, accepting its harms as unpreventable realities of the cold winter months. But the reality is that we do not have to accept flu deaths. Indoor air-cleaning infrastructure, robust masking requirements and access, affordable flu testing, isolation guidance and support, paid sick leave, free access to seasonal vaccines, and other policies could meaningfully reduce the number of flu cases each year.

RSV levels remain low nationally, but high or very high in some Midwestern states, and are increasing across the central regions. 

According to WastewaterSCAN, norovirus and rotavirus are high and very high, respectively. It is important to maintain hand hygiene to protect against these infectious diseases, as they are spread primarily through contaminated surfaces or contaminated food or water. Norovirus can also be aerosolized from vomit, so it is important to wear a mask if you’re caring for a sick friend or family member with norovirus.

Measles

Measles continues to spread in the US, and since the start of 2026, the total cases have increased in the past few months from 1,281 to 1,748, and last year alone ended with 2,288 total cases during those 12 months. The majority of cases are being detected in South Carolina, Utah, and Texas. Vaccination remains the most effective tool to prevent the spread and development of a serious infection.

A light gray map of the US with county borders outlined in a darker gray depicts the “measles cases reported in the United States” so far in 2026. Colored circles of different sizes indicate the number of cases. A legend above the graphic shows that different sized circles represent 70 cases versus 300 cases versus 700 cases, where 700 cases are represented by the biggest sized circle and 70 cases are represented by the smallest. The circles are either red to depict “imported” measles cases or blue to depict “local” measles cases. The border between South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia shares the largest blue or “local” outbreak circle of 698 cases since January 1st. Utah has the 2nd largest numbers with one blue circle in the Southwest region and 9 blue circles in the North of the state, with the largest circles representing 135, 59, 77 and 47 cases. West Texas has the 3rd largest numbers with two blue circles, one in Hudspeth and one in El Paso with 136 and 24 cases respectively. Collier, Florida has a large blue circle of 103 cases and Mohave, Arizona has a one of 61 cases. Many other states have at least 1 blue or red circle representing case counts of approximately 10 or less, except for Nevada, Colorado, Alaska, Kansas, Iowa, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, Indiana, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Hampshire. Text at the bottom reads “Johns Hopkins University”.

Source: International Vaccine Access Center

Actions

Oppose Case Means’ nomination: The Senate HELP committee meeting in February did not go well for the administration. Your voice matters! Numerous senators appear unwilling to support her confirmation. We continue to ask for your support to oppose Casey Means for Surgeon General as she remains uniquely unqualified for the job. Previously, she questioned and doubted the importance of the childhood vaccine schedule. She also has a major financial conflict of interest through her company, which sells so-called “natural” products with the intent of opposing conventional medicine and profiting personally. Although she says she will resign from her company if confirmed as the next Surgeon General, her conspiratorial and unscientific beliefs around autism, raw milk, and birth control could cause grave harm to the public, especially as her platform and reach would expand exponentially if nominated. 

Protect COVID vaccines: The CDC is exploring a diagnosis code for adverse reactions from COVID vaccines by the ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee. COVID vaccines remain an invaluable tool in the public health toolbox to protect against COVID infections. Take action and email nchsicd10cm@cdc.gov by May 15, 2026, and let them know that this diagnosis code must be carefully considered and clear guidelines must be included to indicate a cause and effect, and not purely an association.

Remove RFK Jr. petition: A recent report from Protect Our Care named RFK Jr. “Public Health Enemy No 1.” We continue to call for the removal of RFK Jr., and Stand Up For Science has created its own petition to remove RFK Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. We encourage you to read it and sign on.

Notes: 1) The numbers in this report were current as of 4/19/2026. 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 for everyone.

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.

Share this: