El clima

The most recent CDC national wastewater map with data from December 29, 2024 through January 4, 2025 shows 34 states reporting ‘High’ or ‘Very High’ levels of the virus. These high levels are found throughout the country, but most prominently in the midwest and parts of the Northeast. South Dakota, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Virginia have limited coverage, meaning that data from those states are based on less than 5% of the population. There is no data for Guam, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The CDC has determined national levels are “high.”

Graphic source: CDC

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. 

Of note, flu and RSV levels are also high according to Wastewater scan. The CDC has designated flu levels high and RSV levels moderate. You can protect yourself and your community from all of these viruses through masking, cleaning indoor air, and/or gathering outdoors.

Hospitalizaciones

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 is comprised of over 300 acute-care hospitals in 13 states.” Hospitalizations increased over the holiday season and currently remain below the summer 2024 levels. The past weeks’ data are incomplete, so the dashed line that appears to decrease should not be interpreted as a true decrease in hospitalizations. Rather, we expect hospitalizations nationwide to continue to increase in the weeks to come. 

Graphic source: CDC

Wins

Hospitals throughout the country (including those in Massachusetts, California, Illinois, Minnesota, New Jersey, y New York) have reinstated mask mandates amid the current surges of COVID, flu, and RSV. Of course, many of these policies are reactive mask mandates and can hardly be called “wins.” We need proactive protections for patients in healthcare as a baseline expectation for care and universal masking to protect all workers in healthcare settings.

Last week, healthcare workers throughout the country engaged in a day of action opposing Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. In many cases, demonstrations included both the withholding of labor (“sick-outs”) and mutual aid in the form of free mental health clinics (such as the Kamal Adwan Pop-Up Clinic) to support those doing the work of opposing genocide. Though these events are not alone enough to end the genocide, they are a marker for ongoing, requisite organizing both towards the liberation of Palestine and in opposition to fascism here in the US.

Variants

The CDC hasn’t updated variant data recently, so we will aim to provide a detailed variant update with our next report.

H5N1 Updates

We are saddened to share the news of the death of a patient in Louisiana from bird flu (H5N1). We share our deepest condolences to their loved ones.

The patient was hospitalized in December and is believed to have been infected from domestic or wild birds. This is the first reported human bird flu death in the US since the current outbreak began. We are disappointed, albeit not surprised, that the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) and the CDC have minimized the seriousness of this emergency and the value of this patient’s life. In the LDH’s announcement of the patient’s death, they were quick to point out the patient was over 65 and had underlying conditions, as if the death of someone over 65 with underlying conditions is something we can shrug off. The CDC also dismissed the death as “not unexpected” given the high death rate of H5N1 (50%).

We find these statements abhorrent and hostile to the tenets of public health, where every life should be valued, no matter age or ability. This follows the US government’s pattern of minimizing the deaths of the most vulnerable as we “fall by the wayside.” They said this when the covid pandemic started and have continued to reiterate their apathy towards elderly and disabled people as well as everyone else. Indeed with many now having varying degrees of weakened immune systems after a covid infection, it seems every future hospitalization and death from bird flu could be trivialized in the same way as the Louisiana patient.

With the future of a bird flu vaccine for humans remaining unclear given the incoming administration, it’s vital to prioritize infection prevention. Farm employers and local officials must provide the necessary PPE to workers, ramp up testing of animals and staff, and provide paid sick leave to reduce and prevent transmission.

California Wildfires

This past week, numerous wildfires have ravaged the Los Angeles (LA) area in Southern California in what is shaping up to be one of the most devastating wildfires in US history, driven by climate change-induced extremely high winds and an unseasonably dry winter. We share our sorrow with those who have lost loved ones and homes in this devastation. Wildfire smoke presents a significant threat to everyone’s health, increasing the risk of lung damage, heart conditions, and compromising immune systems; all of which are dangerous enough on their own and are only compounded by the current waves of COVID, RSV, norovirus, and seasonal and bird flu.

This makes high-quality masking (with N95s or particulate respirators like P100s) and cleaning indoor air even more important for Southern California residents. Building a CR Box or using other indoor HEPA air purifiers can also help filter wildfire smoke indoors. It should be the duty of local, state, and federal governments to provide such resources to their communities; however, LA officials have let their covid denialism get the better of them and are unable to distribute masks because they do not have a stockpile. Instead, city workers have reached out to the local LA Mask Bloc and other local organizations for help. We applaud these local organizations for their life saving work!

We are yet again seeing how governments have abandoned us and that we cannot rely on them. Many are pointing out that LAFD were unable to adequately train and prepare for this fire because of budget limitations, showing us once again that we must do the work to care for each other.

Tomar acción

Volunteer and find support with a Mask Bloc o other COVID Action group in your area. Taking action together, we can create larger and larger waves of change.

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Notes: 1) The numbers in this report were current as of 1/13/2024. 2) Check out the links throughout & see our website for more at https://peoplescdc.org. 3) Subscribe to our newsletter: People’s CDC | Substack.