People’s CDC COVID-19 Weather Report

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The Weather

The CDC has not updated their wastewater map since September 25, 2025, with a planned update on November 21, 2025. This week we will continue reporting on COVID levels using data provided by WastewaterSCAN. 

WastewaterSCAN reports COVID wastewater levels as of November 11, 2025 at the regional level with two regions at “low” and two regions at “high” levels. The Northeast and Midwest are considered as “high,” demonstrating that different areas can have higher levels of COVID transmission. Therefore, it is important to check areas local to you for information on COVID transmission. As always, wear a high-quality respirator (e.g. N95, KN95) to minimize your risk of getting sick. And if you have not done so already, it is important to get the updated 2025-2026 COVID booster. We also want to highlight the importance of receiving the COVID vaccine among healthcare workers, especially those under the age of 65 years.

Text at the top reads, “Northeast and Midwest are at “High Levels”.” A map is titled “COVID Wastewater Map, from data updated on November 11th 2025”. Graphic depicts a map of the United States separated into four regions: West, Midwest, South, and Northeast. A key in the lower right corner ” indicates concentration levels: orange for high, yellow for medium, blue for low, and green for not detected. The West and South are shaded blue, while the Midwest, and Northeast are shaded orange. There are individual wastewater treatment plants, indicated by dots, scattered across the map. The dots follow the same color key as regions. In the West, many dots are concentrated along the coast of California and many dots are blue. In the Midwest and South, dots are spread farther apart with a mix of blue, yellow, and orange dots. In the Northeast, dots are closer together with a mix of yellow and orange dots. Text at the bottom reads “People’s CDC. Source: WastewaterSCAN.”Graphic source: WastewaterSCAN

Wastewater Trends

According to WastewaterSCAN, wastewater levels have slightly increased after the late summer wave, including national levels, specifically driven by the regions of the Northeast and Midwest having higher levels than the regions of the South and West.

A line graph with the title, “24 Month Regional COVID Wastewater Trend” with wastewater viral activity level indicated on the left-hand vertical axis, going from 0 to 3,000, and dates across the horizontal axis, with date labels ranging from April 2024 to October 2025. Text above the graph reads, “Wastewater Levels Slightly Increased”. A key at the top indicates line colors. National is black, Northeast is green, South is yellow, Midwest is orange, and West is blue. Overall, levels trended downward for all four regions in the past month with a recent uptick during the past two weeks. Text at the bottom reads “People’s CDC. Source: WastewaterSCAN.”Graphic source: WastewaterSCAN

Variants

The CDC’s variant tracking dashboard has not been recently updated. As a result, we will resume the reporting of COVID variants once updated information is provided.

Other Public Health Threats

Although the U.S. government shutdown has ended due to the passing of the stopgap funding bill, Republicans got what they wanted by only committing to a vote and not ensuring ongoing funding to support healthcare premiums under the Affordable Care Act. This funding is needed to prevent the doubling out-of-pocket premiums for the 24 million Americans who do not get their insurance through an employer or Medicare/Medicaid.

Long COVID

Two major studies on potential treatments related to Long COVID and its associated symptoms were recently released. The first study was a randomized clinical trial in JAMA Neurology which focused on treatments such as online cognitive training, a structured cognitive rehabilitation program, and transcranial direct current stimulation. The study reported their ineffectiveness in improving cognitive symptoms and demonstrated the need for therapeutics to address Long COVID symptoms. The second study was also a randomized clinical trial in JAMA Network Open which focused on resistance exercise among individual persistent symptoms after a COVID infection. The study reported an improvement among those participating in resistance exercise, but there are concerns with the study’s design, namely that the intervention group of participants faced performance bias and additional attention from the physiotherapists. It is important that the public continues to demand funding and resources to develop effective treatments for Long COVID as COVID infections continue to occur worldwide.

Take Action

Oppose the current nominee for surgeon general! Casey Means, who has a medical degree but did not complete medical residency training, is the current nominee for surgeon general. Her nomination hearing was recently delayed. She is a health influencer through social media and has focused only on natural products and natural immunity to protect against COVID, by promoting health products through her business. We will provide a separate announcement in a few days on specific instructions to oppose her nomination.

Act now to ensure ongoing access to vaccines! The CDC’s vaccine policy committee, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), will be having a meeting on December 4th and 5th. This meeting is focused on reviewing and discussing policies regarding childhood vaccines and the future of Hepatitis B vaccines. The CDC ACIP will be accepting public comments up until 11:59 EST on Nov 24th. We will provide a separate announcement in a few days on specific instructions on sending in public comments, which will ask for ongoing access and no-cost access to childhood vaccines including COVID and Hepatitis B vaccines. The American Lung Association has also provided an opportunity to directly write to Congress in support of access to vaccines at no cost. They are asking the public to write to elected leaders in support of vaccine legislation, The Protecting Free Vaccines Act, H.R.5448/S.2857. Ensuring free vaccines has an important role in protecting the health of the public.

Notes: 1) The numbers in this report were current as of 11/16/2025. 2) Check out the links throughout & see our website for more at https://peoplescdc.org. 3) Subscribe to our newsletter: People’s CDC | Substack.

 

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.

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