As has had happened the last few summers. Covid 19 infections are on the rise.

HealthDay News — COVID-19 cases are on the rise again across the United States, with the biggest increases in parts of the South, Southeast and West Coast.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 25 states are seeing growth in COVID-19 cases as a summer wave appears to be starting, CBS News reported.

Even though activity remains “low” nationwide — based on CDC wastewater data — it’s up from “very low” the week before.

Some of the biggest increases in emergency room visits for COVID-19 have happened in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast. In those areas, rates are now the highest they’ve been since February and March, CBS News added.

Health experts had been watching for a possible summer spike, as new versions of the virus spread across the country.

A recent CDC analysis shows that COVID-19 now seems to follow a twice-a-year pattern: Cases usually peak once in the summer (July through September) and again in the winter (from December through February).

“Our analysis revealed biannual COVID-19 peaks in late summer and winter, a pattern that is expected to persist as long as the rapid evolution of SARS-CoV-2 and cyclical S1 diversity continues,” CDC scientists wrote.

S1 diversity refers to ongoing changes in a key part of the virus’s spike protein, specifically the S1 region, which helps the virus bind to human cells, CBS News reported.

The CDC is also warning about another virus that’s spreading more than usual right now: Parvovirus B19.

Most people who catch this virus don’t get very sick. But some develop flu-like symptoms, including fever, muscle aches and a rash.

Pregnant women are at higher risk for complications from parvovirus B19. The CDC says they should take extra steps to protect themselves such as wearing a mask in high-risk places.

In Chicago, health officials said emergency rooms are seeing a spike in patients with this virus.

“Several of the most recent weeks saw the highest percentage of B19-associated ED visits compared to the same week in all years since 2015,” health officials said.

Parvovirus B19 is not the same parvovirus that infects dogs and other canines.

Getting a vaccination two weeks before travel has been advocated by some to prevent this.  Some people wonder they should wait until ltee summer when new vaccines become available.  The problem with that is that the new vaccines won’t be that new.

 

The May 22, 2025, meeting of the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) resulted in a unanimous, 9 to 0 vote in favor of formulating the 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccines using a monovalent JN.1 lineage (strain). That vote was based on an expert review of recently generated epidemiologic, pre-clinical and clinical data compiled and presented at the meeting by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and separately by the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as the three manufacturers currently licensed to sell the vaccines in the United States (Moderna, Novavax and Pfizer).

Committee members and expert presenters seemed to agree that over the past year the COVID-19 burden in United States was relatively mild compared to previous years of the pandemic. Nonetheless,  SARS-CoV-2 infection killed or hospitalized tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of Americans. The experts convened also agreed that the virus remains elusive in terms of its periodicity (seasonality) and the frequency of viral mutations that alter its transmissibility and virulence.

Despite the uncertainties, the analyses presented by CDC, WHO and the three vaccine manufacturers  converged on two conclusions. First, the dominant and expanding strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is in the JN.1 lineage branch of the virus’ phylogeny. Second the recently deployed JN.1 strains of mRNA (Moderna and Pfizer) and protein (Novavax) vaccines were effective at reducing COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths.

Accordingly, the VRBPAC meeting seemed efficient and successful in advising the FDA about formulation of the COVID-19 vaccine for 2025-2026.

Unfortunately, the meeting proceedings were overshadowed by two glaring topics omitted from the agenda.

First, several members of the committee expressed interest in discussing the “new FDA regulatory framework for COVID-19 vaccination.” The framework was discussed in a May 20, 2025, article in the New England Journal of Medicine, by CBER Director Dr. Vinay Prasad and FDA Commissioner Dr. Martin Makary, just two days before the VRBPAC meeting. That framework calls for substantive changes in pre-market testing standards for COVID-19 vaccines. These changes may restrict access for many people who are now eligible for COVID-19 vaccination, including healthy persons under the age of 65 years. Such individuals may have family members who are immune compromised, or they themselves may be reasonably motivated to decrease their personal risk of contracting long COVID.

Second, because of the unprecedented termination of thousands of employees of the FDA and CDC, VRBPAC and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the CDC should soon be convened to discuss whether the FDA and CDC, respectively, have sufficient resources to monitor the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, an essential activity for vaccine formulation. The review of COVID-19 surveillance data from the CDC is critical to VRPAC’s work. At the May 22, 2025, meeting, CDC staff only briefly discussed whether they had sufficient resources, including connections with scientists at the WHO, and the biomedical laboratory infrastructure to appropriately track  the emergence of viral gene variants.

Here is their actual recommendation:

“COVID-19 Vaccines (2025-2026 Formula) for Use in the United States Beginning in Fall 2025

 

So the Pfizer vaccine will be the same as last year.  Moderna has planned something new which the FDA has approved, but the CDC has not signed off on.

FDA Approves Moderna’s New COVID Vaccine With Restricted Use