#vaccine access

[bnyrbt]

United States FDA wants to limit future COVID-19 vaccine access

They want to hold COVID vaccines to stricter regulations than we currently hold flu vaccines. They are claiming that this is to improve public trust in vaccines, and that public trust in vaccines has been eroded, not by the anti-vaccine movement, but by COVID vaccine mandates. I hope I don’t have to explain why that’s utter bullshit. My blood sugar is low right now, and I don't want to panic unnecessarily, but this shit is serious. We have three days to submit our comments:

More information:

[gumjrop]

Here are the latest national COVID-19 trends, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and major wastewater surveillance providers:

About 1.0 in every 100,000 people were hospitalized for COVID-19 during the week ending May 3.

COVID-19 test positivity stayed the same, with 2.9% of COVID-19 tests returning positive results during both the weeks ending May 3 and May 10.

SARS-CoV-2 concentration in wastewater has decreased 8% between the week ending May 3 and the week ending May 10, and the national wastewater viral activity level is “low,” per the CDC.

SARS-CoV-2 concentration in wastewater has decreased 7% between April 30 and May 7, and the national wastewater trend is “medium,” per WastewaterSCAN.

The U.S. remains in a moderate lull between COVID-19 surges, with national metrics reporting slow declines through mid-May. There are increases in disease spread in a few West Coast states, however, and new variants now arriving in the country are likely to spur outbreaks this summer. Also, Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine is finally approved — but not universally. Federal health officials are introducing new challenges for further shots.

Wastewater data from the CDC, WastewaterSCAN, and Biobot Analytics all report slight declines in average SARS-CoV-2 levels for early- to mid-May. These levels have declined slowly since February, and are close to reports from early November 2024 or late April 2024 — the last “baseline” points in between surges. Of course, SARS-CoV-2 levels at these points are still several times the true lows that we experienced in 2021 and 2022, when collective health measures were still in place.

Healthcare system data from the CDC’s surveillance networks similarly report slow declines through mid-May. COVID-19 test positivity, from the labs reporting to the agency, was about 2.9% in the weeks ending May 3 and May 10. Last year, the lowest point for this metric was 3.1%, during the weeks ending April 20, April 27, and May 11, 2024.

Most states and regions report COVID-19 declines, but there are continued signs of increased disease spread on the West Coast, following a trend from last week. Test positivity data for federal health regions 8, 9, and 10 (which include West Coast states) report increases in early May, as do wastewater data from the CDC and WWSCAN.

The CDC’s disease forecasting center also estimates that COVID-19 cases are “likely growing” in Nevada and Hawaii as of May 13. Cases are “declining or likely declining” in 30 states and “not changing” in 14, per the center. As I noted last week, it’s hard to say yet whether these are isolated hotspots or first signs of a summer surge, but it would make sense for the West to see a wave first given the last few months’ patterns.

In addition to travel and gatherings without collective precautions, new variants may aid a surge this summer. Variant trackers are now watching recombinant lineages called XFG and XFC, which have been detected in the U.S. but are not spreading widely yet. The CDC estimated that XFC caused 9% of cases in the two weeks ending May 10. Another variant, called NB.1.8.1, is contributing to high cases in Asia.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) finally approved Novavax’s COVID-19 vaccine last weekend. But the vaccine was approved only for people over age 65 and those with health conditions that “put them at high risk for severe outcomes from COVID-19,” even though it’s previously been available more widely. Trump officials have also indicated further COVID-19 vaccine updates may be more restricted, threatening to take away another protective option for millions of people.

Update, May 20, 12 p.m. ET: FDA leaders have just announced that future COVID-19 vaccines will also be limited to those over age 65 and with health conditions that put them at “high risk for severe COVID-19,” until further clinical trials can be conducted. An article by Trump-appointed FDA officials in the New England Journal of Medicine explaining this new policy has no mention of Long COVID or of other measures Americans can use to protect themselves from COVID-19, such as high-quality masks.

Ladyzhets, Betsy. “National Covid-19 Trends, May 20.” The Sick Times - Chronicling the Long Covid Crisis, 20 May 2025, thesicktimes.org/2025/05/20/national-covid-19-trends-may-20/.

The proposal to limit vaccine access is open to comment for three more days:

[firstoccupier]

Trump Cut WHO Funding During a Global Pandemic

In the spring of 2020, as COVID-19 was spreading uncontrollably across the globe, President Donald J. Trump made a stunning announcement: the United States would freeze its funding to the World Health Organization (WHO). On April 14, 2020, with over 100,000 Americans already infected and thousands dead, Trump accused the WHO of “severely mismanaging and covering up” the outbreak. This was not…

[trendynewsnow]

Challenges in Accessing Mpox Vaccines in the U.S. Amid Ongoing Outbreaks

Challenges in Accessing Mpox Vaccines in the U.S. A particularly lethal variant of mpox, previously known as monkeypox, has resulted in over 48,000 reported cases and more than 1,100 fatalities across Africa this year. In response to this crisis, the Biden administration has committed to donating one million doses of the vaccine to the countries most affected by the outbreak. However, in the…

[dillyt]

Great news for uninsured adults in the USA who want a COVID-19 booster! It now appears that ALL CVS locations are now active participants in the Bridge Access Program. The Bridge Access Program gives out free Covid-19 vaccinations to 18+ adults who otherwise can't afford one, so if you have a CVS near you, please go get one! For others who don't have a CVS near them, please go to vaccines.gov, click on "Find Covid-19 vaccines", fill out which vaccines you prefer (you can mix different vaccines if you have to so i reccomend just marking all of them for the age groups you need), and when the next page loads mark the "Bridge Access Program Participant" option to see only locations that are Bridge Access Program participants. Hopefully, other places that aren't CVS will start participating soon, so just check back every so often to see if there are any updates. The CDC Bridge Access Program website also has more details on what locations will be participating, but only CVS is appearing as an active participant on the vaccines.gov location finder at the moment.

[howdoesone]

How does one prioritize the distribution of vaccines during a pandemic?

Priority Distribution of Vaccines During a Pandemic Introduction During a pandemic, when vaccine supplies are limited, it becomes essential to prioritize the distribution of vaccines to maximize their impact on public health. Determining the order in which different population groups receive vaccines requires careful consideration of various factors, such as vulnerability to the disease, risk of…

[narwhalsarefalling]

i was just looking at job openings and it looked like normal environmental stuff. cool! that’s my field! i click thru the job description and it sounded alright until i clicked the requirements

IT REQUIRED A SCHEDULE TWO PILOTS LICENSE AND BEING UP TO DATE ON SMALLPOX VACCINES???

[kettledemon]

Crack concept, xue yang had no clue what demonic cultivation was and when Jin guangyao came looking for him he just lied and had to desperately learn on the fly

[ask-doctor-wombat]

I diagnose you with getting sick and almost dying

I have no symptoms!

I'm as healthy as a horse! Literally, I got vaccinated with horse vaccines!

[bat-connoisseur]

People acting like animals should have a use or a purpose so that they have the right to continue existing is one of the most regressive and annoying things that I keep seeing fucking EVERYWHERE.

Animals should be allowed to live and are important for the simple fact that they are here and alive. You see it a lot with insects. Just because they are personally annoying to you doesn't mean they are less deserving of life. Everything interacts with everything else to keep the whole world ticking around, and it is not up to us to upset that. So what if mosquitoes annoy you. I don't give a shit. They shouldn't be blanket exterminated because of this. Not to mention the fact that they are important. They are pollinators, food for other animals, but even if they weren't, even if they just did nothing, that wouldn't mean they shouldn't be allowed to exist. What gives you the authority to decide that, huh? Why are you so special?

This goes for humans too, by the way. Why must a person contribute or work or whatever to be worthy of being loved and supported? They're alive, and therefore have inherent value. If you think that isn't enough, then you are the problem. Have some god damn compassion, or failing that, just keep quiet.

[gumjrop]

The US Food and Drug Administration is changing the way it approves Covid-19 vaccines for Americans — a move that will limit future vaccines to older Americans and people at higher risk of serious Covid-19 infection.

The agency is changing the standard of evidence required for Covid-19 vaccine approval in the US, Dr. Vinay Prasad, the new director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary, said in an editorial published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine

The change means that Covid-19 shots will likely be available in the fall for adults ages 65 and older and those with underlying conditions that may put them at higher risk of a Covid-19 infection, but not for everyone who was previously eligible for an updated shot. Nearly three-quarters of Americans age 6 months and older have an underlying medical condition that puts them at higher risk, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The change, which was already being studied by experts that advise the CDC on its vaccine recommendations, will more closely align the United States with Covid-19 vaccine recommendations in the UK, Canada and Australia.

Millions of healthy adults and kids will likely lose access to updated vaccines under the new criteria. Prasad and Makary say there’s not enough evidence that healthy kids and adults get clinically meaningful benefit from regular Covid-19 shots. They want to see placebo-controlled trials, particularly in adults ages 50 to 64, before recommending the shots for other groups.

Dr. Noel Brewer, a professor of public health and health behavior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said he supports the change.

“The proposed policy moves the US in line with other countries. This global view of public health is a welcome development,” said Brewer, who sits on the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and was part of the working group mulling the change to Covid vaccine recommendations

But he and other experts say they’re still worried about the youngest children, those under age 2, who have high rates of hospitalization from Covid-19.

Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of FDA’s independent advisory group on vaccines, says he disagrees with the underlying premise of the new framework, which is that our Covid-19 vaccine recommendations haven’t been based on good evidence.

“We have been using an evidence-based approach to Covid-19 vaccination, but they kind of swoop in and believe that for the first time, we’re going to get, as they say, ‘gold standard’ data, robust data, for the first time, because according to them, we don’t have that, but we do have that,” Offit said.

“That’s why we’ve made good decisions about the vaccine. That’s why that vaccine is remarkably safe. I mean, the mRNA vaccines are remarkably safe.”

The editorial says that going forward, Covid-19 vaccines for people ages 65 and older and those 6 months of age and older with underlying health conditions that put them at higher risk from Covid-19 infections will be approved after pharmaceutical companies can demonstrate that they create protective antibody concentrations in people.

These types of studies are called immunobridging studies. They’re typically done in a smaller number of people, and importantly, they can be done quickly so vaccine manufacturing can ramp up in time to have large numbers of shots ready for an expected wave of illness, usually over the fall and winter.

This is largely how seasonal flu vaccinations are approved each year in the US, and it’s the way FDA has been approving Covid-19 vaccines for the past few years.

For everyone else, the FDA will only approve vaccines after studies that prove the shots can prevent symptomatic Covid-19 better than a placebo. The FDA will also consider several secondary outcomes, including severe illness, hospitalization and death.

The new plan doesn’t consider other impacts of Covid-19 infections, such as long Covid. Studies have shown that vaccination may cut the risk of developing long Covid by somewhere between 25 %to 60%.

Prasad and Makary say the new policy balances the need to swiftly approve vaccines to have them ready by the fall for the most vulnerable adults and children, with the need for more evidence before offering them to others.

What’s more, they say millions of Americans under the age of 65 will still qualify to get a Covid-19 vaccine if they want one if they have any of a broad range of health conditions identified by the CDC as putting a person at high risk of severe disease from Covid-19.

“Estimates suggest that 100 million to 200 million Americans will have access to vaccines in this manner,” the FDA officials wrote.

Prasad and Makary say their goal in requiring more evidence for other groups is to restore public trust in vaccines.

They point out that for the past two seasons, less than 25% of Americans have received a Covid-19 shot, including less than 10% of kids and less than 50% of adults over the age of 75.

They say broad Covid-19 vaccine recommendations and mandates during the pandemic eroded public trust and caused falling rates for other types of vaccines, too, such as the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine.

This is a breaking news story and will be updated.

Goodman, Brenda. “FDA to Limit Future Covid-19 Shots to Older People and Those at Risk of Serious Infection.” CNN, Cable News Network, 20 May 2025, www.cnn.com/2025/05/20/health/covid-vaccine-fda-changes.

The proposal is open for comment for three more days:

[transgender-chiroptera]

Can you share some of your favorite bat facts? I wanna add more to my lil arsenal of cool random facts. :]

Of course! Apologies for the late response, I saw this at like 1am four days ago, forgot everything I knew about bats, and then fell asleep and only remembered I even got this ask today. Anyways! Some bat facts :)

Common Vampire bats are some of my absolute favourites, mostly because of their ability to run on the ground! They can gallop with their forelimbs and take off from the ground by leaping into the air and catapulting themselves with their wings, which is speculated to be how Pterodactyls took off as well! Most bats cannot take off from the ground, and must be elevated to take flight, so this is pretty cool. Makes sense too, since they mostly feed from the ankles of large mammals and so need ground maneuverability!

Here's a video of a vamp taking off, and here's a video of one walking around! I think their skittery movements and lil' faces are just the CUTEST, but I know I'm probably in the minority there. Also there's a large dish of blood in the second video, so fair warning there!

All three true Vampire bats have evolved special grooves in their mouths in order to act as a gutter of sorts to funnel the blood into their mouths, but the exact arrangement differs between them. The Hairy-Legged Vampire bat has a groove along the roof of the mouth, whereas the White-Winged and Common Vampire bats have lingual grooves under the tounge! Speaking of White-Winged Vampire bats, they're the only bats in the world with 22 teeth, for some reason (likely no reason since the molars are vestigial), AND they have scent glands in their mouths that might be used to deter predators. Pretty cool stuff!

Finally, all three species of true Vampire Bats are cute as hell. Look at these lil' guys!!

(left to right- White-winged, Hairy-legged, and Common Vampire bats!)

[simulacrvm]

Sorry but if you’re a leftist who isn’t masking you’re a performance artist not an activist lol

All that talk about collective liberation doesn’t amount to much when you won’t do the bare minimum of community care by doing your part to mitigate a deadly and disabling disease that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable/marginalized in ur community!!

[npr-stan]

New members of CDC vaccine committee, ACIP, meet amid controversy : Shots - Health News https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/06/25/nx-s1-5438482/cdc-vaccine-committee-acip-meeting-rfk

[spitblaze]

i like to think the real mark of being an ex kids-next-door agent as an adult is that you become a strong advocate for children's rights and issues

[akascow]

hm

ironic how there are fuckin MEASLES outbreaks happening in mainly antivax states…

wonder how that happened🙂