Covid-19 is still nimbly evolving into new variants more than five years after it emerged.
But even as doctors and scientists contend with the new strain, Trump administration health officials are pushing back on scientists and doctors on questions about the most effective preventive and treatment measures.
A new mutation called NB 1.8.1, or “Nimbus,” popped up this summer and rapidly grew into one of the more dominant offshoots of the omicron strain. It is distinguished by a sharp sore throat, which some have fittingly termed “razor blade throat,” and its ability to rapidly spread, The Independent reported.
However, even formidable newcomers like the Nimbus strain do not pose a threat anywhere near the severity a new type of Covid-19 once did. The virus is surely still a mainstay public health concern, but it is now closer to the level of the common flu or cold, rather than a world-stopping pandemic.
How did we get here? The simple answer is vaccines. Ever since regular vaccine doses and booster shots became available for Covid-19, the rates of infections, symptom severity, hospitalizations, and mortality have all decreased, as this literature review summarized in 2022.
Yet this apparent success is now unfolding in the same moment as a radical upheaval in the United States’ vaccine policy. Experts worry that the charge, led by U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr., could lead to a backslide of progress made against Covid-19 and other diseases, especially for Black and Brown Americans.
In June, Kennedy overhauled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel. He fired all 17 of its members and replaced them with eight new members who are by and large critical of Covid-19 vaccines.
One appointee left the panel due to a financial conflict of interest. Those who remain have the power to influence how Covid-19 vaccines work in the U.S., who is eligible for them, and even how many are available. The panel typically helps create the recommendations for all kinds of immunization schedules, as well as which ones are covered by insurance, NPR explained.
Kennedy also nixed many preexisting Covid-19 vaccine guidelines, including for children and pregnant people. Only the recommendations for adults over 65 and those with high-risk conditions remain in place. In direct response, Dr. Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos stepped down from her role leading the CDC’s vaccine advisory board.
Records indicate that Dr. Vinay Prasad, chief medical and scientific officer of The Food and Drug Administration, rejected the use of two Covid vaccinees, even after agency vaccine staffers had OK’d the approval of the Novavax vaccine and the next version of Moderna’s mRNA Covid vaccine, according to the New York Times. He wrote that the virus is less of a threat and might not be worth the risk for people under 65 without risk factors.
These decisions put marginalized groups at more risk than they already are, according to Capital B’s statistical analysis.
For example, the odds for Black Americans to catch Covid-19 is 1.5 times above average. The odds they will be hospitalized is four times higher, and Black children are five times more likely to die from the virus. Plus, many Black folks who caught the virus also suffer from long Covid-19, Capital B reported.
“These new guidelines don’t exist in a vacuum,” Oni Blackstock, a physician and founder of equity consulting practice Health Justice, told the outlet. “Limiting booster eligibility risks further compromising the already fragile health status of many Black Americans.”
As vaccine policies shift and the virus continues to mutate, find health voices you can trust to guide you in sickness and in health. And if you are worried about the Nimbus strain, be sure to get your next booster shot. The same vaccines are expected to stay effective.
