A new strain of Covid-19 is driving a surge of infections throughout California but the Trump administration is still dragging its feet on approving new vaccines.
Public health officials in the Los Angeles and San Jose metro areas said the number of positive Covid tests had increased by as much as 6.3 per cent since last month.
Statewide, hospital admissions have nearly doubled from 1.6 per 100,000 people to 3 per 100,000 since early July, or from 6.3 to 11 for patients aged 65 and over.
Experts said the rise was largely driven by a new subvariant of the Omicron Covid virus, known as 'XFG' or 'Stratus'.
And while this year's summer wave is so far significantly less intense than last year, it comes at a time when President Donald Trump's vaccine-skeptic health chief Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is slowing down the approval of new jabs.
"California’s in the middle of a Covid-19 wave, and statewide rates are among the highest in the nation," wrote public health expert and former Marin County public health officer Matt Willis in a blog post.
"We’re in an unfortunate limbo, created by an administration that’s uncommitted to vaccines, between the slow shutting down of ’24-’25 vaccine availability and access to the ’25-’26 version....
"If you’re in a higher risk group, get a shot now, if you can."
Doctors are still waiting on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve updated Covid vaccines and the agency has signaled that it will only approve them for high risk groups such as over-65s.
The previous generation of vaccines are approved for almost all ages but those will become unavailable once the FDA issues its new ruling.
The CDC's vaccine advisory committee still hasn't approved new guidelines for who should get updated vaccines leaving the 18-odd states that defer to its decisions twisting in the wind.
The committee's previous members were fired en masse by RFK Jr. in June, and its new hand-picked roster includes several outspoken vaccine skeptics.
Both the CDC and the FDA come under the authority of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which RFK Jr. now runs.
“Updated Covid-19 vaccines have been delayed this year due to federal policy changes, and we are awaiting FDA licensure of this season’s products,” the L.A. County Department of Public Health told The Los Angeles Times.
"This means availability in September may be later than what people experienced last fall.”
A spokesperson for HHS told Politico last week that the department is "committed to ensuring Americans continue to have access to safe and effective vaccines."
"We will work closely with federal and state partners to minimize disruptions in vaccine access and protect the public’s health," the spokesperson said.
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