Contagious COVID Variant Found In CA As CDC Restricts Vaccine Access

CALIFORNIA, CA — On the same day the Trump Administration pared back COVD-19 vaccine access Tuesday, scientists in California confirmed the presence of a highly contagious new variant in the Golden State.

Scientists at the Stanford Clinical Virology Laboratory confirmed the state’s first known local case of the NB.1.8.1 variant, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. The variant is behind the rampant spread of COVID-19 cases recently in China and parts of Europe. According to the Chronicle, Hong Kong officials reported the highest number of COVID-19 cases in at least a year with increased hospitalizations. Officials in California are monitoring the variant, and in the meantime, federal officials are recommending that fewer people get vaccinated against the disease.

That will make it harder for parents to vaccinate their children and for pregnant women to get vaccinated because insurance companies will be unlikely to cover the vaccines. The news comes after the Trump Administration said last week it would limit approval for COVID-19 boosters to seniors and others at high risk.

SEE ALSO: COVID Vaccine Rule Changes Proposed: What To Know In California

"I couldn't be more pleased to announce that as of today the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from the CDC recommended immunization schedule," Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced on X. "We're now one step closer to realizing President Trump's promise to make America healthy again."

The CDC has removed the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women from its recommended immunization schedule, Trump Administration officials announced Tuesday in a video on X.

The announcement was made by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and FDA Administrator Martin Makary

"There's no evidence that healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children," Makary said in the video announcement.

Today, the COVID vaccine for healthy children and healthy pregnant women has been removed from @CDCgov recommended immunization schedule. Bottom line: it’s common sense and it’s good science. We are now one step closer to realizing @POTUS’s promise to Make America Healthy Again. pic.twitter.com/Ytch2afCLP
— Secretary Kennedy (@SecKennedy) May 27, 2025

"Last year, the Biden Administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot despite the lack of any clinical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children, " Kennedy said in announcing the shift.

In California, the COVID-19 vaccine rate among children ages 6 months to 17 years old through March 2025 was 6.2 percent. That number has increased from the previous year.

That new FDA framework, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, lays out new standards for updated COVID shots. The doctors say the agency will continue to use a streamlined approach to make them available to adults 65 and older as well as children with at least one high-risk health problem.

However, the new framework urges companies to conduct large, lengthy studies before tweaked vaccines can be approved for healthier people. Previous federal policy recommended an annual COVID shot for all Americans six months and older.

"For many Americans we simply do not know the answer as to whether or not they should be getting the seventh or eighth or ninth or tenth COVID-19 booster,” said Vinay Prasad, who joined the FDA earlier this month. He previously spent more than a decade in academia, frequently criticizing the FDA's handling of drug and vaccine approvals.

Provisional data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows more than 47,000 Americans died from COVID-related causes last year. In California, 298 deaths attributed to COVID-19 were reported in the last three months.

Earlier in May, the FDA granted full approval of Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine but with major restrictions on who can get it — and the new guidance mirrors those restrictions. The approval came after Trump appointees overruled FDA scientists' earlier plans to approve the shot without restrictions.

The Associated Press contributed reporting