New COVID-19 Vaccine Restrictions: What It Means For CA Residents

A new and updated version of the COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for the coming fall and winter respiratory illness season, the Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday, though they've announced controversial and stringent conditions on who can access it.

The agency has limited the approval for the new vaccines only to adults 65 and older. For people between 5 and 64, they must have at least one underlying condition, like asthma or obesity, that puts them at risk for severe COVID. Critics and many health advocates say that this needlessly puts the health of patients at risk.

This announcement comes as California is experiencing another surge in COVID-19 cases.

The new and improved vaccine by Pfizer-BioNTech will more closely match the new strains circulating the country, targeting a JN.1 sub-lineage of the disease known as LP.8.1.

The Department of Health has just announced a late summer surge in the virus, coinciding with surges at similar times over the past few years. California is in the midst of one of the nation's highest surges in COVID cases. In their announcement, health department officials urged residents to get the pre-existing vaccine.

"DOH encourages people who are eligible to get the COVID vaccine now, especially those at higher risk, rather than waiting for the updated fall formulation," Secretary of Health Debra L. Bogen said in a statement. "CDC and FDA data suggest the existing vaccine provides moderate protection against severe outcomes, including hospitalization and death, from JN.1 lineage viruses."

It's not clear what distinction between outcomes the pre-existing vaccine and the new vaccine will offer to that age group. The restrictions have sparked sharp pushback from groups like the American Association of Pediatrics, who have published their own vaccine guidelines that, for the first time ever, sharply diverge from the CDC.

In California, emergency department visits related to COVID are currently more than double last winter's numbers, though still below last summer's peak, according to Dr. Matt Willis, a former health officer of Marin County. Notably, visits for children under 12 are rapidly increasing and are over twice the California average. For individuals aged 75 and older, emergency room visits have almost doubled in the past month.

Willis stated that wastewater data indicates "high" COVID activity across all areas of the state.

By late June, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that Stratus accounted for 14% of COVID-19 cases.

According to the latest statistics from the CDC, the rate of the virus is firmly in the "growing" category, with a 92.65 percent probability of upward trajectory in the U.S.

The overall percentage of emergency department visits due to COVID-19 in the U.S. does remain low, however, at 0.52 percent.

The CDC also estimates an "R" rate of 1.07, or between 0.96 and 1.12, a figure which estimates how many new infections are caused by each infected person. Any "R" over 1 indicates a growth in the virus.

An advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must next vote to recommend the vaccines. Since taking office, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has unseated members on the committee and added new members of the panel who are vaccine skeptics.

The new vaccine will begin shipping immediately and be available in pharmacies, hospitals and clinics across the U.S. in the coming days, officials said.