April-December 2024
Dec 31
Salon.com - How America lost control of bird flu, setting the stage for another pandemic
Salon.com - "Concerning" bird flu mutations in Louisiana patient underscores pandemic potential of H5N1
Dec 30
NY Magazine - How Alarming Is the H5N1 Bird-Flu Mutation in Louisiana? - So what is concerning about this case in Louisiana? That we are seeing a huge increase in the number of human cases. These mutations are a good example of what happens when you have a human case. You start to see the virus begin to adapt to a human host. Even though this particular virus from this particular case isn’t a huge concern in terms of onward transmission, if we’re having human cases tick up and up and up, we’re going to give the virus more chances to develop mutations. And if that’s not detected and starts spreading in the human population, that’s a very good way to have a pandemic start out of this.
The other concern is the timing of all of these cases, which are ticking up right during flu season. If you get infected with two influenza viruses at the same time — so H5N1 and a seasonal influenza strain — a process can occur that’s called reassortment. That’s essentially like shuffling two decks of cards together, ending up making new viruses that have a combination of segments from both of the viruses that were infecting the person. That can lead to really, really rapid evolutionary jumps and rapid adaptation to a new host.
Most of the historical flu pandemics have been associated with reassortment. The current cattle outbreak is itself a recent reassortment between two different avian influenza strains. Some serology studies show that, at least with farm workers, there are cases going undetected. And if there are more human cases, that is giving the virus more opportunity to get experience with the human host and increasing the chance of reassortment because it’s seasonal-flu time of year.
Dec 27
CNN - We ‘have our head in the sand’: Health experts warn US isn’t reacting fast enough to threat of bird flu - The US hasn’t learned lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic that it could use to mitigate the threat of pathogens like H5N1 bird flu that keep showing signs of their own pandemic potential, health experts told CNN.
“We kind of have our head in the sand about how widespread this is from the zoonotic standpoint, from the animal-to-human standpoint,” Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator under President Donald Trump, said on “CNN Newsroom” with Pamela Brown.
CIDRAP - CDC: H5N1 mutations in severely ill patient could boost spread, but risk remains low - The genetic analysis of the H5N1 avian flu virus in specimens from the nation's first severely ill hospitalized patient in Louisianareveals mutations that may enable upper-airway infection and greater transmission, concludes a technical summaryfrom the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
WATT Poultry - H5N1 virus re-emerges in European mammals - Foxes in Norway and Slovenia are among the latest victims of the virus.
Dec 26
STAT News - CDC says H5N1 bird flu sample shows mutations that may help the virus bind to cells in the upper airways of people - H5N1 bird flu in patient shows mutations likely gained post-infection
Dec 24
NY Times - California Declares an Emergency Over Bird Flu in Cattle
Salon.com - LA County warns bird flu is killing cats as human cases top 65 nationwide
Dec 18
NY Times - How Worried Should We Be About Bird Flu?
Voice of America - Bird flu spillover to other species poses global health threat, experts warn
Dec 13
NJ Department of Health - First H5 Influenza Detection in Wastewater in New Jersey
Dec 9
Quality Assurance Food & Safety - USDA Begins National Milk Testing Strategy to Address H5N1 in Dairy Herds - USDA is issuing a new federal order, as well as accompanying guidance, requiring that raw (unpasteurized) milk samples nationwide be collected and shared with USDA for testing.
Dec 6
Salon.com - A single mutation could make bird flu much worse, study finds
NY Times - Agriculture Department to Require Testing of U.S. Milk Supply for Bird Flu Virus
Dec 5
NY Times - How the Messy Process of Milking Cows Can Spread Bird Flu
Dec 4
NY Times Bird Flu, Explained
Nov 29
NY Times - A Bird Flu Pandemic Would Be One of the Most Foreseeable Catastrophes in History
Nov 26
NY Times - Opinion: I Ran Operation Warp Speed. I’m Concerned About Bird Flu. - As Donald Trump gets ready to return to the White House on Jan. 20, he must be prepared to tackle one issue immediately: the possibility that the spreading avian flu might mutate to enable human-to-human transmission.
I was the Biden administration’s chief science officer during Covid-19. I was a co-leader of Operation Warp Speed, which began in Mr. Trump’s first term to accelerate the development of Covid-19 vaccines. I worked on the purchase and rollout of hundreds of millions of doses and on developing antiviral treatments. One of my jobs was to assess the trajectory of the virus.
Now I am back at my job teaching at the medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. I have been monitoring the spread of bird flu, also known as H5N1, and discussing the situation with colleagues around the country. My concern is growing.
So far, there have been no reports of person-to-person spread of H5N1, though there have been at least 55 confirmed cases of bird flu in humans in the United States, almost entirely among poultry and dairy workers. Those infections are presumed to be primarily the result of contact with animals. In addition, a child in Alameda County in California with minor respiratory symptoms tested positive for H5N1 recently; it is unclear how the child became infected. There are probably other cases out there that are not being diagnosed….
As for vaccines, there has been modest progress on candidates for mRNA vaccines, which stimulate the body’s immune system against a specific virus. The candidates could offer more effective countermeasures in response to worrisome mutations. Importantly, the companies that increased production of the mRNA vaccines during Covid-19 are developing bird flu vaccines.
Fortunately, the country already has five million doses of the influenza A (H5) vaccine on hand, and another five million doses will probably be ready by the end of the year. That is enough to cover the farmworker community. That vaccine is expected to have similar effectiveness to that of our seasonal flu vaccines, from 30 to 70 percent.
No one knows how many mutations will be required to set off human-to-human respiratory spread. That could require many mutations and may never happen. But we could also be just two or three mutations away. If the virus begins to transmit efficiently among humans, it will be very difficult to contain, according to the Johns Hopkins assessment, and “the likelihood of a pandemic is very high.”
The incoming Trump administration needs to be prepared.
Nov 24
CNN - CNN BUSINESS NEWS Egg prices are going even higher. This time it’s Avian flu and the holidays
Nov 19
NY Times - The World Is Watching the U.S. Deal With Bird Flu, and It’s Scary
Nov 14
American Farm Bureau Federation - Avian Influenza Hits Turkeys and Eggs Hardest
Nov 1
Healio Infectious Disease News - Q&A: First case of bird flu in a US pig raises concern
Oct 30
Scientific American - A Bird Flu Vaccine Might Come Too Late to Save Us from H5N1 - If the influenza virus infecting cattle workers starts a pandemic, help in the form of a vaccine is months away
Sept 16
CNN - The U.S. is entering a riskier season for the spread of H5N1 bird flu. Here’s why experts are worried. - With the approach of fall and cooler weather across the United States, officials say the risk posed by the H5N1 bird flu virus could rise — and they’re taking steps to prevent the creation of a hybrid flu virus that could more easily infect humans.
July 31
KFF Health News - Bird Flu Cases Are Going Undetected, New Study Suggests. It's a Problem for All of Us.
MEDRXIV -A One Health Investigation into H5N1 Avian Influenza Virus Epizootics on Two Dairy Farms
July 24
Vox.com - Over 100 Million Chickens Are Dead, The Bird Flu Doom Loop: Is Bird Flu Here To Stay? - For more than two years, the US poultry industry has been battling a highly virulent strain of avian influenza, or bird flu. The virus has driven up egg and turkey prices and crossed over from infecting just birds to numerous mammalian species, including sea lions, mice, cats, dairy cows, and, increasingly, humans.
And it shows no signs of stopping — only reaching new milestones.
July 17
Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy - Study suggests earlier US-licensed H5N1 vaccines prompt antibodies to current strain
April 9
NYT - Seriously, Stop Kissing Sick Birds - The New York Times
NYT - The Fight to Fend Off Bird Flu With Lasers and Inflatable Dancers
