Latest news with #MeghanDavis
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Bird flu could be heading north this spring with fewer federal health officials working to stop it
The outbreak of bird flu that has been ravaging farms nationwide had started to slow over the past few weeks — but as wild birds migrate north, scientists say the virus may follow. At the same time, the United States will have fewer people leading the national effort to stop avian influenza. The sweeping cuts this week to the federal Department of Health and Human Services include the Food and Drug Administration's chief medical officer, who was helping to lead the federal government's bird flu response, and senior staff from the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, which linked bird flu cases to raw pet food, leading to several recalls. 'We no longer are going to have the same eyes on this virus,' said Dr. Meghan Davis, a former dairy veterinarian and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She said active surveillance of and investigation into how the virus spreads are a necessity, but local health officials and veterinarians will no longer have the same support from the federal government. The ongoing outbreak of bird flu — the worst in U.S. history — picked up steam through the fall and winter, pushing egg prices to record highs. While outbreaks in both poultry and cattle have fallen, along with the average price of eggs, health experts say that cases could rise again amid the spring migration, which typically peaks in May and June in the continental U.S. Quantifying the scope of bird flu in the U.S. is complicated. The number of confirmed outbreaks in poultry fell to 53 flocks last month after reaching 133 flocks in January. Outbreaks in cattle fell to 21 herds last month, after peaking at 253 in November. Detections in other mammals, wild birds and humans are tracked separately. And the 168 million domestic birds affected so far include many slaughtered because any detection on a poultry farm requires culling all the birds on the premises. The current outbreak has also been notoriously difficult to predict and contain, jumping to cattle for the first time last year and spreading to other species. Limited data on cases and testing has made it even harder to track the virus's spread and evolution, experts said, which could mean the virus could surge and new variants could emerge with little warning. 'We cannot let our guard down — now is not the time to do that,' said Stacey Schultz-Cherry, an influenza researcher at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Wild birds are a major pathway for the virus when they land and mingle with domestic animals. Schultz-Cherry warned that the birds currently migrating northward might introduce new variants of the virus from South America to the U.S., giving the virus more opportunities to evolve in potentially dangerous ways. 'That's what we worry about — is this something new?' Variants of concern have already been emerging. In March, the U.S. confirmed the detection of a bird flu variant known as H7N9 on a Mississippi poultry farm. It was the first time since 2017 that the strain — which is especially deadly to humans — had been detected in a commercial U.S. poultry flock. In January, another variant linked to a handful of severe and fatal human infections was found in U.S. cattle for the first time. This week, more than 140 staff members from the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, which oversees animal food and medicine, were among the roughly 10,000 staff terminated from the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Alex Saint, who was an FDA communications specialist until she, too, was terminated. The cuts are part of the Trump administration's broader effort to shrink the federal government. The FDA has become increasingly involved in the bird flu response as the virus has spread beyond birds. More than 120 domestic cats have been infected with bird flu since 2022, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department, and FDA staff helped link some of the cases to raw pet food. The agency also helped to develop better diagnostic tests for the virus and has conducted extensive bird flu studies showing that pasteurization effectively inactivated the virus, making milk products safe for consumption. Already, the staff cuts prompted the FDA to suspend an effort to improve testing of pet food and dairy products for bird flu, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak to the media and who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity. 'It's nothing short of devastating to veterinary medicine,' said Dr. K. Fred Gingrich II, executive director of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, which represents cow veterinarians. 'They were absolutely critical — not just for the bird flu response, but for developing protocols for research and drug development.' The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement that the cuts were limited to administrative staff and intended 'to make the agency more efficient and responsive.' 'The FDA and HHS continue to prioritize public health and animal health, including ongoing efforts to monitor and respond" to bird flu, the agency added. In February, the USDA accidentally fired officials working on bird flu and then moved to rehire them. Later that month, the agency announced a $1 billion effort to combat the virus and lower egg prices. The risk remains low to the public, with 70 confirmed human cases in the U.S. and one death. But the unchecked spread of bird flu increases the chances that the virus could mutate into a strain that is far more deadly to humans and easily transmissible among them. Experts warn that the broader Department of Health and Human Services cuts also could hamper the country's ability to track and contain the virus among both humans and animals, particularly when outbreaks spread across state lines. Among the concerns are the ongoing spread of bird flu to different species of mammals, after jumping to cattle last year. Along with domestic cats, the Agriculture Department reported, bird flu infections were found in foxes, skunks, mice, bears, raccoons, seals, and dolphins in March. 'We should be doing a lot more in terms of aggressively seeking out this virus in animal and human populations, doing much more active surveillance, and much more aggressive testing,' said Dr. James Lawler, an infectious disease expert and professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. He stressed the need to monitor both farms and workers to detect the virus before large-scale outbreaks happen — and to ensure that the nation's health care system is prepared if the virus suddenly becomes a bigger threat to humans. 'I don't see us doing a whole lot of that — I see us dismantling the agencies in charge,' he added. This article was originally published on
NBC News
04-04-2025
- Health
- NBC News
Bird flu could be heading north this spring with fewer federal health officials working to stop it
The outbreak of bird flu that has been ravaging farms nationwide had started to slow over the past few weeks — but as wild birds migrate north, scientists say the virus may follow. At the same time, the United States will have fewer people leading the national effort to stop avian influenza. The sweeping cuts this week to the federal Department of Health and Human Services include the Food and Drug Administration's chief medical officer, who was helping to lead the federal government's bird flu response, and senior staff from the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, which linked bird flu cases to raw pet food, leading to several recalls. 'We no longer are going to have the same eyes on this virus,' said Dr. Meghan Davis, a former dairy veterinarian and associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She said active surveillance of and investigation into how the virus spreads are a necessity, but local health officials and veterinarians will no longer have the same support from the federal government. The ongoing outbreak of bird flu — the worst in U.S. history — picked up steam through the fall and winter, pushing egg prices to record highs. While outbreaks in both poultry and cattle have fallen, along with the average price of eggs, health experts say that cases could rise again amid the spring migration, which typically peaks in May and June in the continental U.S. Quantifying the scope of bird flu in the U.S. is complicated. The number of confirmed outbreaks in poultry fell to 53 flocks last month after reaching 133 flocks in January. Outbreaks in cattle fell to 21 herds last month, after peaking at 253 in November. Detections in other mammals, wild birds and humans are tracked separately. And the 168 million domestic birds affected so far include many slaughtered because any detection on a poultry farm requires culling all the birds on the premises. The current outbreak has also been notoriously difficult to predict and contain, jumping to cattle for the first time last year and spreading to other species. Limited data on cases and testing has made it even harder to track the virus's spread and evolution, experts said, which could mean the virus could surge and new variants could emerge with little warning. 'We cannot let our guard down — now is not the time to do that,' said Stacey Schultz-Cherry, an influenza researcher at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital. Wild birds are a major pathway for the virus when they land and mingle with domestic animals. Schultz-Cherry warned that the birds currently migrating northward might introduce new variants of the virus from South America to the U.S., giving the virus more opportunities to evolve in potentially dangerous ways. 'That's what we worry about — is this something new?' Variants of concern have already been emerging. In March, the U.S. confirmed the detection of a bird flu variant known as H7N9 on a Mississippi poultry farm. It was the first time since 2017 that the strain — which is especially deadly to humans — had been detected in a commercial U.S. poultry flock. In January, another variant linked to a handful of severe and fatal human infections was found in U.S. cattle for the first time. This week, more than 140 staff members from the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, which oversees animal food and medicine, were among the roughly 10,000 staff terminated from the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Alex Saint, who was an FDA communications specialist until she, too, was terminated. The cuts are part of the Trump administration's broader effort to shrink the federal government. The FDA has become increasingly involved in the bird flu response as the virus has spread beyond birds. More than 120 domestic cats have been infected with bird flu since 2022, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department, and FDA staff helped link some of the cases to raw pet food. The agency also helped to develop better diagnostic tests for the virus and has conducted extensive bird flu studies showing that pasteurization effectively inactivated the virus, making milk products safe for consumption. Already, the staff cuts prompted the FDA to suspend an effort to improve testing of pet food and dairy products for bird flu, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak to the media and who spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity. 'It's nothing short of devastating to veterinary medicine,' said Dr. K. Fred Gingrich II, executive director of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, which represents cow veterinarians. 'They were absolutely critical — not just for the bird flu response, but for developing protocols for research and drug development.' The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement that the cuts were limited to administrative staff and intended 'to make the agency more efficient and responsive.' 'The FDA and HHS continue to prioritize public health and animal health, including ongoing efforts to monitor and respond" to bird flu, the agency added. The risk remains low to the public, with 70 confirmed human cases in the U.S. and one death. But the unchecked spread of bird flu increases the chances that the virus could mutate into a strain that is far more deadly to humans and easily transmissible among them. Experts warn that the broader Department of Health and Human Services cuts also could hamper the country's ability to track and contain the virus among both humans and animals, particularly when outbreaks spread across state lines.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
What is bird flu, and should you be worried about it?
Bird flu has been spreading in North America since late 2021, but recently the situation has taken some concerning turns. In January, the first person in the US died from bird flu. In February, two more people were hospitalized, and officials detected two new spillovers into cows, indicating the virus is here to stay among livestock and farm workers. The price of eggs has also skyrocketed as bird flu moves through egg-laying chickens. 'The past couple of weeks, it's all been new plot twists in the H5N1 story,' said Meghan Davis, an associate professor of environmental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. People who work closely with wild and domesticated animals should take precautions, such as washing their hands, wearing a face mask while handling sick or dead poultry and cleaning their litter, and monitoring symptoms after contact with animals. Related: I think my cat likes my partner more. What should I do? But most people should feel 'alert, not alarmed', Davis said. 'The overall risk to the average person remains low,' said Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases physician and assistant professor of medicine at Emory University. 'But have an awareness, because that could potentially change – because the outbreak is not quite contained.' Bird flu is influenza that usually spreads in birds – but it can also be transmitted to other animals and people. There are several types of bird flu, but right now the H5N1 strain is a highly pathogenic avian influenza spreading widely in wild and domestic species, and spilling over into people. Bird flu usually causes respiratory symptoms and sometimes stomach upset. Patients usually have typical flu symptoms: cough, fever, fatigue, body aches and headaches. Some patients have runny or stuffy noses and sore throats, and some people experience diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. More severe illness includes difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, seizures and what the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls 'altered consciousness' – all signs that a patient should go to the hospital. Very red or irritated eyes (known as conjunctivitis or 'pink eye') have also been a common symptom in this outbreak, and are not a typical flu symptom. Since 2003, there have been more than 950 reported cases of H5N1 globally, and 49% of patients have died. In the US outbreak, the mortality rate has been much lower so far. There have been 70 confirmed cases, and several more probable cases, in the past year. One person has died, and three others have been hospitalized. It's possible the mortality rate is lower because the cases detected in this outbreak have been less severe. But the mortality rate is still significantly high in cases that are bad enough to need hospital care, said Davis. In countries with poor access to healthcare, the mortality rate may be higher because sick patients aren't able to get care that could save their lives, she said. 'The virus can be really nasty for some people,' said Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and dean of the Yale School of Public Health. We don't know yet what puts someone at risk of getting really sick, Ranney said. Flu viruses mutate and evolve quickly. If bird flu begins spreading between humans, there could be changes in how it sickens people, she added. 'There's really no way for me to say, if it becomes a pandemic, that we're going to have the same case fatality ratio that we're seeing right now.' Bird flu spreads through contact with animals and unpasteurized animal products. That means the people who are most at risk are those who care for chickens and dairy cattle, those who come into contact with wild birds and animals, and anyone drinking raw milk or eating undercooked meat. There have also been two US cases, in California and Missouri, where patients got sick with H5N1 with no known contact with animals or raw food. There has been no documented transmission between humans. However, details about the outbreak have been scarce in the past month especially, starting with a communications blackout at health agencies, so it's not clear if new patterns of transmission have emerged. 'We're missing opportunities to learn more about this virus and the risk that it poses to people and our economy,' said Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health. 'But also, we're missing the opportunity to possibly discover something that would make us worry less about the virus.' Flu antivirals like Tamiflu seem to work against bird flu by reducing the severity of illness and possibly keeping patients from transmitting it to others. But Tamiflu needs to be given soon after illness starts. And scientists recently identified a strain that could demonstrate some resistance to antivirals. 'We need more therapeutics,' said Nuzzo. Yes, there are bird flu vaccines for people and for animals. But we don't use them yet. Some of the shots for people have been licensed for use in the US, while others are still awaiting approval. The US government has stockpiled 4.8m doses of H5N1 vaccines. But none of them are available to the public. The reasons why are complicated: there have been few hospitalizations and deaths in the US, there isn't evidence of person-to-person transmission, and officials worry about hesitation over a new vaccine, Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the CDC, has told the Guardian. Experts say the vaccine should be made available to farm workers, veterinarians and other people at risk. 'This is a recurring occupational hazard,' Nuzzo said. There are also vaccines for poultry, and scientists are working on a cow vaccine as well. But none of these have been given to animals yet. 'You should get the seasonal flu vaccine to protect you from seasonal flu,' Davis said. Another reason is that in rare cases when someone catches H5N1, they might catch the seasonal flu at the same time – and the two variants could mix together in a process called reassortment. This could cause H5N1 to become more easily transmissible or cause more severe disease, suggested Davis. 'Brand-new viruses that can transmit easily are the ones that tend to cause epidemics or pandemics.' Fewer cases of seasonal flu takes pressure off the healthcare system during flu season, and makes it easier for doctors and health departments to identify rare infections like H5N1. Any hopes that the current outbreak would simply pass through 'have been dashed', Nuzzo said. 'We have to be looking ahead to what would happen if this virus began spreading more easily between people,' Nuzzo has said. 'If it could spread easily between people, we would be in a pandemic, and it would be around the globe in a matter of weeks.' Experts expect another flu pandemic at some point. It might not be H5N1 – it might be a combination of H5N1 and a different flu variant, or a different type altogether. That means it's important to prepare vaccines, treatments and tests, and to strengthen healthcare systems. Yes. Your doctor can order an H5N1 test for you at commercial laboratories. It's important to let your doctor know why you think you might have bird flu – for instance, if you work closely with animals or consume raw milk, meat or eggs. 'It will help the health authorities to get things in the queue much faster for further testing,' Davis said. Raw milk can contain enormous quantities of virus. While no cases have been reported yet in humans from drinking raw milk, it has sickened and killed mammals such as cats – so officials strongly recommend against it for people, as well. Pasteurization (boiling milk for a certain amount of time) kills the virus and makes milk safe to drink. Eggs and meat should be cooked fully to kill all pathogens, including bird flu, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Davis recommended 'good hygiene practices writ large in the kitchen,' such as washing your hands after handling raw eggs or meat. It's illegal for sick animals to enter the food chain, but US officials have detected bird flu in meat from dairy cows intended for slaughter. It's important to cook meat to an internal temperature of at least 145F/63C. 'There are many, many, many different pathogens that you can get exposed to from these sources,' Davis said, such as campylobacter, cryptosporidium, E coli, listeria and salmonella.
The Guardian
10-03-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
What is bird flu, and should you be worried about it?
Bird flu has been spreading in North America since late 2021, but recently the situation has taken some concerning turns. In January, the first person in the US died from bird flu. In February, two more people were hospitalized, and officials detected two new spillovers into cows, indicating the virus is here to stay among livestock and farm workers. The price of eggs has also skyrocketed as bird flu moves through egg-laying chickens. 'The past couple of weeks, it's all been new plot twists in the H5N1 story,' said Meghan Davis, an associate professor of environmental health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. People who work closely with wild and domesticated animals should take precautions, such as washing their hands, wearing a face mask while handling sick or dead poultry and cleaning their litter, and monitoring symptoms after contact with animals. But most people should feel 'alert, not alarmed', Davis said. 'The overall risk to the average person remains low,' said Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases physician and assistant professor of medicine at Emory University. 'But have an awareness, because that could potentially change – because the outbreak is not quite contained.' Bird flu is influenza that usually spreads in birds – but it can also be transmitted to other animals and people. There are several types of bird flu, but right now the H5N1 strain is a highly pathogenic avian influenza spreading widely in wild and domestic species, and spilling over into people. Bird flu usually causes respiratory symptoms and sometimes stomach upset. Patients usually have typical flu symptoms: cough, fever, fatigue, body aches and headaches. Some patients have runny or stuffy noses and sore throats, and some people experience diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. More severe illness includes difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, seizures and what the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls 'altered consciousness' – all signs that a patient should go to the hospital. Very red or irritated eyes (known as conjunctivitis or 'pink eye') have also been a common symptom in this outbreak, and are not a typical flu symptom. Since 2003, there have been more than 950 reported cases of H5N1 globally, and 49% of patients have died. In the US outbreak, the mortality rate has been much lower so far. There have been 70 confirmed cases, and several more probable cases, in the past year. One person has died, and three others have been hospitalized. It's possible the mortality rate is lower because the cases detected in this outbreak have been less severe. But the mortality rate is still significantly high in cases that are bad enough to need hospital care, said Davis. In countries with poor access to healthcare, the mortality rate may be higher because sick patients aren't able to get care that could save their lives, she said. 'The virus can be really nasty for some people,' said Megan Ranney, an emergency physician and dean of the Yale School of Public Health. We don't know yet what puts someone at risk of getting really sick, Ranney said. Flu viruses mutate and evolve quickly. If bird flu begins spreading between humans, there could be changes in how it sickens people, she added. 'There's really no way for me to say, if it becomes a pandemic, that we're going to have the same case fatality ratio that we're seeing right now.' Bird flu spreads through contact with animals and unpasteurized animal products. That means the people who are most at risk are those who care for chickens and dairy cattle, those who come into contact with wild birds and animals, and anyone drinking raw milk or eating undercooked meat. There have also been two US cases, in California and Missouri, where patients got sick with H5N1 with no known contact with animals or raw food. There has been no documented transmission between humans. However, details about the outbreak have been scarce in the past month especially, starting with a communications blackout at health agencies, so it's not clear if new patterns of transmission have emerged. 'We're missing opportunities to learn more about this virus and the risk that it poses to people and our economy,' said Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health. 'But also, we're missing the opportunity to possibly discover something that would make us worry less about the virus.' Flu antivirals like Tamiflu seem to work against bird flu by reducing the severity of illness and possibly keeping patients from transmitting it to others. But Tamiflu needs to be given soon after illness starts. And scientists recently identified a strain that could demonstrate some resistance to antivirals. Sign up to Well Actually Practical advice, expert insights and answers to your questions about how to live a good life after newsletter promotion 'We need more therapeutics,' said Nuzzo. Yes, there are bird flu vaccines for people and for animals. But we don't use them yet. Some of the shots for people have been licensed for use in the US, while others are still awaiting approval. The US government has stockpiled 4.8m doses of H5N1 vaccines. But none of them are available to the public. The reasons why are complicated: there have been few hospitalizations and deaths in the US, there isn't evidence of person-to-person transmission, and officials worry about hesitation over a new vaccine, Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the CDC, has told the Guardian. Experts say the vaccine should be made available to farm workers, veterinarians and other people at risk. 'This is a recurring occupational hazard,' Nuzzo said. There are also vaccines for poultry, and scientists are working on a cow vaccine as well. But none of these have been given to animals yet. 'You should get the seasonal flu vaccine to protect you from seasonal flu,' Davis said. Another reason is that in rare cases when someone catches H5N1, they might catch the seasonal flu at the same time – and the two variants could mix together in a process called reassortment. This could cause H5N1 to become more easily transmissible or cause more severe disease, suggested Davis. 'Brand-new viruses that can transmit easily are the ones that tend to cause epidemics or pandemics.' Fewer cases of seasonal flu takes pressure off the healthcare system during flu season, and makes it easier for doctors and health departments to identify rare infections like H5N1. Any hopes that the current outbreak would simply pass through 'have been dashed', Nuzzo said. 'We have to be looking ahead to what would happen if this virus began spreading more easily between people,' Nuzzo has said. 'If it could spread easily between people, we would be in a pandemic, and it would be around the globe in a matter of weeks.' Experts expect another flu pandemic at some point. It might not be H5N1 – it might be a combination of H5N1 and a different flu variant, or a different type altogether. That means it's important to prepare vaccines, treatments and tests, and to strengthen healthcare systems. Yes. Your doctor can order an H5N1 test for you at commercial laboratories. It's important to let your doctor know why you think you might have bird flu – for instance, if you work closely with animals or consume raw milk, meat or eggs. 'It will help the health authorities to get things in the queue much faster for further testing,' Davis said. Raw milk can contain enormous quantities of virus. While no cases have been reported yet in humans from drinking raw milk, it has sickened and killed mammals such as cats – so officials strongly recommend against it for people, as well. Pasteurization (boiling milk for a certain amount of time) kills the virus and makes milk safe to drink. Eggs and meat should be cooked fully to kill all pathogens, including bird flu, according to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Davis recommended 'good hygiene practices writ large in the kitchen,' such as washing your hands after handling raw eggs or meat. It's illegal for sick animals to enter the food chain, but US officials have detected bird flu in meat from dairy cows intended for slaughter. It's important to cook meat to an internal temperature of at least 145F/63C. 'There are many, many, many different pathogens that you can get exposed to from these sources,' Davis said, such as campylobacter, cryptosporidium, E coli, listeria and salmonella.
Times of Oman
11-02-2025
- Health
- Times of Oman
Is US bird flu outbreak in cattle a global risk to humans?
Nevada: US authorities have said the detection of a different strain of avian influenza, the D1.1 genotype, in dairy cows in January proves that bird flu has now spread from wild birds into cattle twice in an outbreak that started in late 2023. The genotype refers to the genetic makeup of a virus within a group of virus types. In this case, it is the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A H5N1. In March 2024, authorities in the US confirmed the outbreak had originated from genotype B3.13. That type has infected over 950 cattle herds in 16 US states and spread to Canada. D1.1 was detected in milk collected as part of a surveillance programme launched in December 2024. Is bird flu spreading internationally? Yes, it appears that bird flu from the current US outbreak may have spread beyond North America. In January, UK authorities confirmed a second human case of H5N1 avian influenza. The first was detected in 2022, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said. "The risk of avian flu to the public remains very low despite this confirmed case," said Susan Hopkins, chief medical adviser at the UKHSA, in a statement on January 27. However, many governments have been buying up vaccine stocks and ramping up precautionary measures in response to the circulating virus. The bird flu variant outbreak has mainly affected the US, with infections among cattle, people and pets. Though no direct, human-to-human transmission cases were recorded up to January 2025, there are concerns the H5N1 variant could be one mutation away from becoming a major public health concern. A study published in the journal Science in December 2024 found that a single genetic change to the circulating H5N1 had enabled it to jump more easily from other mammals to humans. "We're particularly worried about pigs because we know from many other outbreaks that pigs are a mixing vessel for influenza viruses," Meghan Davis, an environmental health researcher at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told DW's Science Unscripted podcast. Is a new pandemic brewing? Before the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, health scientists warned there was a risk of an emerging pandemic. Ultimately, it was a novel coronavirus, not an influenza strain, that triggered the pandemic. But the chance of a global influenza-driven event was — and is — cause for concern. "With H5N1, there's a big unknown," Peter Jay Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine in the US state of Texas, told Science Unscripted. "We know there's a likelihood that there could be a significant bird flu pandemic, maybe resembling the 1918 flu pandemic," Hotez said, "but we can't say when that will be." Other nations are increasing surveillance and precautionary measures. The UK government is known to have ordered at least 5 million doses of an H5 influenza vaccine. In November 2024, one case of H5N1 was confirmed at a poultry farm in Cornwall, in the southwest of England. "I agree with what the UK did because it's not like you can press a button and suddenly have millions of doses of [H5 vaccine] appear," Hotez said. "Making flu vaccines in the traditional way is a slow process." Hotez described the rate of pandemic threats as having a "regular cadence," pointing to SARS in 2002 and MERS in 2012, which were dangerous but did not balloon to a global scale. A pandemic was declared due to H1N1 influenza in 2009, though its impact didn't match that of COVID-19. "We have to get ready for H5N1. We've also got this rise in Ebola and other filovirus [severe hemorrhagic] infections that we're seeing — we have to be ready for that," Hotez said. "And we're starting to see [a rise in] mosquito-transmitted virus infections like dengue and chikungunya and then Zika virus infections both in Southern Europe and the southern United States." Trump's health advisers are 'contrarians, activists' Scientists and health experts in the United States have expressed concern about several choices that President Donald Trump has made for his new administration. Among Trump's picks are Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and Dave Weldon for the top job of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Kennedy and Weldon are known for their opposition to vaccination. Although Trump was president at the outset of the COVID pandemic and led massive investments in vaccine supply security through programs such as Operation Warp Speed, Hotez said the absence of people with established experience in health issues in Trump's new administration is concerning. "[In Trump's first administration] they were pretty mainstream public health physicians and public health scientists, but this new round is something that's quite different — they're contrarians, they're activists, they've openly campaigned against vaccines and interventions," Hotez said. Health experts in other nations are closely watching how H5N1 is handled in North America. "The current incidence of infection in the US demands we closely study samples of viruses from humans and other animals," said Martin Schwemmle, a virologist at Freiburg University Medical Center. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in a November 2024 report that it was continuing to monitor the US and Canadian situations "together with partner organizations in Europe and will continue to update its assessment of the risk for humans ... as new information becomes available." It also recommended increased surveillance and monitoring of people exposed to avian influenza and that doctors and nurses ask patients whether they have had any contact with animals.
