Supreme Court rejects challenge to Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption – Yahoo! Voices

Supreme Court rejects challenge to Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption – Yahoo! Voices

Supreme Court rejects challenge to Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption – Yahoo! Voices

Supreme Court rejects challenge to Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption – Yahoo! Voices

June 26, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the states longstanding religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities.

The justices did not comment in leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the contentious law. A lower court judge had earlier dismissed the lawsuit challenging the law, which drew protests at the state Capitol.

Connecticut law requires students to receive certain immunizations before enrolling in school, allowing some medical exemptions. Prior to 2021, students also could seek religious exemptions. Lawmakers ended the religious exemption over concerns that an uptick in exemption requests was coupled with a decline in vaccination rates in some schools.

The change allowed current students in K-12 who already had a religious exemption to keep it.

This is the end of the road to a challenge to Connecticuts lifesaving and fully lawful vaccine requirements," Democratic Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. We have said all along, and the courts have affirmed, the legislature acted responsibly and well within its authority to protect the health of Connecticut families and to stop the spread of preventable disease.

Brian Festa, vice president and co-founder for the group We The Patriots USA Inc., a lead plaintiff in the case, called the decision disappointing but said its not the end of the road for us in our fight to win back religious exemptions for schoolchildren.

The group which has challenged other vaccination laws, including for COVID-19 had argued along with several parents that Connecticut violated religious freedom protections by removing the exemption. The new law shows a hostility to religious believers and jeopardizes their rights to medical freedom and child rearing, they said in court papers.

Tong's office said only one part of the case remains active. It involves a single plaintiffs claim based on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). While the office said it was confident the claim will be dismissed, Festa said federal law is clear that schools are required to provide a free and appropriate education for children with disabilities who have individual education plans, even if a child claims a religious exemption to vaccinations.

We The Patriots USA also has an ongoing federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a Christian preschool and daycare that's challenging Connecticut's vaccine mandate on constitutional grounds.

It is our practice at We The Patriots USA to battle on many fronts simultaneously, and to never put all of our eggs in one basket, Festa said, calling the Supreme Court's decision on Monday one setback, but far from a total defeat.


Go here to see the original: Supreme Court rejects challenge to Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption - Yahoo! Voices
Supreme Court rejects COVID-19 vaccine appeals from nonprofit founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – Yahoo! Voices

Supreme Court rejects COVID-19 vaccine appeals from nonprofit founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – Yahoo! Voices

June 26, 2024

WASHINGTON (AP) The Supreme Court on Monday rejected two appeals related to COVID-19 vaccines from Childrens Health Defense, the anti-vaccine nonprofit founded by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The justices did not comment in letting stand rulings against the group from the federal appeals courts in New Orleans and Philadelphia.

In a case from Texas, the group joined parents in objecting to the U.S. Food and Drug Administrations authorization to administer coronavirus vaccines to children. In a case from New Jersey, Children's Health Defense challenged a Rutgers University requirement, imposed in 2021, for most students to be vaccinated to attend courses on campus, though the school did not force faculty or staff to be vaccinated.

Children's Health Defense has a lawsuit pending against a number of news organizations, among them The Associated Press, accusing them of violating antitrust laws by taking action to identify misinformation, including about COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines. Kennedy took leave from the group when he announced his run for president but is listed as one of its attorneys in the lawsuit.

___

Follow the AP's coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.


Original post: Supreme Court rejects COVID-19 vaccine appeals from nonprofit founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Yahoo! Voices
Judge rules against dad trying to stop child’s HPV vaccination – Yahoo News Canada

Judge rules against dad trying to stop child’s HPV vaccination – Yahoo News Canada

June 26, 2024

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled against a father who was looking to stop his ex-wife from having their children vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV).

According to a B.C. Supreme Court judgment issued Monday, Victoria Draper will have the sole authority to decide whether her daughter will be vaccinated. She wanted to have her daughter to receive the vaccinebefore her 12th birthday, as recommended by B.C. health authorities.

The girl's father, Matthew Smith, sought an order to prohibit Draper from having their children vaccinated against HPV, saying in text messages to Draper that it is "unknown" whether the "protection is going to even work" and that the vaccine "causes more harm than good."

In her judgment, Justice Catherine Murray said she accepts guidance from Canadian health authorities "who are entrusted with protecting public health that it is in the best interests of the children to get the HPV vaccination."

According to the judgment posted online, Draper and Smith divorced in late 2022 and have two children together: an eight-year-old son and a daughter who will turn 12 next month.

They were notified last fall that children in their daughter's grade were set to receive the HPV vaccine. Smith refused to sign the consent form and told the school that her daughter would not be vaccinated.

He wrote to Draper that even if the chance of harm was less than oneper cent, "that's too much risk."

"There's a lot of pressure on parents to take these vaccines just like COVID, it's all about money and commissions. It isn't about health," Smith wrote.

The judgment says Smithsent Draper TikTok videos and articles to support his argument.

In his application, Smith cited lawsuits in the U.S. around the vaccine, saying it was best to "review the matter" once they have been adjudicated.

He also cited information from a researcher at the University of British Columbia.

Smith said he discussed it with his children and showed them a 20-minute video on the topic, andhis daughter told him she didn't want to get the vaccine.

Draper said her daughter told her the videos her father showed her were "very scary."

The mother said she later watched the videos and described them as inappropriate for children, making reference to death and suicide.

She said her daughter told her that Smith said "she would die if she got the vaccine."

Draper went on to say that her daughter told her that she wanted to get the vaccine and that their family doctor said there was no medical reason for her not to.

Justice Catherine Murray dismissed Smith's application, noting that his "wait and see" approach to the U.S. lawsuits was not in the children's best interests, adding that "lawsuits are not medical information."

She also said she put no weight on the "information" from the UBC researcher.

In making her decision, Draper relied on publications that "make clear that health authorities/ experts in Canada favour the HPV vaccine," according to the judgment.

Murray said she found Draper's evidence more compelling.

"I accept the advice of the health authorities in Canada who are entrusted with protecting public health that it is in the best interests of the children to get the HPV vaccination. I am further satisfied that it is in the best interests of the children to get the vaccination at the age when it is most effective, as determined by Ms. Draper."

Murray ordered that Draper "has sole decision-making authority regarding any and all decisions relating to the HPV vaccination and/or treatment."

Smith is not allowed to discuss or allow any third party to discuss the HPV vaccine or HPV generally with the children. This includes not showing them anything on social media regarding HPV or the HPV vaccine.

"I am concerned about Mr. Smith showing the children disturbing videos and telling them that the vaccine will kill them in an effort to indoctrinate them into his way of thinking," Murray wrote.


Read more:
Judge rules against dad trying to stop child's HPV vaccination - Yahoo News Canada
Supreme Court rejects appeals brought by RFK Jr.-founded anti-vaccine group over Covid shots – Yahoo! Voices

Supreme Court rejects appeals brought by RFK Jr.-founded anti-vaccine group over Covid shots – Yahoo! Voices

June 26, 2024

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Monday turned away two Covid-related appeals brought by Children's Health Defense, the anti-vaccine group founded by independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

The decision by the justices not to hear the cases leaves in place lower court rulings against the group.

One case challenged the Food and Drug Administration's emergency authorization of Covid-19 vaccines in December 2020, while the other was brought against Rutgers University in New Jersey over its Covid-19 vaccine mandate.

In the FDA case, the group claimed in court papers that Covid vaccines were "ineffective and lacked proper vetting." The New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that Kennedy's group did not have legal standing to sue.

In the Rutgers dispute, the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that the plaintiffs "have not stated any plausible claim for relief."

Kennedy himself took leave from the group in April 2023 to run for president. He failed to make inroads in the Democratic primaries and is now running as an independent.

On the campaign trail he has mostly downplayed his anti-vaccine activity, but in November he spoke at a Children's Health Defense conference.

Kennedy is listed as a lawyer on the Rutgers filing at the Supreme Court despite his leave of absence from the group.

In a separate vaccine-related case, the court also turned away a challenge to Connecticut's decision to repeal a religious exemption for school vaccinations.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com


Go here to see the original:
Supreme Court rejects appeals brought by RFK Jr.-founded anti-vaccine group over Covid shots - Yahoo! Voices
Biden Administration Censored Two Of My Books On Vaccines – The Federalist

Biden Administration Censored Two Of My Books On Vaccines – The Federalist

June 26, 2024

When I saw a recent post from Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, reading, In response to a subpoena from @Judiciary GOP, @Amazon revealed the 43 book titles it censored because of the Biden White Houses pressure, I clicked the link out of curiosity.

Imagine my surprise when I found two of my books on the list:Plague: One Scientists Intrepid Search for the Truth About Human Retroviruses, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Autism, and Other Diseases,as well asInoculated: How Science Lost Its Soul in Autism. What was even more startling was that theyd twice listedPlague for the original 2014 hardcover and the 2017 paperback.

They mustreallyhate that book.

As Jordan tweeted, Whether you love or hate the books on this list, no bookstore should be censoring books because of government power.

One of the wild things about their censorship of that thick, 417-page book is that it takes the position that many chronic diseases are the result of immune exhaustion due to long-term, low-level viral infection of a recently discovered retrovirus, known as XMRV. The book was not an anti-virus book and had in fact been authored with a 20-year government scientist, Dr. Judy Mikovits, known for her work in virology. The book was abundantly sourced with hundreds of footnotes.

But what most likely raised the ire of the Biden administration was our assertion that XMRV, a mouse virus that had recently jumped into the human population, had most likely made the leap because of the use of mouse biological tissue in the production of many human vaccines.

We theorized that the common use of animal tissue to grow human vaccines was fueling a process called zoonosis, in which animal viruses adapted to and infected human beings, which has historically led to humanitys most devastating plagues.

Perhaps it was because of our deep understanding of one plague, Covid-19, that the Biden administration feared the questions Dr. Mikovits and I were asking from the beginning of the Covid crisis. We were challenging the governments implausible tale of a bat virus that quickly adapted to humans, an event highly unlikely to happen in nature.

The second of my books on the list,Inoculated: How Science Lost Its Soul in Autism, ran 376 pages, with hundreds of footnotes, and is based on whistleblower documents I received from the office of Rep. William Posey, R-Fla. The whistleblower was a Centers for Disease Control (CDC) vaccine scientist, Dr. William Thompson, and he alleged that the CDCs own study had shown that earlier administration of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine was correlated with an increased risk of autism, particularly among black boys. If true, the number of black males harmed by the MMR shot dwarfed the terrible toll of the Tuskegee experiment, which ran from 1932 to 1972, in which black men with syphilis were left untreated by the CDC to study the progression of the disease.

The most dramatic assertion in Thompsons account is that CDC scientists manipulated the numbers to hide the catastrophic damage being done to black boys. Originally, there had been approximately 210 black boys in the study, but about 90 of them were removed because they did not have a Georgia birth certificate, an amendment to the original study design. This allowed the scientists to claim that while there was an increase in autism among black boys from earlier administration of the MMR shot, it did not rise to the level of clinical significance.

Its no coincidence that nearly all of the books on the Biden censorship list are about vaccines, and their authors have much experience studying how medicine has been corrupted over the decades. Many of us were among the first to publicly voice skepticism regarding the Covid madness.

After discovering my book was part of Bidens ban, I felt deeply troubled for several hours.

It brought to mind events from my childhood, when the FBI spied on and infiltrated anti-war and civil rights groups, maneuvering them toward radicalism and violence, or when Nixon had an enemies list of journalists.

To me, books are holy, the purest distillation of the authors thoughts, and I believe they give us the basis on which to make our best arguments as we search for the truth. I view books as the opening gambit of a public conversation, which is why the attempt to censor any book is nothing less than a declaration of tyranny.

When you see injustice in one place, it opens your eyes to injustice in other areas. I believe the genuine critic of power stands apart from politics and, given that, I do my best to be an equal-opportunity offender.

One book I co-authored that is not on the list is in many ways a criticism of the Trump administrations Covid response.Presidential Takedown: How Anthony Fauci, the CDC, NIH, and the WHO Conspired to Overthrow President Trump. That book was coauthored with Dr. Paul Alexander, President Donald Trumps senior pandemic adviser from May 2020 until September 2020, when he ran afoul of Anthony Fauci for arguing that students should have been going back to school in the fall of 2020. While Trumps instincts were correct and more than probably any other president in recent memory, he sought out opposing views in the end, his Covid response differed little from any likely democratic response. It was clear Trump did not like the lockdowns, but he approved them, and that is a permanent stain on his legacy.

In September, I have a book coming out that is an expose of the CIA: Twilight of the Shadow Government: How Transparency Will Kill the Deep State, coauthored with Kevin Shipp, a 17-year CIA officer and whistleblower, which details how the agency has misled both political parties for decades.

The Biden administrations censorship list is my first documented proof that I am considered an enemy by my own government. But it is unlikely to be my last. Whether that makes me a threat to democracy, or one of its fiercest defenders, I will leave to the judgment of history.

Kent Heckenlively, JD, is an attorney, science teacher, and New York Times bestselling author. His books have sold more than half a million copies and been translated into several languages.


The rest is here: Biden Administration Censored Two Of My Books On Vaccines - The Federalist
Supreme Court rejects challenge to Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption – ABC News

Supreme Court rejects challenge to Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption – ABC News

June 26, 2024

The Supreme Court has rejected a challenge to a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the states longstanding religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities

June 24, 2024, 9:40 AM ET

3 min read

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a challenge to a 2021 Connecticut law that eliminated the states longstanding religious exemption from childhood immunization requirements for schools, colleges and day care facilities.

The justices did not comment in leaving in place a federal appeals court ruling that upheld the contentious law. A lower court judge had earlier dismissed the lawsuit challenging the law, which drew protests at the state Capitol.

Connecticut law requires students to receive certain immunizations before enrolling in school, allowing some medical exemptions. Prior to 2021, students also could seek religious exemptions. Lawmakers ended the religious exemption over concerns that an uptick in exemption requests was coupled with a decline in vaccination rates in some schools.

The change allowed current students in K-12 who already had a religious exemption to keep it.

This is the end of the road to a challenge to Connecticuts lifesaving and fully lawful vaccine requirements," Democratic Attorney General William Tong said in a statement. We have said all along, and the courts have affirmed, the legislature acted responsibly and well within its authority to protect the health of Connecticut families and to stop the spread of preventable disease.

Brian Festa, vice president and co-founder for the group We The Patriots USA Inc., a lead plaintiff in the case, called the decision disappointing but said its not the end of the road for us in our fight to win back religious exemptions for schoolchildren.

The group which has challenged other vaccination laws, including for COVID-19 had argued along with several parents that Connecticut violated religious freedom protections by removing the exemption. The new law shows a hostility to religious believers and jeopardizes their rights to medical freedom and child rearing, they said in court papers.

Tong's office said only one part of the case remains active. It involves a single plaintiffs claim based on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). While the office said it was confident the claim will be dismissed, Festa said federal law is clear that schools are required to provide a free and appropriate education for children with disabilities who have individual education plans, even if a child claims a religious exemption to vaccinations.

We The Patriots USA also has an ongoing federal lawsuit filed on behalf of a Christian preschool and daycare that's challenging Connecticut's vaccine mandate on constitutional grounds.

It is our practice at We The Patriots USA to battle on many fronts simultaneously, and to never put all of our eggs in one basket, Festa said, calling the Supreme Court's decision on Monday one setback, but far from a total defeat.


Link:
Supreme Court rejects challenge to Connecticut law that eliminated religious vaccination exemption - ABC News
CDC updates RSV vaccination recommendation for adults – WDIO

CDC updates RSV vaccination recommendation for adults – WDIO

June 26, 2024

On Wednesday, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) updated its recommendation for the use of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccines in people ages 60 and older. For the upcoming respiratory virus season, the CDC recommends everyone age 75 and older receive the RSV vaccine. The RSV vaccine is not currently an annual vaccine.

For this upcoming respiratory virus season, CDC recommends:

This recommendation is for adults who did not get an RSV vaccine last year.

The CDC has updated its RSV vaccination recommendation for older adults to prioritize those at highest risk for serious illness from RSV, Mandy Cohen, M.D., M.P.H. said in a release. People 75 or older, or between 60-74 with certain chronic health conditions or living in a nursing home should get one dose of the RSV vaccine to provide an extra layer of protection.

Health officials remind the public that the RSV vaccine is not currently an annual vaccine. They say eligible adults can get an RSV vaccine at any time, but the best time is in late summer and early fall.

This announcement by the CDC replaces the recommendation made last year. Todays updated recommendation is based on analyses of RSV disease burden among people 60 and older, as well as RSV vaccine effectiveness and cost-effectiveness studies, according to the CDC. Those studies included the first real-world data since RSV vaccines were recommended for people 60 and older.

Healthcare providers should recommend RSV vaccines to their eligible patients, as well as discuss what other vaccines they will need this fall to help prevent respiratory infections.


Continue reading here: CDC updates RSV vaccination recommendation for adults - WDIO
Dengue Vaccines Harder to Find in 2024  Precision Vaccinations News – Precision Vaccinations

Dengue Vaccines Harder to Find in 2024 Precision Vaccinations News – Precision Vaccinations

June 26, 2024

Atlanta (Precision Vaccinations News)

During the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine committee meeting this afternoon, it will bementioned that finding a dengue vaccine in 2024 poses a challenge for international travelers.

At 5 PM ET on June 26, 2024, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) meeting is scheduled toreview two presentations that reveal the leading dengue vaccines are unavailable this year to U.S.-based international travelers.

This is unfortunate news for people planning to visit any of the 90 countries reporting dengue cases in 2024.

Furthermore, the CDC says dengue is endemic in sixU.S. territories and freely associated states. This health risk includes Puerto Rico and southeast Florida, where the CDC has reported travel-related and locally acquireddengue cases in 2024.

Dengvaxia, the only U.S. FDA-approved dengue vaccine,is discontinued due to low demand. According to Sanofi, the vaccine's producer, this decision was not based on quality, safety, or efficacy concerns.

Since Dengvaxia vaccination began in Puerto Rico, 145 peoplehave been administered the vaccine, but only 32 have completed the third dose of the series.

Dengvaxia will continue to be distributed globally through public and private markets, including Puerto Rico, where the ACIP currently recommends ituntil the product expires. The last doses of Dengvaxiawill expire at the end of August 2026.

Over the past year, Japan's Takeda's Qdenga vaccinebecame the market leader, quickly selling out its production capability. In July 2023,Takeda voluntarily withdrew Qdengafrom FDA review, which means the vaccine is unavailable inthe U.S.

The good news is that various dengue vaccine candidates are conducting late-stage clinical trials in 2024, withaspirationsfor market authorizations later this year or in 2025.


Here is the original post:
Dengue Vaccines Harder to Find in 2024 Precision Vaccinations News - Precision Vaccinations
Judge rules against dad trying to stop child’s HPV vaccination – CBC.ca

Judge rules against dad trying to stop child’s HPV vaccination – CBC.ca

June 26, 2024

British Columbia

Share on Facebook Share on X Share by Email

Posted: 9 Hours Ago

A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled against a father who was looking to stop his ex-wife from having their children vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV).

According to a B.C. Supreme Court judgment issued Monday, Victoria Draper will have the sole authority to decide whether her daughter will be vaccinated. She wanted to have her daughter to receive the vaccinebefore her 12th birthday, as recommended by B.C. health authorities.

The girl's father, Matthew Smith, sought an order to prohibit Draper from having their children vaccinated against HPV, saying in text messages to Draper that it is "unknown" whether the "protection is going to even work" and that the vaccine "causes more harm than good."

In her judgment, Justice Catherine Murray said she accepts guidance from Canadian health authorities "who are entrusted with protecting public health that it is in the best interests of the children to get the HPV vaccination."

According to the judgment posted online, Draper and Smith divorced in late 2022 and have two children together: an eight-year-old son and a daughter who will turn 12 next month.

They were notified last fall that children in their daughter's grade were set to receive the HPV vaccine. Smith refused to sign the consent form and told the school that her daughter would not be vaccinated.

He wrote to Draper that even if the chance of harm was less than oneper cent, "that's too much risk."

"There's a lot of pressure on parents to take these vaccines just like COVID, it's all about money and commissions. It isn't about health," Smith wrote.

The judgment says Smithsent Draper TikTok videos and articles to support his argument.

In his application, Smith cited lawsuits in the U.S. around the vaccine, saying it was best to "review the matter" once they have been adjudicated.

He also cited information from a researcher at the University of British Columbia.

Smith said he discussed it with his children and showed them a 20-minute video on the topic, andhis daughter told him she didn't want to get the vaccine.

Draper said her daughter told her the videos her father showed her were "very scary."

The mother said she later watched the videos and described them as inappropriate for children, making reference to death and suicide.

She said her daughter told her that Smith said "she would die if she got the vaccine."

Draper went on to say that her daughter told her that she wanted to get the vaccine and that their family doctor said there was no medical reason for her not to.

Justice Catherine Murray dismissed Smith's application, noting that his "wait and see" approach to the U.S. lawsuits was not in the children's best interests, adding that "lawsuits are not medical information."

She also said she put no weight on the "information" from the UBC researcher.

In making her decision, Draper relied on publications that "make clear that health authorities/ experts in Canada favour the HPV vaccine," according to the judgment.

Murray said she found Draper's evidence more compelling.

"I accept the advice of the health authorities in Canada who are entrusted with protecting public health that it is in the best interests of the children to get the HPV vaccination. I am further satisfied that it is in the best interests of the children to get the vaccination at the age when it is most effective, as determined by Ms. Draper."

Murray ordered that Draper "has sole decision-making authority regarding any and all decisions relating to the HPV vaccination and/or treatment."

Smith is not allowed to discuss or allow any third party to discuss the HPV vaccine or HPV generally with the children. This includes not showing them anything on social media regarding HPV or the HPV vaccine.

"I am concerned about Mr. Smith showing the children disturbing videos and telling them that the vaccine will kill them in an effort to indoctrinate them into his way of thinking," Murray wrote.


Read more: Judge rules against dad trying to stop child's HPV vaccination - CBC.ca
CDC Assists in Study Testing for Asymptomatic Bird Flu in Humans – Medpage Today

CDC Assists in Study Testing for Asymptomatic Bird Flu in Humans – Medpage Today

June 26, 2024

Top brass at the CDC, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and other agencies shared a roadmap for preventing and understanding human infection with bird flu, along with their plan for developing countermeasures against the virus that has infected more than 120 dairy herds across a dozen states.

Looking for Asymptomatic Infection

To date, more than 690 people have been monitored following exposure to the virus and 51 people have been tested. Through established testing mechanisms, only three people have been diagnosed with the highly pathogenic avian influenza A (HPAI) H5N1 virus associated with the outbreak in dairy cattle (one person in Texas and two in Michigan), said Demetre Daskalakis, MD, MPH, director of CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, during a call with reporters on Tuesday.

CDC continues to support states in monitoring for H5N1 in humans, including by providing technical assistance for a seroprevalence study conducted by Michigan's Department of Health and Human Services, the goal of which is to determine whether asymptomatic infections have occurred among people working with infected cattle.

The agency also announced three key scientific response objectives for H5N1:

Daskalakis noted that across multiple data streams, including emergency department data on flu symptoms, wastewater surveillance, and laboratory test results, the CDC has found "no indicators of any unusual flu activity in people, including any activity related to H5N1."

Understanding the Biology of H5N1

The NIH's research agenda will focus primarily on the biology of the virus, disease pathogenesis, and transmission, according to its website.

An animal model will be used to understand how flu viruses multiply, how clinical signs of illness manifest, and potential routes of transmission, Tara Palmore, MD, an infectious diseases physician and healthcare epidemiologist for the NIH, said during the call. NIH will also research whether infected unpasteurized milk is a viable method of transmission.

Other studies will look to characterize the immune response to infection with H5N1 in cattle and animal models and examine how the immune response may impact pathology. The NIH is also testing vaccines and vaccine candidates in clinical trials against the H5N1 from the current outbreak to determine what level of protection they provide, Palmore said.

NIH is also continuing to prioritize work to develop a universal flu vaccine that could protect against several subtypes of influenza, including H5N1, and Palmore noted that "several promising candidates" are currently in early-stage clinical trials.

Separately, HHS' Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) is working to advance the development and regulatory licensure for vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics -- as detailed in its own research agenda -- to prevent, detect, and treat pandemic influenza infection.

"We continually develop and test vaccine candidates to sustain the U.S. vaccine action capacity to produce pandemic influenza vaccine, if needed," explained Robert Johnson, PhD, BARDA's director of the Medical Countermeasures Program.

Expanding Product Testing

Don Prater, DVM, acting director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition for the FDA, announced a second sampling survey of dairy products at retail locations nationally, to address what he called "remaining geographic and product gaps" from the previous sampling of the milk supply conducted in April and May.

This second sampling survey will test approximately 155 products such as aged raw milk cheese, pasteurized milk and cheeses, cream cheese, butter, and ice cream. Additional samples will be taken from areas in previous surveys to provide "a more representative picture" based on levels of dairy production in certain regions, he noted.

The FDA is also continuing to conduct studies using continuous flow pasteurization equipment that it believes mirrors those used commercially, with the goal of "validat[ing] the evidence of the effectiveness of pasteurization in ensuring that no viable HPAI H5N1 virus is present in the commercial milk supply," Prater said.

The FDA continues to warn the public against consuming raw milk and urged industry not to manufacture or sell raw milk or raw milk products. He stressed, "to date, the findings from U.S. government partners, as well as academic researchers, do not change our assessment of the safety of the milk supply."

Increasing Testing in Cattle

Finally, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), in late May, launched a voluntary H5N1 dairy herd status program which would enable dairy producers to more closely monitor their herd's health and move cows more quickly, while providing continued testing capacity and improving USDA's understanding of the virus, said Eric Deeble, DVM, acting senior advisor for H5N1 response, and Rosemary Sifford, USDA's chief veterinary officer.

The first four states to participate in the program include Texas, Nebraska, New Mexico, and Kansas, and the USDA is in "close conversation" with a dozen more possible participant states, Deeble said. The agency also expects to receive an update regarding funding in the "very near future" that would be used to compensate producers for a loss of milk production that has resulted from H5N1. Once that funding is available, Deeble said he expects "a surge" in producers participating in a range of USDA programs.

Asked whether USDA planned to start vaccinating cattle, Deeble said "we hope that through enhanced biosecurity and additional testing ... we will be able to eliminate this disease from the dairy herd in the absence of a vaccine. Although, we believe that they may be helpful down the line."

"We want to learn as much as we can about the spread of H5N1 in dairy cattle, detect the virus, [and] contain the virus where it is to prevent further spread," added Deeble.

Shannon Firth has been reporting on health policy as MedPage Today's Washington correspondent since 2014. She is also a member of the site's Enterprise & Investigative Reporting team. Follow


View post: CDC Assists in Study Testing for Asymptomatic Bird Flu in Humans - Medpage Today