WASHINGTON, D. C. - A congressional subcommittee led by Ohios Brad Wenstrup spent hours on Monday grilling and occasionally insulting former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci over the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Wenstrup, a Cincinnati Republican and physician, kicked off the hearing by accusing Fauci of overseeing one of the most invasive regimes of domestic policy the U.S. has ever seen, in an effort to stop the spread of the disease thats killed more than 1 million Americans, and of trying to sway public opinion against the lab leak theory of its origin.
Americans were aggressively bullied, shamed and silenced for merely questioning or debating issues such as social distancing, masks, vaccines, or the origins of COVID, said Wenstrup. Any dissent from your chosen scientific position was immediately labelled as anti-science. Anything less than complete submission to the mandates could cost you your livelihood, your ability to go into public, your childs ability to attend school.
It was Faucis first public testimony about the coronavirus pandemic before Wenstrups panel after privately answering its questions in January. Fauci spent much of the hearing trying to shoot down Republican claims that he ignored science and behaved irresponsibly.
He called allegations that he tried to cover up the origins of the coronavirus and used grant money to bribe scientists to change their minds about it absolutely false and simply preposterous, and denied using a personal email account for official business.
Vaccine technology research his agency funded enabled development of safe and highly effective vaccines less than 11 months after the new virus was identified, said Fauci, calling it an unprecedented accomplishment in the history of vaccinology that saved tens of millions of lives worldwide.
He said he tried to fight misinformation about the spread of the virus and techniques that could be used to fight it, such as ex-President Donald Trumps suggestion that bleach be injected into the human body.
I think one of the things that was really a problem with the response was the degree of divisiveness that we had in the country about a lack of a coherent response, where we were having people for reasons that had nothing to do with public health as science, refusing to adhere to public health intervention measures, said Fauci.
Fauci said that since the pandemic started, he and his family have experienced repeated harassment, as well as multiple credible death threats, which has required him to have protective services essentially all the time.
Every time someone gets up and says that Im responsible for the death of people throughout the world, the death threats go up, Fauci said in response to questions from Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell. I think this is a powerful disincentive for young people to want to go into public health and maybe even science and medicine in the public arena.
When Champaign County Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, accused Fauci of trying to discredit theories that the virus started in a Chinese lab, Fauci said We dont know where it started and thats the reason why I keep an open mind. After Jordan suggested that Fauci kept former Centers for Disease Control director Robert Redfield Jr. out of a Coronavirus Task Force call because he supported the lab leak theory, Fauci denied doing so and said the call was organized by a British researcher, so they should ask him.
The hearings most contentious moment occurred when Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene told Fauci the subcommittee should be recommending you to be prosecuted. We should be writing a criminal referral because you should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity. You belong in prison.
California Democrat Robert Garcia followed up by calling Fauci an American hero whose efforts have saved millions of lives in the United States and around the world. He called Taylor Greenes remarks crazy and irresponsible.
The Committees top Democrat, Californias Raul Ruiz, who is a physician, said the subcommittee should be trying to improve the nations preparedness for future pandemics instead of focusing on efforts to prove that the virus came from a Chinese lab that got U.S. research money, which requires them to prove the lab leak theory to be true.
Their accusations are without evidence, but it doesnt matter to them, said Ruiz. Intentionally misleading the public is propagating disinformation and its wrong and dangerous, not only because it manufactures distrust in our public health leaders and our public health agencies, but also because it targets Dr. Fauci and other public health officials for violent death threats.
Wenstrup said the American public deserves a lot better from their government, than they got in the response to coronavirus, and said public health issues like the pandemic should be agnostic, not political. He called for reform of the federal grant giving process.
We can fix our problems, but we have to take a good hard look at what we did and what we didnt do, be honest with ourselves and be better in our messaging to the American people, especially when it comes to health, said Wenstrup. And thats why I felt it was very important that we dont do things like mandates, but let patients have the conversation with the doctor that they know and trust and make sure that were getting the doctors all the information and data that they need.
Sabrina Eaton writes about the federal government and politics in Washington, D.C., for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
Representative Raul Ruiz (D-CA), Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and others spoke with reporters about the release of a Democratic staff report intended to debunk Republican claims that former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci helped fund research that led to the COVID-19 pandemic. close
There are two new COVID-19 variants circulating, and scientists believe theyre more transmissible than previous ones. Together, theyre known as FLiRT and some estimates suggest they account for more than a third of current COVID-19 cases.
With The Show to talk about these new variants, and what they could mean as were heading into summer and the summer travel season, is Dr. Nick Staab, assistant medical director with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health.
Nick Staab
Nick Staab
MARK BRODIE:Dr. Staab, good morning.
DR. NICK STAAB: Good morning, Mark.
BRODIE:So what, what is new about these, these two new variants, they're being called FLiRT, what is different about them than what we have seen previously?
STAAB:So, you know what we know about these COVID viruses, is that as they evolve, they become more transmissible and they're able to evade our natural immunity, whether that immunity is from vaccination or from natural infections. This is just the normal way that viruses evolve. So these new variants are more transmissible and they are able to evade some of our immune mechanisms.
BRODIE:So does that mean that even if people are, for example, up to date on their, on their boosters and maybe they've had COVID in the recent past, they still could, could get catch this version of it.
STAAB:Yeah, that's correct. So, you know what we're encouraging is the most, the latest recommendation is that those who are elderly over the age of 65, if it's been more than two months since their last COVID vaccine, that they get another booster to boost that immunity. And then the FDA will be meeting tomorrow [Wednesday] to consider our 2024-25 vaccine. And as soon as those are available, the best protection is to get that vaccine.
BRODIE:So for folks who, who are up to date at the moment, it sounds like there's not much else to do in terms of vaccination between now and maybe like later this year.
STAAB:That's true. There's not much to do, but there are things we can do, right? The, the same things we've been talking about for, for years now, if you are sick, stay away from others, if you are at high risk, whether it's because you're immunocompromised or have other underlying health conditions that put you at increased risk, you know, avoiding large crowds as we start to see what is usually a summer surge of COVID cases is a smart idea.
BRODIE:Are you expecting an increase in COVID cases over the course of the summer here in Maricopa County?
STAAB:You know, we've seen it every summer. So there's no reason to think that we're not gonna see it this summer. We're still waiting for COVID to fall into a regular seasonal pattern like we see with influenza, but we're still not there yet. So, I think it is likely, especially with this variant,, that we see an increase in cases.
BRODIE: How well do we really understand what's going on? I mean, there's not seemingly not as much testing happening as there as there has been. People aren't really required to quarantine anymore if they, if they do test and are positive, like, do we have a good sense of what the situation is?
STAAB:You know, we can look at how our health care system is being used and how we're seeing COVID cases in the health care system to get a good sense of that. It's what we do typically with influenza. So we're staying in close touch with our health care partners even reporting from hospitals is not what it used to be during the emergency. So we're using more typical means of surveillance to just keep an eye on those COVID cases. And, and we're not seeing an increase in severe cases in hospital, which is a good sign.
BRODIE: I wanted to ask you about that because as we've talked about over the last few years, yes, the, you know, the variants as time goes along tend to become more transmissible, they often tend to be also less severe in terms of symptoms and risks. Is that what we're seeing here with, with these new 22, new variants?
STAAB:We think so. So again, it's probably too early with these variants to, to say for sure that that's the case. But that is what we typically see with coronaviruses. You have to remember that we've had other human coronaviruses before. SARS, COVID-2, the virus that causes COVID, we know what's kind of typical in their evolution and, and this is what we expect to see more transmissibility, less severity because of the changes in the virus and because of our immune protections that we've built up as a population having been through this for several years.
BRODIE:So we've seen in some parts of the country that there are, there is an uptick of, of COVID cases, especially with these flirt variances. What are you seeing so far, you know, early, not even officially summer, but, you know, it feels like summer outside, s sort of early summer season here in the valley.
STAAB:So if you look at our COVID numbers again, we don't have complete reporting of all the COVID cases out there, but we have a sample and that sample is showing a, an uptick in cases. So we're starting to see an increase in cases here locally, like is being reported elsewhere. You know, we have the reverse phenomenon here in Maricopa County that the rest of the country has, you know, during our summer, we spend more time indoors, than outdoors. And so, that is probably why kind of in hotter areas in the country, we start to see an increase in cases, as we congregate indoors more together.
BRODIE:Well, and as you referenced earlier, I mean, a lot of people from the Phoenix area travel elsewhere where it's maybe not going to be 110 degrees in the beginning of June. So does that also increase the risk of, you know, transmissibility from, you know, folks maybe elsewhere where perhaps there are, there is also an uptick in, in this, in this variant.
STAAB:Absolutely. So, so travel mixing of, of populations is is how all diseases all communicable diseases increase transmissions. So, you know, whether it's COVID or measles, when we see that these infections are on the rise in certain places, the potential for bringing them back here to Maricopa County in the Phoenix area is, is there any time you travel. So traveling is, is definitely a time to think about your own risk factors. Again, make sure you're up to date on vaccines and, and just practicing some common sense disease transmission behaviors, how about that.
BRODIE:So you mentioned that you've been, you know, sort of tracking this based on how people are using the health care system. How is the health care system being affected by this variant or even, you know, some of the variants you've had in the past. Like, obviously, I would imagine it's not under the kind of strain that it was in like 2020 or 2021. But what has the impact been on the health care system in Maricopa County, you know, from these, these most recent variants.
STAAB:You know, certainly from the height of COVID-19, our health care systems have rebounded. They've been able to keep up with staffing, better than we went that we saw during the pandemic. But we still have a health care system that, that sees seasonal strain, whether it's from influenza and COVID during the winter or you know, other environmental-related impacts during the summer. So certainly we're starting to see an increase in heat-related illness in our emergency department. So, all of these things put different strains on the health care system. But, but we're seeing a that our health care systems have definitely rebounded from where we were during the pandemic. So, you know, I, I think we're in a good spot. We stay in close communication with our health care systems to make sure that they're not seeing strain that, that we're unaware of.
BRODIE:All right, that is Dr. Nick Staab, assistant medical director with the Maricopa County Department of Public Health. Dr. Staab, thanks as always for your time. I appreciate it.
STAAB:Thank you, Mark
KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio record.
WASHINGTON >> Longtime government scientist Anthony Fauci pushed back against Republican accusations tying him to the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic while testifying before the House Oversight and Accountability Committees Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic today.
In his first appearance before Congress since he retired in December 2022, Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sought to defend himself from GOP accusations that he tried to cover up the origins of COVID-19 and used his personal email for official government work.
He said the idea that he sought to cover up a theory that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, was simply preposterous and emphatically told the subcommittee that I do not do government business on my private email.
The subcommittee has been investigating the origins of the virus and the governments potential involvement for 15 months, but do not appear to have found anything connecting Fauci to the start of the virus in China. However, their investigation did lead to the federal government last month recommending EcoHealth Alliance, a company that received federal funding and that worked with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, be debarred.
During a contentious hearing frequently interrupted by protesters, Republican subcommittee Chair Brad Wenstrup accused Fauci of covering up the origins of the virus and trying to dissuade people that the virus came from a lab.
While the origins of the virus remain unknown despite multiple investigations, one theory is that the virus originated in a lab in Wuhan, China, and somehow leaked from that lab, creating the global pandemic.
Fauci denied Wenstrups accusations, pointing to emails he sent in February 2022, when his colleagues first floated the idea that the virus could have had lab origins and Fauci immediately instructed his colleagues to elevate those concerns to the highest levels.
It is inconceivable that anyone who reads this email could conclude that I was trying to cover up the possibility of a laboratory leak, Fauci said, adding, I always kept an open mind to the different possibilities.
EMAILS
Republicans also seized on claims that Fauci used his personal email for official business, which would violate the agencys code of conduct.
The 83-year-old immunologist told the subcommittee that to the best of my knowledge I have never conducted official business using my personal email.
Lawmakers also grilled Fauci on allegations that EcoHealth Alliance President Peter Daszak did not keep up with reporting and monitoring requirements around experiments conducted in Wuhan, China, and omitted key information in applying for federal grants.
I repeat on the record that I am not trying to protect Daszak, Fauci told Wenstrup.
Last month, the subcommittee sought testimony from David Morens, a top NIAID official, who used his personal email to communicate with Daszak and others involved in the COVID-19 origins debate.
Fauci said he did not engage in that email exchange, but Republicans were skeptical that he was unaware of their communication.
I have a hard time believing that all of this occurred without your knowledge and approval, Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said of Morens effort to obscure the Freedom of Information Act and hide his correspondence with Daszak.
The Energy and Commerce oversight subcommittees top Democrat Kathy Castor, D-Fla., accused Republicans of playing into political conspiracy theories and purposefully smearing Fauci for political gain.
She used the hearing to advocate for lawmakers to reauthorize the expired pandemic preparedness law, which lapsed on Sept. 30 of last year. In the last few months U.S. public health agencies have been tracking a new strain of bird flu as well as continuing to monitor COVID-19.
HES NOT A DOCTOR
During one of the more contentious moments in the hearing, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene accused Fauci of not being a real doctor, telling the panel he belonged in prison.
Her remarks caused panel leadership to pause the hearing and remind members to be respectful. Wenstrup told the panel that he instructed Greene to refer to Fauci as a doctor to which Greene replied, hes not a doctor!
Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., then held up signs of Greenes previous statements in which the lawmaker said she didnt believe in evolution and that she was sure COVID-19 was created in a lab in an attempt to paint Greene as a conspiracy theorist.
Garcia lost both of his parents to COVID-19 and said he takes the origins of the virus very seriously, but argued that conspiracy theorists have obfuscated efforts to find the truth.
Democrats, however, were also quick to fire rhetorical shots.
Some of our colleagues in the House of Representatives are treating you, Dr. Fauci, like a convicted felon, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said.
Alluding to former President Donald Trump, he added, Actually, you probably wish they were treating you like a convicted felon. They treat convicted felons with love and admiration. Some of them blindly worship convicted felons.
A few Republicans tried to unsuccessfully back Fauci into a corner.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis of New York repeatedly asked Fauci how many royalties hes earned from pharmaceutical companies since the start of the pandemic. Fauci replied that hes received about $100 from a monoclonal antibody he developed 25 years ago.
Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., accused Fauci of suppressing the lab leak theory, and said the panel had the emails to prove it. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., interjected to say the panel has no such emails.
Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell highlighted the harassment Fauci and his family have received since this investigation started. Fauci detailed the death threats and stalking hes received, and now its at the point where he must always have protective services. His voice broke when he described the threats to his three daughters.
The audience was an active participant in todays hearing as well. Many activists showed up, at least one wearing a Fire Fauci T-shirt. One protester who said she was a doctor interrupted the hearing so many times, accusing the National Institutes of Health of covering up the origins of the virus, that she had to be escorted from the room by Capitol Police.
WASHINGTON, D.C. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who led the governments response to the coronavirus pandemic, rejected Republican criticism of his handling of the pandemic at a hearing on Monday, including accusations that the virus may have been created in a Chinese lab with U.S.-funded research.
The hearing was the culmination of a 15-month probing the roots of the virus and the nations response to the pandemic, led by Rep. Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
The subcommittee has spent more than a year on the investigation, which has produced 115 investigative letters, 30 transcribed interviews, 27 hearings and more than 1.5 million pages of documents, according to Wenstrup.
Wenstrup has said that the pandemic response went wrong from the start, when public health officials such as Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), began basing policy on what Wenstrup said were merely scientific guesses.
Doctor Fauci, under your leadership, the United States health agencies adopted specific policy aims as a single dogmatic truth without the benefit of debate. Out of a desire for a single narrative, Wenstrup said at the June 3 hearing.
According to Wenstrup, that single narrative included that the virus emerged from nature, rather than from a laboratory, and that vaccine mandates and social distancing were necessary.
Fauci defending his record, as well as social distancing and other policies that he said were based on the science available at the time. For example, he said the 6-foot social distancing guidance came from studies about the distance that virus could be carried in droplets. The CDC later updated its guidance after coronavirus was discovered to spread through aerosols, which can travel more than 6 feet.
The accusation being circulated that I influenced these scientists to change their minds by bribing them with millions of dollars in grant money is absolutely false, he said at the hearing. The second issue is a false accusation that I tried to cover up the possibility that the virus originated from a lab.
Faucis testimony will be included in the subcommittees final investigation report, expected to come out late this year.
We are following the facts. Holding wrongdoers accountable and planning for a better, more prepared future, Wenstrup said.
After the hearing, Democrats said the investigation had uncovered no evidence that Fauci did anything wrong, and that the hearing missing an important opportunity to discuss best practices for the next pandemic.
MONDAY, June 3, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- As the H5N1 avian flu continues to spread among dairy cows in the United States, nearly 5 million doses of flu vaccine are now being prepared for possible use in humans.
Since the outbreak in livestock began this spring, bird flu has been confirmed in three humans who worked on dairy farms in Texas and Michigan, and health experts are concerned the virus could mutate to the point where it could spread easily among humans.
In response, vaccine maker CSL Seqirus announced last week that it has been tasked with making the additional doses of flu vaccine at its North Carolina plant.
"It utilizes a highly scalable method of production and is currently positioned to deliver up to 150 million influenza vaccine doses to support an influenza pandemic response within six months of a pandemic declaration," the company noted in anews release.
The CDC [U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] maintains the risk to public health as low. We are closely monitoring the situation because we are acutely aware of the threat that influenza virus strains like H5N1 can pose and take seriously our role in preparedness efforts alongside our government and public health partners, Marc Lacey, global executive director for pandemic at CSL Seqirus, said in the news release. This agreement... will help support the U.S. governments ability to respond swiftly in the event that the current avian flu situation changes.
The new vaccine doses combine an antigen that targets the H5 portion of the H5N1 virus with an ingredient designed to boost the immune response triggered by the vaccine.
While the production of these new flu vaccine doses is set to be completed "later this summer," they may not be ready for use right away.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has previously approved other vaccines for potential H5N1 pandemics, including avaccineby Seqirus, but it isn't certain how soon the FDA might clear use of the new shots.
"If it is determined that the U.S. population needs to be vaccinated to prevent H5N1 influenza, then the FDA will use its regulatory pathways to take the appropriate steps to ensure vaccines are available in the timeliest manner possible," an FDA spokesperson told CBS News.
It is unclear who would be prioritized for the first shots if they are eventually rolled out for the public, CBS News reported.
A panel of the CDC's outside vaccine advisers issetto meet June 26 to discuss H5N1 alongside its routine votes on seasonal flu vaccines.
While the CDCsaysthe risk to the general public remains low, the agency has warned that workers on dairy farms and in production facilities are at higher risk of infection and it has urged the industry to take safety precautions.
Thelatest human case of bird fluin Michigan involved respiratory symptoms for the first time, officials announced Thursday, which could make it easier for the virus to spread from person to person.The two previous patients only experienced eye symptoms.
"Simply put, someone who's coughing may be more likely to transmit the virus than someone who has an eye infection like conjunctivitis," the CDC's Nirav Shah said Thursday, CBS News reported.
The CDC is now investigating whether the strain that infected the latest Michigan patient might have developed key mutations that could raise its risk of spread among humans, CBS News reported.
"The mere fact that this individual displayed some respiratory symptoms, again we should be alert, but in and of itself is not a cause to change course or suggest that we're at an inflection point," Shah told reporters.
More information
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on bird flu.
SOURCE: CSL Seqirus, news release, May 30, 2024; CBS News
Q: Is there a bird flu vaccine?
A: Yes. Studies suggest two candidate vaccine viruses appear well-matched to protect against the H5N1 strain circulating among dairy cattle and birds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Both of the vaccine candidates are in the nations stockpile in limited quantities. And BARDA (The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority which is part of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services) has enough building blocks for vaccines including adjuvants, potent substances which can trigger a stronger immune response from a vaccine to make millions of doses.
Q: How long would it take for them to become available?
Should the U.S. need vaccines, the federal government has hundreds of thousands of vaccines ready to ship, a spokesperson for the federal governments Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
It could have over 100 million doses shipped within about three to four months.
Mass production could scale up quickly if needed, according to federal authorities.
But its not so simple. Pharmaceutical companies can be called to make vaccines for flu, but these vaccines would be manufactured on the same production lines used for seasonal flu.
Before starting large-scale manufacturing, federal officials would need to think through the implications of disrupting seasonal flu production for a new shot.
Q: Would the vaccine really work? What if the bird flu strain evolves?
The CDC says it is monitoring any changes in the strain and the vaccine can be altered to protect newer strains.
But some experts are skeptical and dont think theres been enough testing done yet to know how well the two candidate vaccines would really work, especially since the virus would need to change to make it a threat to people.
Q: Is a bird flu vaccine needed now?
No. Right now, the H5N1 bird flu remains primarily an animal health issue.
Who might need a vaccine and how many doses might be needed depend on how the virus changes and how widespread it becomes, according to the CDC.
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As the bird flu outbreak continues spreading south of the border, Canadian officials are in talks with several pharmaceutical companies about potential agreements to produce an avian flu vaccine for humans.
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There is no avian influenza vaccine available in Canada for public use, according to Health Canadas website. Canada is also not currently stockpiling human avian flu vaccines, but this could change in the future, according to federal health officials.
The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) has proactively met with pandemic influenza vaccine suppliers (e.g., GSK, Seqirus and Sanofi) with whom we have an agreement for domestic or off-shore vaccine manufacturing to discuss pandemic influenza vaccine preparedness activities in order to inform steps that could be taken against avian influenza, a PHAC spokesperson told Global News in a Friday email.
These activities include obtaining an H5N1 candidate vaccine virus, and the possibility of producing pre-pandemic vaccine if and when production capacity is freed up from producing the seasonal influenza vaccines.
The bird flu virus has been spreading among more animal species in scores of countries since 2020. It was detected in U.S. dairy herds in March, and since then atleast three people all workers at farms with infected cows have been diagnosed with bird flu, although the illnesses were considered mild.
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But earlier versions of the same H5N1 flu virus have been highly lethal to humans in other parts of the world. Officials are taking steps to be prepared if the virus mutates in a way that makes it more deadly or enables it to spread more easily from person to person.
While it is rare for the virus to spread to humans, experts warn that it could mutate and become more transmissible, posing a significant health threat due to its potential lethality.
The bird flu has surprised us over and over and over, said Kerry Bowman, a professor of bioethics and global health at the University of Toronto. People didnt predict it wouldjump to mammals and that mammals would give it to each other. But then look what happened.
Canada has increased its surveillance of bird flu in dairy cows and milk. As of May 24, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has also confirmed that Canadas milk supply remains free of avian flu fragments after testing came back negative.
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Although the risk may be low, and the virus has not been detected in Canada, experts like Maxwell Smith, a bioethicist at Western University in London, Ont., believe its never too early to start preparing for a potential bird flu pandemic.
Its much easier and much preferable to intervene now, even though the risk is very low at the present moment for transmission into humans, he told Global News.
Even though we will have to spend some resources now and make a little bit of an investment and think about these questions, its far better doing that now than having to address the questions that will emerge if there were a human-based pandemic of H5n1.
A lesson learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that we never want to be too late in preparing for a potential pandemic, warned Dr. Shayan Sharif, an avian immunologist and associate vice president of research at the University of Guelph.
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Should we be thinking about [vaccines]? Yes, absolutely. Its always good to be prepared, he said. The virus is not a pandemic at the moment, and we want to make sure that it would never become a pandemic. But if it does, then we need to have vaccines, and vaccines would need to be tested for their safety and for their efficacy. And all of those things would take some time, and we want to be prepared for that possibility.
He added that while it takes time to distribute doses within Canada if we have learned anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that vaccinating people in one country alone is not sufficient to eradicate the disease.
You have to have global endeavors to vaccinate almost everyone on the face of the planet. So we need to have plans in place for not only vaccinating Canadians, but also vaccinating the entire world, Sharif said.
Bowman mentioned that Canada has the infrastructure to manufacture these vaccines but is not activating it at this time.
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One reason, he highlighted, is that doing so would disrupt the production of seasonal influenza vaccines for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, which is crucial for Canadians.
If we go into high gear with mass production, its going to knock out the preparation for the flu vaccines for, late 24 into 25, Bowman said. We wont have the capacity [for both].
Another hurdle with vaccines is ensuring they are made with the current strain of H5N1, which could mutate again. Similar to the influenza virus, bird flu viruses are capable of rapid genetic changes through mutations.
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The U.S. government has a stockpile of H5N1 vaccines and has partnerships with three pharmaceutical companies: GSK, CSL Seqirus and Sanofi. These companies have seasonal influenza production capacity and say they would be able to scale up production of avian flu vaccines if needed, according to the Associated Press.
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On May 30, CSL Seqirus announced that it was in the works to manufacture and deliver around 4.8 million doses of pre-pandemic vaccine that is well-matched to the H5 of the currently circulating H5N1 strain. It is estimated to be complete in the late summer of 2024.
CSL Seqirus, located in North Carolina, manufactures an FDA-approved cell-based H5N1 vaccine called Audenz.
And the pharmaceutical company Moderna already has a bird flu mRNA vaccine in very early-stage human testing. In a statement, Moderna confirmed that we are in discussions with the U.S. government on advancing our pandemic flu candidate, the Associated Press reported.
These messenger RNA vaccines are made using a small section of genetic material from the virus. The genetic blueprint is designed to teach the body how to make a protein used to build immunity.
Similar work has been going on at Pfizer. Company researchers in December gave human volunteers an mRNA vaccine against a bird flu strain thats similar to but not exactly the same as the one in cows. Since then, researchers have performed a lab experiment exposing blood samples from those volunteers to the strain seen in dairy farms, and saw a notable increase in antibody responses, Pfizer told the Associated Press.
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In the event of a bird flu pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) has stated that it is on standby, ready to trigger and ramp up vaccine production for the virus.
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Speaking at a media conference on May 8, Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, director of pandemic preparedness with the WHO, saidalthough there has not been any human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus, there is a system in place.
And through those systems, theres an ongoing risk assessment of the viruses, looking at the viruses themselves, the different mutations, the characteristics of those viruses. And through that system, there are candidate vaccine viruses that are recommended to be considered for production, she explained.
Within that system, we have two that are H5N1 viruses that could be used to ramp up vaccine production. We have not triggered that system yet.
However, she added that the WHO has access to real-time production of these bird flu vaccines. If production is triggered, there there are billions of vaccines that could be produced within the first year if necessary, based on the manufacturing technologies that we have.
When asked why vaccines arent available now, Dr. Michael Ryan, who leads the WHOs response to disease outbreaks, explained that while vaccine candidates are in place, its imperative that they work against the current strain.
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He added that producing billions of bird flu vaccines would hinder the production of influenza vaccines.
We produce hundreds of millions of seasonal flu vaccines every year that we would have to switch production. So its not you can just press the button will begin producing pandemic H5 vaccines. You have to stop producing your seasonal vaccine. Ryan said. This requires a very careful consideration.
with files from the Associated Press and Global News Katherine Ward
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Elephant seals in South America died in massive numbers because the bird flu virus acquired mutations that allowed it to spread among mammals, according to a new study.
The research offers the first genetic and epidemiological evidence of bird flu virus transmission among mammals. And the findings hold a warning: The virus, called H5N1, may similarly transform to cause large-scale infections in other mammalian species, including people.
The bird flu virus is responsible for an ongoing outbreak in dairy cows in the United States. Since March, it has been detected in cows in nine states, and in wastewater from several others.
The virus may already be spreading from cow to cow, too, but federal officials have said that the more likely explanation for the outbreak is that it is spreading through contaminated milk.
H5N1 is also presumed to have spread among mink on a fur farm in Spain. But the new study is the first to pull together different streams of evidence that substantiate transmission from mammal to mammal.
The study was posted online on Saturday and has not been peer reviewed. But genetic analysis of the virus, and the scale and timing of infections in sea mammals in South America, all suggest that the animals acquired the virus from one another, not from infected birds, the researchers said.
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