Updated May 1, 2024, 10:28 IST
Covishield Vaccine Side Effects: British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca for the first time has admitted in court documents that its vaccine against COVID-19 has the potential to cause TTS, a rare side effect associated with blood clotting.
TTS, also known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome causes blood clots and leads to low blood platelet count.
The company is facing more than 50 litigations and has been sued in class action over claims its vaccine caused death and serious injury in dozens of cases.
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In India, millions were jabbed with Covishield made by AstraZeneca in partnership with Serum Institute of India or SII - the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, for the supply of the vaccine to the Indian Government.
According to experts, the side effects are rare, so there should be no panic.
The reported side effect is a rare one and doesn't affect everyone who took the vaccine. So, there isn't a need for panic reaction, but it is advisable to be cautious and approach the healthcare provider if they notice any symptoms related to the syndrome, Dr. Viswesvaran B, Consultant Interventional Pulmonology and Sleep Medicine, Yashoda Hospitals, told Times Now.
Constant patient monitoring and timely symptomatic interventions which may be medical or surgical are crucial for ensuring patient survivability, he added.
However, Dr. Viswesvaran added that the incidence of TTS after the vaccine is not known.
According to studies, isolated reports of TTS from across the world after CVOID-19 vaccinations have been published since 2021.
Incidence of TTS among vaccine recipients appears to be higher even amongst younger individuals and recipients of a first dose and can manifest as clotting at unusual sites and sometimes with hemorrhage, he said.
TTS occurs when your bone marrow does not make enough platelets - blood cells that form blood clots to help stop bleeding.
Those who suffer from this condition do bleed a lot, and it becomes hard to stop the condition. According to doctors, thrombocytopenia affects people with certain medical conditions like autoimmune diseases or those who regularly take certain medications.
People with severe TTS have an increased risk of developing the following conditions:
People with severe TTS have an increased risk of developing the following conditions:
Thrombocytopenia causes gastrointestinal bleeding or bleeding in your brain, which can be fatal
Thrombocytopenia can also decrease the amount of blood flow to your heart, leading to a heart attack
Experts say the normal platelet count in adults ranges from 1,50,000-4,50,000 platelets per microliter of blood. Thrombocytopenia levels are:
Even though a few people with mild cases do not have any symptoms, others include:
Kootenai County in North Idaho is experiencing an outbreak of whooping cough, with 19 cases in just the first four months of the year (compared with nine cases in all of 2021-23).
We shouldnt be surprised.
Idaho has the lowest vaccination rates across the board in the country, according to the most recent numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Idahos vaccination rate for five doses of DTaP, which is for the prevention of diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough (or pertussis) was just 81%, the lowest rate in the nation.
The national median rate is 92.2%, according to the CDC, based on numbers from the 2022-23 school year, the latest year available.
Idaho also has the lowest vaccination rate for:
Idaho has some of the most lenient exemption allowances in the country, leading to the highest exemption rate in the nation, at 12.1%. Idaho is one of only 10 states in the country with an exemption rate of higher than 5%.
Idaho law allows parents to exempt their children from getting a vaccine for just about any reason, not only medical or religious beliefs, but also simply for personal beliefs.
That lax exemption policy has led some people to move to Idaho, as documented in an Idaho Statesman story in 2020 about vaccine refugees from California.
Come to Idaho for the vaccine laws; stay for the diseases.
The CDC reported that Idahos exemption rate increased 2.3 percentage points from the 2021-22 school year.
Were going in the wrong direction.
The majority of the cases in Kootenai County are among those 18 years and younger, according to the Panhandle Health District, which covers five counties in North Idaho.
Pertussis can cause serious illness in people of all ages but is most dangerous for babies, according to a press release from the district.
About one in eight infants with pertussis get pneumonia. About one in 100 infected infants will have convulsions, and in rare cases, pertussis can be deadly, especially in infants younger than 1.
Many infants are infected by older siblings, parents or other caregivers who might not know they have pertussis because early symptoms are similar to a cold, according to the health district.
Dr. David Pate, retired CEO of St. Lukes, said hes concerned about Idahos declining immunization rates, particularly in light of recent outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases like whooping cough and measles.
Im concerned about low vaccination rates, both here in Idaho, in our country and even many places around the world, he said in a phone interview. The anti-vaccine movement has made really a lot of progress, regrettably.
He places the blame on doctors and others who have spread misinformation about vaccines, casting doubt on the safety and efficacy of vaccines, especially in the wake of unwarranted attacks on the COVID-19 vaccines.
Those professionals have created a class of vaccine-hesitant, who may not be so virulently anti-vaccine but stay away from vaccines because of the doubts sown about them.
For Gods sake, if theres things that we can do to prevent our children from dying or getting severely ill, why wouldnt we do that? Pate said. And the reason is that we have people out there who would financially benefit from spreading nonsense about vaccines and scaring people.
Part of the battle is that many people today have never seen a case of mumps, measles, rubella, diphtheria, whooping cough or polio and dont know how serious and dangerous these conditions can be.
Pate warns against the dangers of the growing anti-science sentiment, emphasizing the historical importance of vaccines in preventing deadly childhood illnesses.
He cited the recent case of an unvaccinated young man in New York who was left paralyzed after contracting polio from an unvaccinated international traveler, the first known U.S. case of polio in nearly a decade and the first in New York since 1990.
Pate underscores the necessity of vaccines in maintaining herd immunity to protect vulnerable populations, such as infants, the elderly and people who are immunocompromised.
Pate said no medical intervention is without risk, but those risks need to be weighed against the risks of the diseases they prevent.
He used an example of experiencing a medical emergency in your home and needing to be rushed to the hospital. Yes, theres a risk that you could get in a car crash on the way to the hospital, but that doesnt mean you shouldnt use a car to get to the hospital for help.
Chemotherapy and surgery have risks and side effects, but you should still often take those measures to prevent dying from cancer.
All that said, Pate said he advocates for a more compassionate approach to vaccine hesitancy, recognizing that many individuals have been misled by misinformation.
He told me a story, which he relayed on a recent episode of Idaho Matters on Boise State Public Radio, about being approached by a woman who was anti-vaccine, raised by anti-vaccine parents and was raising her kids without vaccines. She told him she had been listening to Pate on the radio for the past four years and, because he was providing factual information without judgment, decided to get her and her family vaccinated.
Now, we just have to do that a few thousand more times.
Pate suggests strategies such as community outreach campaigns and personal testimonies from parents who regret not vaccinating their children as effective ways to combat vaccine hesitancy and protect public health.
Ive been thinking about the Sound the Alarm campaign, in which the American Red Cross works with local fire departments to distribute free smoke alarms, targeting neighborhoods that have a higher rate of home fires or are more vulnerable.
Ive worked in other places where the fire department and Red Cross blanket a neighborhood shortly after a house fire in that neighborhood, recognizing that if there was a faulty smoke detector or none at all, the situation likely would be similar at neighboring houses. Where theres smoke, theres fire, so to speak.
The Sound the Alarm program has installed 2.5 million free smoke alarms in 1 million homes since October 2014, saving an estimated 2,000 lives.
Why not do the same thing for outbreaks, targeting affected counties, even school districts or Census tracts with education campaigns and vaccine clinics where people live.
Katherine Hoyer, communications manager for the Panhandle Health District, said that as soon as the district received reports of the first several cases in this most recent whooping cough outbreak, district officials alerted health care partners to be aware of the potential for more cases with a reminder that vaccination is the best defense against severe disease. They also contacted local schools and child care centers to provide guidance and resources.
Its a good start, but we should do more to ensure these small outbreaks dont become epidemics.
The more ways that we can get these messages out the better, Pate said. Its the people that are spreading the disinformation that we need to get mad at and hold them accountable, not the people that have been tricked.
Kottayam: Puthuppally MLA Chandy Oommen has come up with an explanation for denying Covid vaccine for his father former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy amid the heated debate on the side effects of Covishield, a popular vaccine against the contagious disease. Taking to his Facebook page on Wednesday, he justified that he was afraid to take his sick father to receive vaccine as he was apprehensive of its side effects. Condemning the allegations against his family over denying proper medical care to his father, he demanded an apology from the people behind it.
No other son should face such a situation. Those who were behind the allegation should apologise to the Kerala society, Chandy told media here after his Facebook live.
We only avoided the vaccine. But he had undergone all other treatments for his disease. The media which circulated the news on denial of treatment to Oommen Chandy must issue an apology, he added.
During the Puthuppally bypoll, the LDF had used the alleged denial of treatment to the former CM as a weapon against the UDF.
The vaccine row UK-headquartered pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca has admitted that in "very rare cases", its COVID-19 vaccine can cause a blood clot-related side-effect but the causal link is unknown, according to court papers being quoted in the UK media. The Daily Telegraph reported that in a legal document submitted to the High Court in London in February for a group action brought by 51 claimants, AstraZeneca admitted that the vaccine developed with the University of Oxford to protect against COVID-19 may cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) in "very rare cases".
The AstraZeneca Vaxzevria vaccine, also manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, was marketed in India as Covishield. It was the major vaccine administered to people across India.
Gujarat Congress president Shaktisinh Gohil on Wednesday accused the BJP-led Centre of ignoring the World Health Organizations emergency guidelines to maintain a database of people who have been administered Covid-19 vaccines. Gohils remarks came a day after global pharmaceutical manufacturer AstraZeneca admitted that its Covid-19 vaccine, developed by researchers from Oxford University, can cause Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS), a rare side effect of blood clotting and low platelet count after immunisation.
According to reports, AstraZeneca made the admission of this rare side effect in court as it faces a lawsuit alleging deaths caused by the vaccine. In 2023, the WHO stated that TTS emerged as a new adverse event following Covid-19 vaccination.
In India, the AstraZeneca vaccine was manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and around 175 crore doses of the same vaccine were administered across various phases.
Citing severe health issues leading to cases of brain stroke, heart attack, kidney and liver failure among young individuals, the Congress lashed out at the government for putting peoples lives at stake.
Several questions are raised on how the government administered the Covishield vaccine. Despite the WHO alerting countries in 2023 regarding emergency guidelines to maintain a database of people being administered the Covid-19 vaccine, why did our country not act, whereas every country followed these guidelines? Gohil asked in a press conference.
Gohil also questioned the government for not asking the Central Research Institute, established in 1905, to manufacture the vaccine and instead entrusting the SII and Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech, which came up with Indias indigenous Covid-19 vaccine Covaxin.
When we have a pioneer institute in vaccine like the 118-year-old Central Research Institute, whose work has been lauded by other countries, why one company, Serum Institute of India, was given the contract? Rs 3,000 crore advance was given to the company by the government and Rs 1,500 crore to Bharat Biotech, the Rajya Sabha MP said.
Demanding compensation to all those who died of health complications after being vaccinated, said, We have repeatedly raised this issue. This is criminal negligence. We believe this matter will go to court under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Section 304. (culpable homicide not amounting to murder). We expect suo moto action by the high court and the Supreme Court. But you know, this government will put the entire machinery if one video of Amit Shah was tampered. We have complained against several fake videos of Rahul Gandhi to the cybercrime police, but nothing has been done.
The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
First uploaded on: 01-05-2024 at 16:24 IST
The Covid-19 pandemic was one of the worst in modern history that raged across the world killing millions in its wake. After it began its deathly journey in 2019, the wave took multiple turns only to be curtailed by the rapid development of vaccines that helped slow it down and eventually kill its staggering pace of transmission.
The vaccine development process against Coronavirus was mired with debates over the rush of it and its early success.
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British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca's admittance in court documents that its vaccine, known as Covishield in India, may cause a rare side effect, has once again brought attention to the safety aspects of getting jabbed with a new vaccine.
AstraZeneca faces a class-action lawsuit alleging serious injuries and deaths resulting from its vaccine, developed in collaboration with the University of Oxford.
THE COVISHIELD SAGA
Starting from 2021, Covishield was administered to millions across the world with studies confirming that the vaccine may cause rare side effects, one of which is TTS (Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome).
The condition causes blood clotting and low blood platelet count. However, this occurrence would be seen within 4 to 42 days of receiving the dose and the frequency is less than one in one lakh. TTS was a rare syndrome reported in people who received a Covid-19 adenovirus vector-based vaccine in 2021 during clinical trials.
The company had disclosed the information in its clinical trials. In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) affirmed this data, specifying that instances of Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) have been documented following administration of the Covid-19 vaccines, Vaxzevria and Covishield.
ARE SIDE EFFECTS COMMON IN VACCINES?
While Covishield had a rare side effect, the same was the case with other Covid-19 vaccines as well, like Pfizer, in which studies published in Vaccine revealed that both Pfizer and Moderna could cause rare side effects like myocarditis (heart muscles get inflamed) and pericarditis (swelling of the heart tissue).
It just means that every vaccine can have a side effect but it is "very rare."
"If you were to look at the frequency of side effects, even common drugs like antibiotics can have rare side effects at frequencies of less than one in one lakh. So to get excited about that doesn't make sense. These things occur. To be honest, even drinking lauki ka juice (bottle gourd juice) can also cause side effects in rare cases," said Dr Anurag Agrawal, pulmonologist and medical researcher at Ashoka University, told IndiaToday.In.
BUT, ARE VACCINES SAFE TO TAKE?
The vaccines developed to combat Covid-19 across the world have been one of the most successful medical developments in modern medical science.
The vaccine development normally takes decades to go through the system, but that was not the case with Covid-19 vaccines, which saw a global collaboration across companies, institutions and even countries bypassing the red tape and bureaucracy to see the light of the day.
"Vaccines are absolutely safe," Dr Agrawal says emphatically. "They save lives."
To prevent any infectious disease, if there's an available vaccine for everyone, it is recommended to take it, repeated Dr Soma Dutta, Microbiologist, Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals. "One thing we should keep in mind, vaccines can't remove the disease occurrence, it can reduce the severity of the disease," Dr Dutta told IndiaToday.In.
Vaccines produce antibodies that help memory cells to fight against the virus.
Dr Agrawal suggested people not to worry about taking vaccines or who have taken the Covishield vaccine as side effects are a part of any food item.
"Someone might not be able to tolerate a glass of juice and their blood sugar might go up. Some people have had liver problems after drinking karela ka juice. No matter what you do, there can be rare side effects," said Dr Agrawal.
IS COVISHIELD SAFE?
Distinguishing between Covid-related symptoms and vaccine side effects is crucial. Experts maintained that the Covishield vaccine remains safe and people should not worry about their health as any side effect, if it was to occur, would have occurred in the initial few weeks of getting vaccinated.
"Presently, lingering effects may stem from long Covid rather than vaccine side effects. Although the vaccine's potential side effects were communicated earlier, no one talked about it at the time due to the urgent need for mass vaccination amidst time constraints," Dr M Wali, Senior Consultant, Department of Internal Medicine, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital added.
More than 80% of Indians opted for Covishield as it was the first available option. All vaccines carry potential side effects, and as a transparency measure, the manufacturers disclosed this information on the vial packaging.
Vaccines remain the most effective tool against Coronavirus and should not be ignored amid the growing noise.
Published By:
Daphne Clarance
Published On:
May 1, 2024
Fragments of the virus that causes bird flu, H5N1, were found in roughly1 in 5 pasteurized milk samplesacross the US, the Food and Drug Administration announced Thursday. A day later, the agency posted an update with good news, confirming that additional testing of the samples didn't turn up active or infectious virus. That's what experts have said would be the case, since pasteurization is expected to kill or inactivate bird flu virus, as it does other potentially harmful bacteria and viruses.
The FDA says the milk supply remains safe; pasteurization is a requirement for commercial milk, making up the vast majority of milk found on store shelves -- thoughnot all, depending on local lawsaround raw milk sales.
Still, the evidence of virus in pasteurized milk was jarring. Since bird flu was first reported in US dairy cows, evidence of it had only previously been reported in unpasteurized, raw milk, which hasn't gone through the heating process to get rid of viruses and bacteria like pasteurized products have. It suggests the virus has been spreading more widely than what's been realized in cattle.
This has prompted some scientistsandinfectious disease expertsto express concerns about US health agencies' response to bird flu in farm animals and the lack of information provided around samples, despite the current health risk to people remaining low. Virologist Angela Rasmussen, for example,said in an X threadlast week that the new milk sample findings suggest the disease may be spreading asymptomatically in cows, more broadly than previously thought and that an "apparent lack of transparency and urgency" to share relevant data may be harming the ability to respond.
And what about the noncommercial milk supply, or raw milk that hasn't been pasteurized? While people who grew up on farms or around cattle might have had unpasteurized milk for dinner, raw milk has found a growing audience: people seeking it out for wellness purposes or sometimes traveling to local farms to consume a food they feel is more natural or holistic.
About raw milk or dairy products during these bird-flu times, citing limited information on bird flu in dairy, the FDA says it doesn't know whether bird flu viruses can be transmitted through unpasteurized products. The agency is reiterating its generalstance that people should avoid consuming raw or unpasteurized milk.
The experts I spoke with for this story before it was first published earlier this month essentially said, in general, influenza isn't spread to people through eating or drinking. However, they stressed the existing health risks of raw milk, which isn't part of what the FDA refers to as the "commercial" milk supply.
"In my opinion, there's a concern with raw milk acquisitions which can become part of the food system, and people secure that milk outside of going to the grocery store," Meg Schaeffer, an infectious disease epidemiologist and National Public Health adviser at the analytics firm SAS, told CNET before this article was first published.
On Monday, she followed up in a separate conversation to say that more information on raw milk and bird flu may come in the coming weeks, citing the one human case of bird flu that's been linked to contact with an infected dairy cow. The person's only symptom was conjunctivitis (pink eye), which presumably came from infected milk that somehow got into their eye, according to Schaeffer.
"There's two parts to the warning," Schaeffer said of the FDA's notice. "The first is that they do believe the pasteurized milk supply is safe and all of the evidence that we have to date points to that." The second is that you shouldn't drink raw milk -- in general, but especially now.
"Yes, we have enzymes in our body that can kill the virus," she said. "It's not a likely pathway to infection, but it's not impossible."
Here's what to know about pasteurization in milk and how to consider the raw milk wellness trend in bird flu times.
Pasteurization is a heating process invented in the 1860s by French chemist Louis Pasteur and has been used widely since as a means to kill harmful bacteria and pathogens that can sometimes cause serious illness. These include bacteria that cause illness like E. coli, Listeria and Salmonella, and other pathogens.
Pasteurization is also expected to kill or inactivate the virus that causes bird flu, which is why health officials continue to say there's no risk to pasteurized dairy products or the commercial milk supply.
Some dairy products may be ultrapasteurized, which is when milk is heated more quickly than typical pasteurization (a couple of seconds) at a higher temperature and then rapidly cooled down. This extends its shelf life.
Pasteurized dairy products can be organic or nonorganic. Whether you can buy or sell raw, unpasteurized milk depends on the laws in your state. In California, for example, you can buy raw milk from stores, although it has to be properly labeled with a warning stating it's unpasteurized.
Jenna Guthmiller, an immunologist, influenza researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Colorado, told CNET for the article's first publish that if someone were to drink milk contaminated with H5N1, it doesn't necessarily mean they would be infected. Influenza viruses are unstable outside the body, she explained, and milk "bypasses the normal process by which we get infected" with flu.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said in an email last week that finding bird flu virus material in pasteurized milk doesn't change the public health risk assessment for the commercial milk supply.
"Pasteurization is a process that would destroy the viability of pathogens -- it's not a process that eliminates their genetic material," he said.
Adalja previously noted it's "unclear" whether there would be a live virus in unpasteurized milk or if it could infect humans by their drinking it, he explained. Influenza viruses aren't spread to humans via ingestion. But on raw milk, he added, "there are many reasons not to drink it to begin with."
While theFDA saysthat it doesn't know yet whether bird flu can transmit to people via unpasteurized or raw dairy, it's probably not a reach to assume that raw milk is a riskier choice avian-influenza-wise than commercial milk, since raw milk hasn't gone through any type of process that would inactivate viruses.
In general, drinking raw milk has health risks. In addition to what Guthmiller called "old timey" bacteria that used to be a problem back in the day, before processes like pasteurization cleaned up the food supply, unpasteurized or raw milk can expose people to serious illnesses like E. coli and listeria. While it may cause only temporary or milder illness in most people, people with weakened immune systems, older adults, those who are pregnant and very young children are especially at risk of serious health effects from drinking unpasteurized milk.
The risk is especially high in children, according to Schaeffer, who are vulnerable to severe illness. In serious cases, health effects from drinking raw milk that's been contaminated can lead to kidney failure.
Schaeffer also pushed back on claims that diseases that once were a big problem in countries like the US, like tuberculosis, are no longer an issue. That's true about tuberculosis, she said, but we also have effective treatment for it. That's not the case, she said, for some types of illness that children can get from unpasteurized milk.
"The diseases, if anything, are even stronger -- antibiotic resistant," Schaeffer said. She added that some bacteria that may be in raw milk may go undetected by farmers because they don't cause illness in cows but do in people.
While buying raw milk from a farm you know sets higher safety standards and practices "good hygiene" during milking can reduce the risk of contaminated raw milk,it won't eliminate it, according to the CDC.
Proponents of raw or unpasteurized milk prefer it fordifferent reasons, including its creamier texture and taste or anecdotal reports that it's easier on digestion or more nutritious.
You can't argue with someone's taste or texture preferences when it comes to food. In terms of the nutritional or health benefits of raw milk compared with unpasteurized milk, research seems to have pushed back on or debunked the majority of claims. The FDA, for example, says thatraw milk isn't a cureor antidote for lactose intolerance. The agency also claims on the same informationpagethat people are misusing the results of a study from 2007 that was on farm milk consumption, not raw milk consumption.
In an analysis of the risks versus benefits of raw milk research,Healthlinereported that any small antimicrobial benefit from raw milk would be neutralized when it's refrigerated. It also reported, based on the results of asystematic review, that minor nutrient losses of water-soluble vitamins, including some B vitamins, are already low in milk generally.
"Multiple studies have shown that pasteurization does not significantly affect the nutritional quality of milk," theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention concludes. "Scientists do not have any evidence that shows a nutritional benefit from drinking raw milk."
As someone who grew up on a dairy farm, Guthmiller used to drink unpasteurized milk herself -- she gets it. When it comes to consuming raw milk, she said, "the risks certainly outweigh the pros."
"We're getting to a point with pasteurization where it looks like real milk," Guthmiller said. In terms of nutritional quality, "you really do not affect the contents of the milk" by pasteurizing it, she said, because it's done so quickly.
If you're looking for foods with provengut-health properties, look at adding foods like kimchi, pickled vegetables, sourdough,apple cider vinegarand buttermilk.
I'd be a hypocrite if I wrote this without noting I've experimented with a few things in the wellness realm that were either not recommended by a health body like the CDC, or "rooted in science," as they say. Sometimes, I like wading into wellness waters tipped toward murky in the swirl of potential risk with potential benefit. A couple of tamer or lower-risk, lower-evidence examples include a time in my life when I dumped a spoonful ofcoconut oil into my coffeeeach day and the fact that I own a pair ofblue-light-blocking glasses.
Prior to bird flu in dairy cow times, theideaof raw milk was also intriguing to me because I like the notion of prioritizing foods that are locally sourced and full of fat for their satiating properties. But you won't find me traveling upstate to a local farm for a fresh jug of raw milk. This is true even as my current individual risk is relatively lower than that of a child or someone who's pregnant, and even if the milk supply remains safe, and bird flu proves virtually impossible to transmit through milk. (Outside of milk, it's worth noting thatanimal-to-human transmission of virusesis a growing threat.) I can get the same small or hypothetical benefit from other whole food sources outside raw milk, without rolling the public health dice.
On April 26, 2024, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that there is an ongoing outbreak of bird flu, also known as avian influenza.
The A(H5N1) virus that causes bird flu has been detected in 34 herds of cattle across nine states, including Idaho, New Mexico, Texas, South Dakota, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina, and, most recently, Colorado.
However, according to reports published in the journal Nature, preliminary analysis of genomic data suggests that a strain of highly pathogenic avian influenza may have been silently spreading in U.S. cattle for months earlier than previously believed, with the virus likely jumping from an infected bird into a cow around late December 2023 or early January this year.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it is collecting samples of ground beef at grocery stores for testing in states where outbreaks of bird flu in dairy cows have occurred.
However, they remain confident that the meat supply is safe and does not pose a risk to humans.
Dr. Daisy May a veterinary surgeon and pet care writer for All About Parrots said that while its natural to be concerned about the possibility of bird flu spreading to humans, the bottom line is that the virus is highly contagious among birds but not in people.
[T]he likelihood of sustained human-to-human transmission remains extremely low with proper precautions, she said.
In fact, the CDC has stated that only one human case has been confirmed after exposure to dairy cows that were likely infected with the virus. This was reported to the agency by the state of Texas on April 1 of this year.
Previously, on April 28, 2022, the CDC announced that a person in Colorado had contracted bird flu after being directly exposed to infected poultry.
In both cases of human infection, however, the CDC said symptoms were mild, and the patients recovered quickly.
May explained that in the cases where weve seen people contract bird flu, its been from direct exposure to infected birds, their droppings, or contaminated coop areas not person to person.
The CDC advises that people can protect themselves from bird flu by avoiding exposure to sick or dead animals both wild and domestic including their carcasses, raw milk, feces, litter, or any other materials that have been contaminated by them.
Youre not likely to contract bird flu from eating beef or chicken, according to Dan Gallagher, a Registered Dietitian with Aegle Nutrition.
The chances of getting sick from eating chicken or beef, even with the bird flu outbreak, are still incredibly low, he noted.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has a Food Safety and Inspection Service inspection program to ensure that sick animals do not enter the food supply.
Gallagher said, If youre worried about potential infection, make sure youre cooking your meat thoroughly and youll have no problems.
Additionally, May said that when it comes to eggs, you should be fine if you cook them completely and do not leave them runny.
The virus is highly vulnerable to heat, and standard cooking temperatures are more than sufficient to kill it off entirely, she said.
As far as milk and dairy products, pasteurization will kill any bird flu virus that might be present.
While it has been reported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that commercially available milk tested positive for bird flu in 1 out of 5 samples tested, experts say this is not necessarily cause for concern.
The method used to test the milk quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) detects the viruss genetic material. This means it cannot be used to determine whether any live virus is present in the sample.
In fact, when the scientists did further testing, they found that there was no live virus present, confirming that pasteurization did indeed do its job.
However, May says you should be cautious when it comes to raw milk from small farms or private sellers since it has not been treated in this way.
To safely prepare meats, poultry, and eggs, the USDA advises the following:
There is an ongoing bird flu outbreak in the United States. The virus has been detected in both cows and chickens.
Experts say, however, that the risk to humans is low, especially if they use proper precautions when working directly with animals.
Also, while it is highly contagious in animal populations, it does not pass from person to person.
Pasteurized milk is safe to consume, but you should be wary of raw milk.
The risk of contracting bird flu from eating beef, poultry, and eggs is also very low due to the USDAs inspection process.
Proper cooking and handling of beef, poultry, and eggs will also help ensure that these foods are safe to eat.
Federal regulators have discovered fragments of bird flu virus in roughly 20 percent of retail milk samples tested in a nationally representative study, the Food and Drug Administration said in an online update on Thursday.
Samples from parts of the country that are known to have dairy herds infected with the virus were more likely to test positive, the agency said. Regulators said that there is no evidence that this milk poses a danger to consumers or that live virus is present in the milk on store shelves, an assessment public health experts have agreed with.
But finding traces of the virus in such a high share of samples from around the country is the strongest signal yet that the bird flu outbreak in dairy cows is more extensive than the official tally of 33 infected herds across eight states.
It suggests that there is a whole lot of this virus out there, said Richard Webby, a virologist and influenza expert at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital.
Dr. Webby said that he believed it was still possible to eradicate the virus, which is known as H5N1, from the nations dairy farms. But it will be difficult to design effective control measures without knowing the scope of the outbreak, he said.
The findings also raise questions about how the virus has evaded detection and where else it might be silently spreading. Some scientists have criticized the federal testing strategy as too limited to reveal the true extent of viral spread.
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Preliminary results of tests run by the Food and Drug Administration show that pasteurization is working to kill off bird flu in milk, the agency said Friday.
"This additional testing did not detect any live, infectious virus. These results reaffirm our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe," the FDA said in a statement.
The FDA's findings come after the agency disclosed that around 1 in 5 samples of retail milk it had surveyed from around the country had tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza, or HPAI H5N1. The U.S. Department of Agriculture this week also ordered testing requirements on cows in response to the outbreak, which has affected growing numbers of poultry and dairy cows.
Positive so-called PCR tests in milk can happen as the result of harmless fragments of the virus left over after pasteurization, officials and experts have said, prompting the additional experiments to verify whether or not the virus found in the milk was infectious. Those tests found it was not.
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"The FDA is further assessing retail samples from its study of 297 samples of retail dairy products from 38 states. All samples with a PCR positive result are going through egg inoculation tests, a gold-standard for determining if infectious virus is present," the agency said.
While health authorities have said that milk from visibly sick cows is being discarded before entering the supply chain, officials have acknowledged the possibility that cows could be spreading the virus in their raw milk without symptoms or after they have otherwise appeared to recover.
The FDA said it had also tested several samples of retail powdered infant formula and toddler formula, which the agency said were all negative for the virus.
It is unclear what other foods the FDA has tested. An agency spokesperson did not answer questions about whether dairy products like cream, which can be pasteurized differently, have also been surveyed.
No beef cattle have been detected with the virus, the USDA has said, although it remains unclear whether the department has surveyed retail beef products for the virus.
So far, only one human infection has been reported this year, in a person who had contact with dairy cattle in Texas.
Though growing evidence is now confirming the safety of pasteurized milk, an additional challenge also remains for health authorities as they grapple with the possibility that dairy industry workers could be unknowingly exposed to the virus.
Unlike poultry, which quickly die off or are culled after H5N1 infections, cows largely go on to recover after a month or two.
Other animals have also not fared as well during the outbreak: the USDA said Friday that deaths and neurological disease had been "widely reported" in cats around dairy farms. Officials have said they suspect cats had been drinking leftover raw milk from infected cows.
"We know that the illness in cattle can go on for several weeks. So that puts workers at an ongoing risk. And thus, the period for monitoring will be longer," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Sonja Olsen told reporters this week.
Alexander Tin is a digital reporter for CBS News based in the Washington, D.C. bureau. He covers the Biden administration's public health agencies, including the federal response to infectious disease outbreaks like COVID-19.
A strain of bird flu virus has spread to dairy herds. Photo: Althea Dotzour
In the last few months, the same strain of bird flu virus that has been circulating since 2022 has spread to dairy herds, with confirmed infections in at least nine states.
As part of efforts to track and minimize the spread of the virus, known as Type A H5N1, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a new requirement for testing of lactating cows prior to their transport across state lines. Although genetic fragments of the H5N1 bird flu are being found in the commercial milk supply, pasteurized products are still safe to consume as far as experts can tell.
The virus, which has primarily spread via infected migratory birds, has also infected mammals such as cows, foxes and sea lions. There has also been a report of the virus spreading to a commercial poultry flock on a farm with an infected dairy herd.
Meanwhile, one dairy worker exposed to an infected herd in Texas came down with a mild case of conjunctivitis, but no other H5N1 infections have been reported in humans in the United States as of the end of April 2024.
Researchers are keeping a close eye on the virus and its spread and are analyzing infected raw milk to understand what risks may exist. More research is underway to determine whether the virus is spreading from mammal to mammal, if it spreads through means other than respiratory, and how widespread it is in dairy herds.
Experts at the University of WisconsinMadison are assisting these efforts with an eye toward minimizing risk to human health and protecting the states agricultural sector.
We touched base with several of those experts to get an idea of what scientists know so far about the developing outbreak, including how the virus may affect dairy products and the industry and what people may need to look out for in themselves, their herds or flocks, and their pets.
Keith Poulsen, director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, is one of the scientists working with federal agencies to keep the virus under control while also keeping the needs of dairy farmers and veterinarians on the front lines in mind. Hes been keeping an eye on the disease since 2022 and has been involved with monitoring the recent outbreaks in dairy cows since they first popped up earlier this year.
Poulsen says that the USDAs recent testing requirement is an important measure to mitigate the viruss spread between states. Current USDA guidance requires that each cow be tested in herds containing 30 animals or fewer, while farmers moving more than 30 animals across state lines only need to test 30 animals. An accredited veterinarian must collect or supervise the sampling.
Normally, at least 50,000 dairy cows cross state lines to move throughout the country each week, Poulsen explains. With the movement of so many cows, the testing requirement could strain farmers, veterinarians and diagnostic labs.
Poulsen explains that theres a complex web of variables at play that he and his colleagues are navigating and balancing. On one hand, theres a need to act with caution and implement a conservative approach to minimize further spread of the virus and potential risk to human health. But there are also farmers who rely on the productivity of their herds to make a living and support their families, making reporting infection and dealing with the logistics of testing difficult.
When youre managing a multibillion-dollar industry that deals with food and public safety, we want to make sure were not giving out bad advice, Poulsen explains.
Hes also been working with other researchers at UWMadison to understand what the pasteurization process does to the virus in cows milk, and what risks there may be to human health.
Thomas Friedrich studies how viruses from animals could cross over to humans. While this strain of H5N1 avian influenza is crossing over to mammals, elevating the risk for it to continue to mutate and spread, he says that past bird flu viruses that have infected humans and other mammals have remained pretty avian, and not mutated to spread quickly from human to human.
Thomas Friedrich
For the virus to transmit more easily between humans, Friedrich explains it would need to mutate to be able to better attach to mammalian cells. Flu viruses use molecules called receptors to latch onto cells and infect them. The version of the receptor in humans upper airways is different from those in birds. That prevents bird flu viruses from infecting cells in humans noses and throats, which they would need to do to spread easily from human to human.
Humans do have receptors that bird flu viruses can attach to, but those receptors and susceptible cells are only present deep in the lungs. In previous human bird flu infections, Friedrich says, the virus seemed to only infect those susceptible cells and did not mutate to infect other cells higher up in the respiratory tract that could make it more transmissible to other humans.
The virus would also have to mutate to survive at the temperature of most human respiratory tracts, which tends to be lower than the avian environment in which it currently thrives. So far, Friedrich says the virus appears not to have mutated to be able to better attach to receptors in cows either.
I think the bottom line is that the danger to the public is currently minimal, but we need to keep an eye on this situation so that we understand how the virus might evolve, Friedrich explains.
David OConnor
David OConnor is an expert in the emergence of new viruses in human populations. He agrees with Friedrich, saying that more data will help scientists keep an eye on the viruss mutations so potential risks to human health can hopefully be mitigated. OConnor likened the current human health risk to that of a hurricane far out at sea. No one is entirely sure if the storm will make landfall or not, but its best for scientists to continue monitoring and collecting as much data as they can to help everyone prepare, should the storm come.
Theres the potential for viruses that are at human-animal interfaces to cross species barriers and infect humans, but most of that is simply potential, its not actually happening, OConnor says. Unless you are someone who works on a farm in close contact with dairy cows, and unless youre someone who works on a poultry farm in close contact with poultry, you do not need to worry about getting bird flu.
Yoshihiro Kawaoka and Peter Halfmann have been studying bird flu for years because of its potential to become a human health concern. As researchers at UWMadisons Influenza Research Institute, Kawaoka and Halfmann know a lot about influenza viruses and have the tools to study them safely.
Kawaoka and Halfmann have been consulting with Poulsen to determine what it means that there are fragments of inactive virus in the commercial milk supply.
Peter Halfmann
Halfmann explains that these fragments of virus are simply bits of genetic information, and there is no evidence the milk contains live virus. In fact, generally speaking, most milk likely has fragments of bacterial genetic material that dont cause reason for concern.
Finding the virus fragments in milk is, however, a possible indication of how widespread the disease may be among dairy herds.
To understand more about virus inactivation, Kawaoka and Halfmann are studying infected raw milk through a process of heat inactivation similar to pasteurization that theyre recreating in the lab.
Having so many researchers at UWMadison who study various aspects of the dairy industry and the health of herds has proved helpful, as Kawaoka and Halfmann have also teamed up with food science researchers like John Lucey. Lucey helped walk the two through the process of pasteurization so they could understand how to mimic it on a smaller scale in the lab.
Once they receive samples of raw milk infected with the virus, Kawaoka and Halfmanns team can mimic pasteurization by heating up the samples to different temperatures for various amounts of time. From there they can look at how the virus changes throughout the process.
This work is ongoing, and Kawaoka and Halfmann hope to be able to share their findings as soon as possible to help expand the scientific understanding of this current strain of bird flu.
Past strains of the bird flu have been known to infect cats. Erin Lashnits, an expert in zoonotic diseases and their impact on pets and owners, says at this point the risk to our furry friends is likely limited to outdoor cats and those with a known exposure to an infected herd or dead birds.
Erin Lashnits
Clinical signs of infection in cats are nasal discharge, sneezing, coughing, trouble breathing and possible neurological symptoms. However, just because a cat has these signs does not mean they may have avian flu. Regardless, Lashnits says its a good idea to seek treatment for a sick cat as it may have something else a vet can treat.
But if youre a person that has a cat where you know there could be exposure either you live nearby one of these herds, or you know that theres been birds that are affected in your area and youve seen dead birds around then being cautious is probably the right answer, Lashnits says.
The risk for dogs and indoor cats is even lower than that of outdoor cats. Concerned owners who see signs of respiratory illness in their pets should contact their vets, but the likelihood of bird flu being the cause of infection is very low.
Andrew Stevens
Pasteurized and properly cooked food products remain safe for consumption, but that doesnt mean there wont be an impact on the dairy and poultry economy.
Andrew Stevens, who studies the effects of agricultural and food policies on consumer food supply and demand, says there are likely two pathways the current virus could impact food availability and prices.
The first pathway is through actual disruptions to supply. The other is through consumer perception of risk, Stevens says.
Infected cows experience lower milk production, and infected flocks often have to be culled, thereby lowering the amount of product available to consumers. The other side of the coin is that even if consumers are assured products are safe, the association with infection may be enough to turn them away from purchasing those products. Stevens is monitoring the virus and its potential effects on consumers and producers moving forward.
