H5N1 bird flu spreads among US cattle herds; US awards Moderna a deal for mRNA vaccine (ETA cancelled under Trump 2.0)

[essentialsaltes]

Bird flu, feared as a possible pandemic, poses growing risk to people as pathogen spreads, scientists warn​

Bird flu has been circling the globe for decades. So the discovery in 2024 that the deadly pathogen had jumped from a wild bird to a cow came as a shock to virus watchers. Now, in just over a year, the virus has ripped through America's dairy herds and poultry flocks. It has jumped to other mammals – including humans. Seventy Americans [that we know of] have caught the virus, one has died.

It started in Texas. In early 2024, cows were suffering from a mysterious disease: their fevers spiked, their milk dried up, they were coughing, drooling, lethargic. Soon there were more sick cattle in neighboring states. Kay Russo joined a conference call of worried vets to try to figure it out.

Dr. Kay Russo: I started asking questions. "What are the birds doing on the farm?" And one of the veterinarians replied, "well, they're all dead."

Next, Dr. Kamran Khan showed us a map of all the confirmed human cases of bird flu in the last five years. Most have been in Asia – until now.

Dr. Kamran Khan: What you start to see around 2024 is you start to see a case in Texas, and then you start to see this sudden, rapid increase in [human] cases across the country.

Dr. Kamran Khan: What's happening here is wild birds have infected cows, who have then infected other cows, who have then infected humans. And so there's this complex web of all of these different animal species now passing the virus in different directions.

Bill Whitaker: Is this one of those things you have never seen before?

Dr. Kamran Khan: The world has never seen this kind of situation and it's showing us that the virus is capable of adaption. If you allow it, it will just get better and better at infecting other mammals, including potentially humans.

There is a [human] vaccine for bird flu, but it has not been licensed by the Food and Drug Administration. Moderna has a new one – but the Trump administration has paused its final funding. There are vaccines for poultry too – but they haven't been used because many of America's trading partners will not import vaccinated birds.

 

[essentialsaltes]

HHS cancels nearly $600 million Moderna contract on vaccines for flu pandemics (including bird flu)​

 

[Desk trauma]

HHS cancels nearly $600 million Moderna contract on vaccines for flu pandemics (including bird flu)​

Grandfather approves.

 

[DaisyDay]

HHS cancels nearly $600 million Moderna contract on vaccines for flu pandemics (including bird flu)​

RFK JR is on a path of elimination chronic disease by having people die of acute, preventable diseases.

 

[wing2000]

RFK JR is on a path of elimination chronic disease by having people die of acute, preventable diseases.

...it's their grand plan to reduce Social Security and Medicare costs.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Hickman's just lost 95% of Arizona chickens to bird flu and says it will take 2 years to rebuild​

Buckeye-headquartered Hickman’s Family Farms calls itself the largest egg company in the Southwest.

At a press conference Friday, the president and CEO said 95% of his birds in Arizona have been lost to a recent outbreak of bird flu.

The announcement comes after state officials declared an animal disease emergency. Hickman’s lost about 1.1 million birds to avian flu in an earlier outbreak.

This time, the virus has claimed roughly 6 million birds.