Posts

Moderna Awarded $590M to Help Accelerate Development of mRNA-Based Bird Flu Vaccine: HHS

/0 Comments/in , /by

Moderna has been awarded approximately $590 million from the federal government to help speed up the development of an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine, alongside other influenza vaccines, health officials announced Friday.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a press release that the funding will allow the pharmaceutical company to accelerate the development of an H5N1 mRNA influenza vaccine “that is well matched to strains currently circulating in cows and birds and expands the clinical data supporting the use of mRNA vaccines that may be needed if other influenza strains emerge with pandemic potential.”

Moderna said the funding will support the expansion of clinical studies “for up to five additional subtypes of pandemic influenza.”

The U.S. government previously awarded the vaccine manufacturer $176 million in July 2024 to help expedite the development of an mRNA vaccine that could be used for bird flu.

mRNA technology is the same type that was used in the development of some COVID-19 vaccines. While some vaccines use a weakened or inactive virus to stimulate an immune response, mRNA vaccines teach the body how to make proteins that can trigger an immune response and fight off an infection. (Read more from “Moderna Awarded $590M to Help Accelerate Development of mRNA-Based Bird Flu Vaccine: HHS” HERE)

Governor Declares State of Emergency After 1st ‘Severe’ Human Bird Flu Hits U.S.

/0 Comments/in , /by

In a move reminiscent of his overreaching COVID-19 policies, California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in response to the recent bird flu outbreak.

This decision follows the confirmation of the first severe human case in the United States—a patient in Louisiana hospitalized with critical respiratory illness.

“The patient is experiencing severe respiratory illness related to H5N1 infection and is currently hospitalized in critical condition,” said Emma Herrock, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Health.

“While an investigation into the source of this infection in Louisiana is ongoing, it is believed that the patient that was reported by Louisiana had exposure to sick or dead birds on their property,” said Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

Since April 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported 61 human cases nationwide, primarily presenting mild symptoms. (Read more from “Governor Declares State of Emergency After 1st ‘Severe’ Human Bird Flu Hits U.S.” HERE)

USDA Bird Flu Research in China Sparks Congressional Concern

/5 Comments/in , /by

Research on highly pathogenic strains of bird flu conducted by the Department of Agriculture in affiliation with Chinese Communist Party scientific researchers is drawing renewed scrutiny from representatives in Congress following the growing outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows this month.

A bipartisan group of representatives in the House began probing the USDA this month regarding two collaborative research projects with the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducting potentially dangerous research on several strains of avian influenza that are genetically similar to the H5N1 strain currently circulating in the United States.

This heightened scrutiny comes as outside observers of the bird flu outbreak note that the situation is eerily similar to the secrecy of January and February 2020 before the official beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) joined a group of 20 legislators in sending a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilkas on April 12, saying they were “disturbed” that U.S. taxpayer funds were being allocated for research that “could potentially generate dangerous new lab-created virus strains that threaten our national security and public health.”

Griffith told the Washington Examiner this week that he is highly concerned about the USDA’s research, considering the history of biosecurity failures in U.S.-funded virus research in China. (Read more from “USDA Bird Flu Research in China Sparks Congressional Concern” HERE)

Thanksgiving Turkeys Cost More Than Ever After Bird Flu Wipeout

/2 Comments/in , /by

To make sure all 15 of the Busch’s Fresh Food Market stores had enough turkeys over 22 pounds (10 kilograms) to sell for Thanksgiving this month, meat buyer John Taormina began ordering in January. He didn’t end up with a single one of the big birds, which last year accounted for more than a third of what the Michigan company sold for the holiday.

After the worst-ever U.S. outbreak of avian influenza destroyed almost 8 million turkeys earlier this year, there are fewer of them, and those that remain are smaller than normal. That’s boosting wholesale costs for grocers to a record, and consumer prices are the highest ever for this time of year. Americans will eat about 49 million turkeys for Thanksgiving holiday meals on Nov. 26, or roughly one of every five that will be consumed all year.

“The larger-sized birds will be difficult to get this year,” Taormina said, adding that the biggest available at his upscale stores will be 20 pounds to 22 pounds, which is big enough to feed about 15 people. Turkey is “center-of-the-plate for this holiday, so typically families get together and they’re looking for the bigger-sized” birds, he said.

Some turkey farmers haven’t recovered from a six-month outbreak that ended in June, and many were forced to sell birds earlier than normal and at smaller sizes, said Russ Whitman, vice president at commodity researcher Urner Barry in Bayville, New Jersey. Production fell to a five-year low, and the September weight decline for turkeys was the biggest for that month in four decades, U.S. Department of Agriculture data show.

Wholesale, fresh turkey hens surged 18 percent from a year earlier to a record $1.5993 a pound as of Nov. 6, and frozen turkeys were up 5.6 percent at $1.309 a pound, after touching an all-time high of $1.385 a week earlier, USDA data show. The agency estimates birds at slaughter weighed 29.7 pounds in September, down 2.8 percent from a year earlier and the biggest decline for that month since 1973. (Read more from “Thanksgiving Turkeys Cost More Than Ever After Bird Flu Wipeout” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

Iowa Reports More ‘Probable’ Bird Flu Cases

/1 Comment/in , /by

beautiful-birds-wallpapers_blue-bird-wallpaper-freeThe highly pathogenic H5 avian flu turned up in initial tests at five more farms in Iowa, including a commercial egg operation housing up to 5.5 million birds, Iowa’s agriculture department said on Thursday.

If the virus is confirmed at the farms in additional tests under way at a U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory, the total number of American cases could surpass 20 million birds and result in the biggest death toll in a bird flu outbreak in U.S. history.

Avian flu at the egg farm in Buena Vista County, where workers saw an unexpected jump in bird deaths before the flock was tested, could be the largest single farm operation to be hit in the current outbreak.

The egg farm’s owner, Rembrandt Foods, one of the top U.S. egg producers, confirmed the outbreak but disputed the number of birds affected. The state did not identify the affected farm by name.

Avian flu was “probable” at four other commercial farms in Buena Vista, Sioux and Clay counties, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship said. If the virus is confirmed at all five farms in the coming days, the number of sites where H5 has been found in Iowa would rise to 17. (Read more from “Iowa Reports More ‘Probable’ Bird Flu Cases” HERE)

Follow Joe Miller on Twitter HERE and Facebook HERE.

China’s H7N9 Killer Bird Flu Virus Has Now Spread to Dozens, 24% Mortality Rate

/0 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: anthrovikHealth officials in China reported two new H7N9 infections, both from Fujian province, and four more deaths, boosting the outbreak’s total to 130 cases, 31 of them (24%) fatal.

One of the patients is a 9-year-old boy whose infection was detected during routine flu surveillance, according to official and media reports today. He has been discharged from the hospital, according to a statement Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP).

The other patient is a 69-year-old man who is hospitalized, according to a separate statement yesterday from the CHP. So far none of the man’s nine close contacts have shown any symptoms.

China’s National Health and Family Commission today put the number of deaths at 31, an increase of four since the group’s last update, Xinhua, China’s state news agency, reported today. The report did not include any other details about the deaths. The report also said 42 patients have recovered from their H7N9 infections.

In other developments, China’s agriculture ministry yesterday announced five more poultry and market environmental samples that tested positive for H7N9, according to a report from the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)…

Read more from this story HERE.

Chinese Create New Strains of Bird Flu in Lab

/0 Comments/in , /by

Senior scientists have criticised the “appalling irresponsibility” of researchers in China who have deliberately created new strains of influenza virus in a veterinary laboratory.

They warned there is a danger that the new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of people.

Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientist and past president of the Royal Society, denounced the study published today in the journal Science as doing nothing to further the understanding and prevention of flu pandemics.

“They claim they are doing this to help develop vaccines and such like. In fact the real reason is that they are driven by blind ambition with no common sense whatsoever,” Lord May told The Independent.

“The record of containment in labs like this is not reassuring. They are taking it upon themselves to create human-to-human transmission of very dangerous viruses. It’s appallingly irresponsible,” he said.

Read more from this story HERE.