Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Dairy Cows Must Be Tested For Bird Flu Before Moving States: USDA
NBC News: USDA Orders Dairy Cows To Be Tested For Bird Flu If Moved Across State Lines
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Wednesday issued a federal order that any dairy cows being transported from one farm to another across state lines should be tested for bird flu. The new order comes one day after the Food and Drug Administration said that fragments of the bird flu virus were found in samples of pasteurized milk on store shelves. (Edwards and Syal, 4/25)
NPR: What Consumers Should Know About The Milk Testing Positive For Bird Flu
The FDA said there haven't been any studies specifically on whether pasteurization inactivates bird flu in cow's milk because bovine infections are so new. However, it added that previous studies have shown that pasteurization is "very likely to effectively inactivate heat-sensitive viruses, like H5N1" and that pasteurization has inactivated bird flu in eggs, a process that occurs at a lower temperature than for milk. The FDA said it detected bird flu in milk using quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) tests, which "do not represent actual virus that may be a risk to consumers." (Hernandez, 4/24)
The Washington Post: As Bird Flu Spreads In Cows, Fractured U.S. Response Has Echoes Of Early Covid
Federal agencies with competing interests are slowing the country’s ability to track and control an outbreak of highly virulent bird flu that for the first time is infecting cows in the United States, according to government officials and health and industry experts. The response has echoes of the early days of 2020, when the coronavirus began its deadly march around the world. (Sun and Roubein, 4/25)
On the covid-19 pandemic —
The Washington Post: Fauci Agrees To Testify In Congress On Covid Origins, Pandemic Policies
Anthony S. Fauci has agreed to testify in front of the House panel investigating the nation’s coronavirus response, the first time the prominent infectious-disease expert will publicly face Congress since leaving government nearly 1½ years ago. Fauci, who helped steer the Trump and Biden administrations’ efforts to fight the virus, is scheduled to testify June 3 in front of the House Oversight select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic, with lawmakers expected to press him on the still-unknown origins of the pandemic, the government’s vaccine mandates and other issues that remain politically divisive, more than four years after the outbreak began. (Diamond, 4/24)
CIDRAP: Data: Optimal Initiation Of Paxlovid In Hospitalized COVID Patients Is 3 To 5 Days
Taking the SARS-CoV-2 antiviral drug nirmatrelvir-ritonavir (Paxlovid) 3 to 5 days after COVID-19 symptom onset—not earlier or later—may result in the greatest reduction in viral loads, viral transmission, and viral rebound in hospitalized patients, a University of Hong Kong–led study finds. (Van Beusekom, 4/24)
Another pig kidney transplant —
CNN: Surgeons Perform First Combined Heart Pump And Pig Kidney Transplant
The first transplant surgery to combine a mechanical heart pump as well as a gene-edited pig kidney has been completed at NYU Langone Health, the system said Wednesday. (Dillinger, 4/24)
