Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Underfunded And Understaffed, FDA Isn't Meeting Foreign Food Inspection Targets
AP: Cyclospora Outbreak: FDA Foreign Inspections Have Been Down For Years
Food and Drug Administration inspections of foreign food sites — including the Mexican farm linked to the ongoing outbreak — are down nearly 35% since 2019, the year before the COVID-19 pandemic, according to agency records. The pandemic kicked off a wave of retirements and departures among FDA inspectors that continues to this day. (Perrone, 9/8)
On covid and flu —
The New York Times: RFK Jr. Hires Army Doctor Who Opposed Covid Shots To Investigate If They Killed 2,500 Troops
The Department of Health and Human Services has hired an Army doctor with a history of questioning the safety of Covid vaccines to investigate unsubstantiated claims that more than 2,500 U.S. service members died after receiving the shots. The hiring of Lt. Col. Theresa Long, who has no specialized training in vaccines or viruses, is part of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s intense campaign to explore long-held and baseless theories about the hazards of vaccines. (Mandavilli and Hoffman, 9/4)
The New York Times: Medical Groups Issue Guidance on Covid, Flu and R.S.V. Shots
With the respiratory virus season approaching, pharmacies and doctors’ offices are starting to offer annual vaccines to protect against Covid, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus. On Wednesday, major medical organizations issued recommendations for all three vaccines, based on reviews of the latest evidence published in the medical journal JAMA. They said they were filling a gap left by the Trump administration in “evidence-based vaccine guidance.” (Astor and Blum, 9/2)
The New York Times: Inside The D.O.J.’s Investigation Of Fauci And Other Virus Scientists
As Dr. Anthony Fauci has faced public scrutiny from congressional Republicans, the D.O.J. has pursued a quieter and more expansive effort against a wider circle of researchers. (Mueller and Thrush, 9/5)
The Sick Times: Department Of Defense Funds $8 Million Grant For Long COVID Trials
The U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is funding a new clinical trials program for Long COVID with an initial grant of $8 million. Called PROBE-PASC, the program will focus on mechanistic trials that will study the disease’s underlying biology in tandem with testing promising treatments. (Ladyzhets, 9/1)
CIDRAP: COVID-19 May Trigger The Same Immune Pathway As Lupus
The immune system is the body’s most important defense against disease. It does its essential work by producing proteins called antibodies, which scour the body for disease-causing bacteria, viruses, and other pathogens. But sometimes the immune system malfunctions and produces autoantibodies (Abs), proteins that mistakenly target the body’s own tissues instead of finding and destroying illness-causing invaders. This is the case in some COVID-infected people, in whom autoantibodies are linked to severe illness, persistent symptoms, and an increased risk of new-onset autoimmune disease. (Bergeson, 9/3)
CIDRAP: Longer Paxlovid Treatment Shows No Benefit For Long-COVID Symptoms, Study Suggests
Taking the antiviral drug Paxlovid (nirmatrelvir–ritonavir) for up to 25 days did not improve cognitive issues, autonomic symptoms like dizziness and shortness of breath, or exercise intolerance in adults with long COVID, according to a US randomized controlled trial published yesterday in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. (Bergeson, 9/1)
On measles, dengue, and screwworm —
The New York Times: Six-Week-Old Infant Died From Measles, Lancaster Coroner Says
The Lancaster County coroner has determined that a six-week-old child in Pennsylvania died from measles. The child, who died last month, had a rare genetic disorder called Amish microcephaly, which can make a child vulnerable to respiratory infections, Dr. Stephen Diamantoni, the county coroner, said on Friday. Last week, state officials announced two measles deaths in Lancaster County, amid an expanding outbreak that has sickened 540 people and hospitalized more than 90. Controversy broke out almost immediately after state officials made that announcement. (Rosenbluth, 9/4)
Fox News: Dengue Spreads Locally In Southern State As Mosquito-Control Officials Race To Contain Virus
Florida mosquito-control agencies are stepping up surveillance, inspections and spraying, as officials expect the number of locally acquired dengue fever cases in Tampa Bay and across the state to rise in the coming weeks. As of Sept. 1, the number of dengue fever cases originating in Florida this year had climbed to 33 in Tampa Bay and 41 statewide. Cases are predicted to increase, Fox 13 Tampa Bay reported. (Mull, 9/7)
NOTUS: Screwworm Cases Are Going Down. Experts Are Suspicious.
America’s fight against the New World screwworm was expected to be a multiyear effort, yet the number of new cases has dropped to a surprisingly low level. Only four cases of screwworm were detected in the U.S. in August and none of them in cattle, according to a dashboard maintained by the Agriculture Department. In June, there had been 30 cases detected, and an expectation that the fight against the screwworm had a long way to go. (Spence, 9/8)
CNN: A Billion Flies Are Now In The Screwworm Fight. Will There Be Enough?
A lot is riding on the shiny green backs of large red-eyed sterile flies that scientists from the United States, Mexico and Panama have been raising. The US government just released its billionth fly into Texas from a facility that opened in June in Chiapas, Mexico, near the Guatemalan border, and its sister operation in Panama in order to fight a pest that could cause $2.5 billion in damage in the Southwest US alone. (Christensen, 9/7)
More public health news from across the globe —
CIDRAP: Scientists In China Discover New Tick-Borne Virus That Causes Flu-Like Illness
Scientists in China have identified a novel tick-borne virus that causes an influenza-like illness characterized by fever, fatigue, gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms, and abnormal lab findings. The team, led by researchers from the State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity in Beijing, has designated the new orthonairovirus as the Asian longhorned tick nairovirus (ALTNV). (Van Beusekom, 9/3)
AP: Congo’s Ebola Burial Teams Battle Community Anger, Fatigue And Fear Of Infection
Yuma Adolphe and his team are responsible for the safe and dignified burial of some of the people who die from Ebola in Congo’s Ituri province, the epicenter of history’s deadliest Ebola outbreak. Nearly every day, they dig the graves, prepare the bodies and handle the coffins. But as the authorities grapple with the outbreak, which has killed nearly 3,200 people among more than 6,600 confirmed cases, the burial team says they are at their limits, struggling with an increasing workload and hostile communities. (Bagalwa and Adetayo, 9/7)
AP: Chimps Once Used For Hepatitis B Vaccine Research Receive Care
A group of chimpanzees once used in laboratory hepatitis B vaccine experiments has received health checks at their new home in Liberia, in hopes of giving them a second chance at a normal life. The West African chimpanzees received checks ranging from teeth cleaning to X-rays and pedicures at the Humane World for Animals’ Second Chance Chimpanzee Refuge in central Liberia, Liliana Pacheco Ricote, director of the sanctuary, told The Associated Press. More than 400 of the chimpanzees had been used by American researchers in Liberia in the hepatitis B vaccine experiments from the 1970s until the early 2000s, Ricote said, many of them captured in the wild as infants. (Asadu, 9/5)
