White House Reconsidering Moderna’s Bird Flu Vaccine Contract
The administration also told Vaxart Inc. to halt its research on an oral Covid vaccine, Bloomberg reports. In related news, the policy to cull poultry caught in H5N1 bird flu outbreaks will not be changed after all, but the poultry industry will see a $1 billion infusion to fight outbreaks.
Bloomberg:
Trump Team Considers Pulling Funding For Moderna Bird Flu Vaccine
US health officials are reevaluating a $590 million contract for bird flu shots that the Biden administration awarded to Moderna Inc., people familiar with the matter said. The review is part of a government push to examine spending on messenger RNA-based vaccines, the technology that powered Moderna’s Covid vaccine. The bird flu shot contract was awarded to Moderna in the Biden administration’s final days, sending the company’s stock up 13% in the two days following the Jan. 17 announcement. (Muller, Griffin and Swetlitz, 2/26)
CBS News:
U.S. Officials Walk Back Plans To Stop Culling Poultry For Bird Flu
U.S. Department of Agriculture officials said Wednesday that there are "no anticipated changes" to the current federal policy requiring poultry to be culled in response to bird flu outbreaks, which have driven up egg prices to record highs in recent months. The decision marks a rebuke of an idea floated by Trump administration officials in recent weeks to change the policy. More than 35 million birds have been killed in response to bird flu outbreaks in commercial flocks so far this year, according to the USDA's figures. (Tin, 2/26)
Stat:
Trump Administration Shifts Bird Flu Policy From Health To Egg Prices
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced Wednesday an additional $1 billion to help the nation’s poultry industry combat an accelerating outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza, which has devastated farmers and driven the price of eggs to record highs. The infusion is part of a new strategy under the Trump administration that aims to boost financial relief to farmers whose flocks have been affected by the bird flu and aid in increasing biosecurity measures to prevent the spread from wild birds to domestic poultry operations. It also sets aside funds to develop vaccines and therapeutics for laying chickens. (Molteni and Branswell, 2/26)
CIDRAP:
CDC Shares Clinical And Sequencing Details From 3 Recent Human H5N1 Cases
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today shared new sequencing findings on samples from two people with H5N1 avian flu infections, one a patient from Wyoming who was hospitalized after contact with backyard poultry and the other a dairy worker from Nevada. It also fleshed out clinical findings for the two patients, plus another from Ohio. (Schnirring, 2/26)
Also —
The New York Times:
Trump Administration Ends Global Health Research Program
An obscure but influential program that gave detailed public health information to about half of the world’s nations will fold as a result of the Trump administration’s freeze on foreign aid. With funding from the United States Agency for International Development, the Demographic and Health Surveys were the only sources of information in many countries about maternal and child health and mortality, nutrition, reproductive health and H.I.V. infections, among many other health indicators. (Mandavilli, 2/26)
MedPage Today:
Proposed Legislation Targets Breaking Up NIAID
Proposed legislation, should it make its way through Congress, would dismantle the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) as it currently exists, replacing it with three separate research institutes. The bill would replace NIAID with a new National Institute of Allergic Diseases, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, and National Institute of Immunologic Diseases, according to an announcement from its sponsor, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas). (Henderson, 2/26)
