Biden admin preparing vaccines for bird flu pandemic

The Biden administration is stockpiling vaccines in preparation for a bird flu pandemic.

US government ‘looking closely’ at vaccination campaign

Pfizer and Moderna, both manufacturers of mRNA vaccines, are in talks with the federal government to mass-manufacture vaccines for the H5N1 strain of bird flu. According to Reuters, the government maintains stockpiles of vaccine prototypes for different flu strains and is conducting clinical trials. Once a pandemic is announced, the government will present a vaccine to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for Emergency Use Authorization.

Public health authorities are already considering vaccinating farm employees against the bird flu, along with anyone else who is considered to be in close contact with the virus. Dawn O’Connell at the US Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, a body within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), says the government is “looking closely” at a vaccination campaign. It is unclear whether the shots will be optional.

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital Virologist Dr. Richard Webby, who researches bird and animal flu for the World Health Organization (WHO), says bird flu vaccines are necessary.

"If we look at the exposure levels that some of these farmers are getting, it's high," he said.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah said the federal government will determine how and when to use the vaccines based on certain factors. These include the severity of the disease, the transmission rate, mutations in the virus, and how it affects people who have no links to the virus.

Bird flu by the numbers

Two Americans have been infected by H5N1 in recent years, including a Michigan dairy worker in May and a Texas dairy worker in April.

In over 21 years, there were just 889 reported cases of human infection from H5N1 globally, according to the WHO. The organization says the fatality rate has been recorded at 52%.

FDA finds no viable virus in recent dairy samples

The FDA reported last month that its study of hundreds of dairy samples were negative for the virus:

Last week we announced preliminary results of a study of 297 retail dairy samples, which were all found to be negative for viable virus. The FDA is today announcing that all final egg inoculation tests associated with this retail sampling study have been completed and were also found to be negative for viable HPAI H5N1 virus.

Canadian and European officials are also considering a vaccine rollout. Stefan De Keersmaecker, spokesman for the European Commission's Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority, says the European Commission is eyeing the Seqirus vaccine made by CSL to "potentially prevent a pandemic.”

Will a bird flu pandemic usher in the One Health agenda?

A bird flu pandemic would validate the WHO’s One Health Agenda, which seeks to make any driver of climate change a public health threat.

The One Health approach to healthcare dictates that climate change is the driving factor behind problems in human health. For example, they claim, warmer climates can fuel tick infestations which can bring with them deadly diseases like Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever (CCHF). Changing weather patterns can spread bird flu.

Therefore, the WHO’s One Health agenda states that because pandemic diseases are zoonotic and spread from animals to humans, human health must be looked at in the context of animals and the environment or what is called the “human-animal-environment interface.” 

One Health, which has been highly endorsed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), would prioritize climate change over human health in some regard. If the climate is the chief determinant of the health of all living things, all sacrifices for the climate can be justified. A zoonotic outbreak, therefore, could open the door for climate mandates like lockdowns and forced vaccinations to stop the spread.

Indeed, the WHO last year paired with the Rockefeller Foundation to search for “climate pandemics.” And it also partnered last June with the European Commission to develop international vaccine passports as drugmakers call for “climate vaccinations.”

All this is supported by One Health, which is a cornerstone of the WHO’s pandemic treaty.