The United States will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to strengthen the national response to bird flu, President Joe Biden’s outgoing administration announced Friday, just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration. The $306 million in funding will support national, state and local preparedness and surveillance programs, as well as medical research against the H5N1 virus.
“Although the risk to humans is low, we are still preparing for all possible scenarios,” US Health Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement. “Preparation is the key to keeping Americans healthy and our country safe,” he added. The United States has detected 66 human cases of bird flu since the beginning of 2024 and others may have gone undetected, according to officials.
Skepticism
No person-to-person spread of the disease has been observed, but the level of virus circulation concerns researchers. The risk is that it will mix with the seasonal flu, which could trigger a deadly pandemic, like those of 1918 and 2009. This announcement comes at a time when concerns are emerging about how the Trump administration will handle the threat.
The president-elect told Time magazine in April that he would eliminate the White House office in charge of preparing the response to the next pandemic, created under the Joe Biden administration, although it is not certain that he can do so, since this body was created by Congress. His Health Department nominee, Robert Kennedy Jr., is notoriously skeptical of vaccines and has promised to reform health agencies.
raw milk
Robert Kennedy Jr also promoted raw milk, considered a vector for bird flu. The Biden administration also faces criticism for its response to bird flu, which some consider insufficient. In a report published in December, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based research institute, particularly criticized the authorities’ “incomplete surveillance” and “slow coordination.”
Another cause for concern: The bird flu virus may have mutated in the body of an American patient to adapt to the human respiratory tract, US health authorities announced in late December. Health authorities are also closely monitoring the increase in cases of avian flu among felines, which could put their owners at “risk” of contracting the disease through close contact.
Source: BFM TV
