Communication freezing of the Trump Administration restricted to critical information of the bird flu

Over the past four years, the H5N1 virus, also known as the bird flu, ravaged wild bird populations, spread in other species and infects poultry and dairy cows. At least 67 human cases have been reported, each slightly increasing the chances of another pandemic like COVID-19. Researchers and public health officials have made efforts to better understand how the bird flu was transmitted between species to prevent it from mutating in something that could become a virus with pandemic potential.

However, the Trump administration has blocked the publication of some of the information used to protect against H5N1 and understand this risk, including studies that show how often veterinarians who treat cows had been infected without knowing it.

Veterinarians and public health officials say that and other information frozen in the “immediate break” on the communication issued by the Trump administrator who caused chaos and generalized confusion in a full pandemic.

“There was a serology study that was going to be reported on veterinarians with direct contact with livestock,” said Dr. Abraar Karan, infectious doctor in Stanford University. “It would be very interesting information because many of us working in this space suspect that unteashed impacts occur.”

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In California, overall the largest milk supplier in the country, as well as the epicenter of the bird flu crisis, more than 70% of dairy herds have been infected. In the United States, about half of avian flu infections have occurred in humans in the United States have occurred in people working in dairy farms in California. Earlier this month, the first human death in this bird flu epidemic was reported in Louisiana, although this person was exposed through a flock of backyard.

“We want to know what is the risk here, in particular with this new highly pathogenic avian influenza strain which is now reported in a Californian duck farm, H5N9,” said Crystal Heath, veterinarian and executive director of our Honor, a organization non -profit that supports veterinarians. “Are we at a higher risk than even dairy people due to the nature of our work?” Should we accelerate the PPE (personal protective equipment)? »»

The results of these studies were to be presented in the weekly report in the morbidity and mortality of centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has not lacked publication since its beginning. Other results of an exploring study if the virus could be transmitted to PET cats should also be presented, but was not, as Kff Health News reported.

The delays result from a service note sent on the first day of mandate of President Donald Trump, in which Dorothy Fink of the Ministry of Health and Social Services (HHS) asked that no information be shared with the public and Without engaging in all public speaking events until they “been revised and approved by a presidential man”.

The Trump administration has also published a service note that froze federal funding for research programs, schools and other organizations that rely on federal dollars to cancel it a few days later.

In a statement, a CDC spokesperson told Salon that the HHS had issued that it was a “short break to allow the new team to set up a process of examination and hierarchy” , and that exceptions can be made to this announcement, but that these will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

Together, the burst of the White House action during the first week of Trump’s office also led to the cancellation of various scientific meetings and led to delays and confusion for researchers having grants approved subsidies To study things like bird flu.

Experts say that communications freezing comes at a time when public surveillance and awareness should increase due to the continuous propagation of bird flu across the country. The recent appearance of the new strain of the bird flu, H5N9 in Ducks in California, is the last development that shows that the virus changes in a relevant way. Indeed, this indicates that the virus has probably already undergone a process of viral restocking, in which the virus evolves to become something more dangerous for humans.

“The (Trump administration) said that the break was to set up a process of examining and hierarchy communication,” said Heath at a living room in a telephone interview. “But on the basis of the management of Trump of COVID-19 during the previous administration, I fear that their examination and hierarchy process can constitute an even greater threat to public health.”