New strain of bird flu is detected in a Nevada dairy worker, CDC says https://t.co/8nmcZxwuy6
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 11, 2025
A dairy worker in Nevada was infected with a new type of bird flu that’s different from the version that has been spreading in U.S. herds since last year, federal health officials said Monday.
The illness was considered mild. The person’s main symptom was eye redness and irritation, similar to most bird flu cases associated with dairy cows. The person wasn’t hospitalized and has recovered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The newer strain had been seen before in more than a dozen people exposed to poultry, but this is the first time an infection was traced to a cow. The Nevada dairy worker was exposed at a farm in Churchill County, in the west central part of the state, state health officials said.
CDC officials said there is no evidence the virus has spread from this person to any other people. The agency continues to say the virus poses a low risk to the general public…
1. This time last year, the US had only ever recorded 1 human infection with #H5N1 #birdflu, in 2022. With the confirmation of an infection in a Nevada dairyworker, there've now been 69 confirmed cases in 11 states.
— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) February 10, 2025 at 4:19 PM
2. The Nevada worker had conjunctivitis but has recovered. He/she was infected with a different version of #H5N1, a D1.1 virus. It triggered severe disease in a Canadian teen & a person in Louisiana died from D1.1 infection. But in 14 other known cases, infection was mild.
— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) February 10, 2025 at 4:19 PM
#USDA confirmed 5 more #H5N1 #birdflu infected dairy herds today, bringing the state's total to 744 herds. CA's Dept of Food & Ag says 280 of those herds have recovered/cleared quarantine. The cumulative national total is 967 herds in 16 states. www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-po…
— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 10:29 AM
Avian flu strikes more poultry flocks in 7 states and more cats
USDA testing confirmed detections in cats from California, Montana, and Oregon.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/a…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 4:50 PM
Feb 7th update:
CDC data still available! A flattening or slight increase in transmission this week. WWScan and ED data have a slightly different trend (follow-up). Current estimates:
🔸540,000 new infections/day
🔸~1 in 62 currently infected— JPWeiland (@jpweiland.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Emergency department and WWScan data showed a more significant decline and a flattening compared to NWSS data, and are more similar to my forecast. What's the true story? Maybe somewhere in between.
— JPWeiland (@jpweiland.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 7:32 PM
Last night's update: More than 1,000 new deaths for the first time since September https://t.co/JDWrEYh4zu
— BNO News (@BNOFeed) February 11, 2025
#COVID vaccination saved more than 5,000 US lives in 7 months in 2023-24, CDC estimates
An estimated 68,315 hospitalizations, 13,108 ICU admissions, and 5,301 in-hospital deaths may have been prevented.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 3:28 PM
The CDC just updated the SARS-CoV-2 genomics for the first time in 3 weeks, still a week behind by date
There's a small increase in the % LP.8.1variant, but otherwise stable.
This is one of the main reasons we did not have a notable Covid wave over the holiday season and now 👍— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) February 7, 2025 at 5:30 PM
The immune response from the Covid boosters introduced last September is holding up very well against current circulating variants 👍https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(25)00058-1/fulltext
— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 10:00 AM
Only 22.8% of adults in the US have had that booster. Many high-risk folks age 65+ could benefit from protection vs hospitalization and death. Still ~400 deaths per week from Covid now
— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 10:06 AM
======
Persistent SARS-CoV-2 virus or its remnants are considered to one of the underpinnings of Long Covid. A new review on the mechanism, candidate treatments, and ongoing trials targeting the virus reservoir
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti…— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 7:23 PM
Nearly 15% of #long-COVID patients have cardiovascular symptoms, most often chest pain
Clinicians should monitor post-COVID cardiovascular symptoms, even in patients without a history of cardiovascular disease, the authors say.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Green light by FDA for another Covid nasal vaccine Phase 1 trial, one that is already approved in India, derived from WashU IP
scitechdaily.com/fda-greenlig…
This adds to the "shots on goal" of 2 other nasal vaccine programs to block infections, supported by Project NextGen— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) February 11, 2025 at 2:34 PM
Data: Despite high risk of poor outcomes, only 1% of pregnant #COVID patients given antiviral
The rate of antiviral prescriptions was 67% lower in pregnant than in nonpregnant women, including those with one or more high-risk underlying conditions.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) February 10, 2025 at 12:30 PM
On the big shift of #SARSCoV2 when Omicron came along, with a profound drop in protection from prior Covid or vaccination–> reinfections
nature.com/articles/s41…— Eric Topol (@erictopol.bsky.social) February 5, 2025 at 11:26 AM
Post-infection immunity may wane faster after #SARS-CoV-2 Omicron than after previous strains
Immunity after infection with pre-Omicron strains was 81%, regardless of symptoms, compared with 54% for Omicron.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…
Photo: NIAID / Flickr cc— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 3:59 PM
#Mri scans reveal enlarged hippocampus in long #Covid and ME/CFS patients, highlighting potential links in cognitive symptoms. This finding may advance understanding of these conditions' neurological impacts. @griffith_uni @PLOSONE https://t.co/Y1qoNt309w https://t.co/bWHaGJfOgi
— Medical Xpress (@medical_xpress) February 11, 2025
Financial incentives did not increase COVID vaccine uptake, study finds
The effect of financial incentives on primary and booster vaccinations was nonsignificant.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) February 10, 2025 at 3:40 PM
Nearly 30% of cats, dogs owned by #COVID patients had SARS-CoV-2 antibodies by 2021
In total, 5% of dogs and 13% of cats tested positive for COVID-19 on polymerase chain reaction, and 25% and 36%, respectively, had SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/c…— CIDRAP (@cidrap.bsky.social) February 5, 2025 at 11:15 AM
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A health board’s ban on coronavirus shots in its Idaho clinics offers a glimpse of RFK Jr.’s vaccine-skeptical America
www.washingtonpost.com/health/2025/…— Catherine Rampell (@crampell.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 4:01 PM
CALDWELL, Idaho — The doctor beamed onto a health clinic video screen in October to convince the regional health board to ban public clinics in southwest Idaho from giving the coronavirus vaccine to the district’s 335,000 residents.
Ryan Cole, a pathologist who touted his expertise in immunology and virology, called the vaccines “experimental gene therapy” and “all risk, zero benefit,” falsely describing the shots that helped the country recover from a pandemic that has killed more than 1.2 million Americans.
“We shouldn’t give untested products to the citizens of Idaho,” said Cole, accusing Pfizer of contaminating its vaccine with “a known carcinogen.” The federal government and medical experts say that the vaccines have gone through rigorous studies and that there is no evidence the shots cause cancer.
What Cole did not reveal during the meeting: The Washington state medical board had restricted his medical license the previous January after determining he had made “numerous demonstrably false” statements about the coronavirus vaccine, among other pandemic-related topics, according to disciplinary documents…
Nevertheless, the regional health board in Idaho voted 4-3 that October afternoon to prohibit the district’s four public health clinics from distributing the coronavirus vaccine, three years after the vaccine became widely available — a sign of skepticism over its use that has only deepened as widespread death and fear during the pandemic fade from public memory. The board, one of seven in the state, covers six counties.
It marked the first time in the United States that access to a vaccine has been curtailed because of a local health board deeming it to be unsafe despite federal assurances, according to Adriane Casalotti, chief of government and public affairs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials…
Idaho is especially vulnerable to the consequences of vaccine misinformation, physicians say. About 14 percent of Idaho kindergartners received exemptions from providing proof of state-required childhood immunizations in the 2023-2024 school year — the highest rate in the country, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Idaho has long led the nation in nonmedical vaccine exemptions, but the rate has nearly doubled since the 2019-2020 school year.
“Idaho’s exemption rate is a wildfire of preventable disease waiting to happen,” said Kelly Moore, a physician who leads Immunize.org, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based nonprofit focused on vaccination education for health-care professionals…
SCOOP: Cats that became infected with bird flu might have spread the virus to humans in the same household and vice versa, according to data that briefly appeared online in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but then abruptly vanished.
www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/h…— Apoorva Mandavilli (@apoorvanyt.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 6:15 PM
The backsliding on vaccines is awful but the backsliding on basic germ theory is grim in its own way.
Yes, it's "natural" for humans and pets to eat raw meat. It's also just as "natural" to die from the numerous pathogens in it. That's nature; nature is always trying to kill you and your pet.— Max Kennerly (@maxkennerly.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 9:37 AM
P.S. Yes, America too still has ‘wet markets’ — even in some of the most crowded urban areas!
— SARS‑CoV‑2 (COVID-19) (@COVID19_disease) February 7, 2025
#CDC has issued a health alert warning HCWs & travelers that there's an #Ebola Sudan outbreak in Uganda. The former should be on the lookout for cases; the latter should monitor for symptoms for 21 days after leaving Uganda.
Nice to see CDC allowed to do its job.
www.cdc.gov/han/2025/han…— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 12:14 PM
Watching this one closely. Like many outbreaks we have seen before vaccine hesitancy, lack of information and transparency, fear, community beliefs all make the response to the outbreak more challenging.
www.aljazeera.com/features/202…— BK. Titanji (@boghuma.bsky.social) February 10, 2025 at 7:09 AM
#Ebola in Uganda: Confirmed cases up to 7, all contacts of the first confirmed case, the male nurse who died on 1/29. That is the only death so far. Other cases are family members or health workers who treated the nurse. Nearly 300 contacts have been identified & are being monitored. (source: #WHO)
— Helen Branswell (@helenbranswell.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 6:48 AM
9/ Mpox Clade I in New Hampshire , U.S
3rd confirmed US case of Clade I mpox in the US. California and Georgia have reported cases. The outbreaks in many African countries is not contained so risk for global spread remains high
www.wmur.com/article/new-…— BK. Titanji (@boghuma.bsky.social) February 9, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Again: Don’t panic:
Officials with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services said the person recently traveled to eastern Africa, where there is an ongoing outbreak of the illness.
The person, who has only been identified as an adult from Merrimack County, is isolating and recovering at home, and health officials said there is no risk to the public.
Officials said the case is likely related to the person’s recent travel, and there’s no evidence that clade I mpox is spreading from person to person in New Hampshire or within the United States…
On The Road – Mike S. (now with a Democratic Congressperson!) – Namaqualand, South Africa Part 2. Succulents big and small
Baud
I’m not interested in panicking, but I wish some voters who haven’t been panicking would panic, if that’s what it takes to change the dynamic.
The same cohort of libs continuing to panic isn’t going to change anything IMHO.
p.a
Local am news had a national story, interview w a mother who “did her own research”, moved from NY to Florida (of course) for its religious exemption. Her kids have no vaccines. Polio, measels, rubella… nope.
Just…🤬
Chetan Murthy
@Baud: These coprophages will “panic” when they decide the situation is so bad they need to start quarantining brown people. And not one day sooner.
Jeffg166
The American Medical Association has a YouTube channel doing updates that the CDC is no longer allowed to do.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=the+american+medical+association
TBone
I would honestly like to know where these good doctors are who diagnosed bird flu by conjunctivitis. If I walked in to any medical situation in my locale with pinkeye, they’d laugh and send me home with a tube of ointment forthwith. No diagnosis necessary.
TBone
@Jeffg166: gawds give them ALL the blessings!
Suzanne
These (barely) sentient corpse flowers seem to forget that the discovery of fire was a Big Deal in human civilization.
TBone
The vets at my only local emergency animal hospital (there exist no other options) are completely impervious. I would like to show them the evidence about bird flu and cats, but when I bring Noah in for his tube checkups, they are not even coming to look at him, they send an assistant into the exam room. Because I brought up bird flu several times and they poo pooed me each time, they are now embarrassed that their “diagnoses” were all incorrect. Mine may also be incorrect, but at least my “I’m not giving up on him yet” when practically ordered to euthanize him was.
Or maybe they DO consider it a possibility and don’t want to
spreadcatch it? Thus, mum’s the word? Who knows…Baud
@Suzanne:
Not a day goes by where I don’t curse my opposable thumbs.
WHY, DARWIN, WHY??!!
TBone
@TBone: PS I would give my arm for anyone of medical competence to be honest with me around this godforsaken backwater. For humans AND animals.
It’s like testing for viral infection DOES NOT EXIST for either.
Lyme Disease? Surely, you jest! Covid? Naw, you have strep throat (with no throat symptoms whatsoever?). You’re just a crazy lib snowflake white woman!
PS they were giving antibiotics for nonexistent Strep with a quickness but not a single prescription pad was wielded for Lyme.
Antibiotics are useless for viral infections. They were also given to Noah and contributed to his appetite & digestive issues until I required them to prescribe probiotics.
NotMax
@Baud
Eat moar walnuts, human.
:)
Baud
@NotMax:
You’re like a living video library AI.
MomSense
@Suzanne:
They take for granted the massive gains we made in medicine and science.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
How about a political version of outdoor humorist Patrick F. McManus’s “Modified Stationary Panic”?
This from Don’t panic: 5 things to do when you’re lost in the woods
TBone
Yes. Yes, I am ranting like a crazy white woman. Thank you all for putting up with me.
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: thank you hahahahahaha!
Central Planning
I’m just waiting for the EO that will shut down the CDC and magically cure us of all these viruses.
Or, if we have another pandemic, will the religious magas think it’s maybe god’s retribution for electing Trump?
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
That’s better advice than doomscrolling on social media.
Eunicecycle
@Central Planning: there won’t be another pandemic under Trump, because the CDC will just declare “it’s not a thing” and just ignore all the dead people.
Jeffg166
@Central Planning:
I expect a pandemic with the felon back in the White House. The alarms about the newest bird/bovine virus keep ringing.
MAGAts are tired of pandemics. Even when they start dying of the next one it won’t be real.
sentient ai from the future
@TBone: vets are, by and large, very glibertarian-oriented. Like dentists.
Soprano2
@Eunicecycle: What’s sad is that this could actually happen this time.
Scout211
In other communicable disease news, Flu cases in 2025 have surged to the the highest levels in 15 years.
. . .
Nukular Biskits
A quick post to hopefully save My blue sky profile Instead of my stupid twitter profile
Nukular Biskits
OK let’s try that
Princess
@Scout211: This year’s vax cocktail was only 50% effective against one of the major strains. Lots of even vaccinated people are getting sick. It’s a normal occurrence (vax/flu mismatch) but not helpful this year especially, as the antivax people take control.
Nukular Biskits
@TBone: @Baud:
That excerpt doesn’t do McManus’s short story justice.
stinger
@Nukular Biskits: This one works!
Nukular Biskits
@stinger:
Thanks for checking!
I thought I had updated the “website” on the BJ page on my Kindle (which I use while on the treadmill) but apparently I had not. When I went to update it just now, typing in the address didn’t work … I had to email it from my laptop to my kindle, then cut ‘n’ paste.
I’m sure I fat-fingered it but damn if I could see where.
Eunicecycle
@Soprano2: I remember when some jurisdictions were reporting no Covid deaths, because the MAGA officials refused to test and/or refused to acknowledge Covid existed. At least then we had Dr. Fauci and the woman who at least looked embarrassed at some of the stuff Trump said. Now we’ll have RFK Jr.
JeanneT
@Scout211: I’m taking part of this 2nd flu wave (even though I did get my flu shot in October). Probable source was my grandkid’s elementary school, where so many staff were sick that the classes were doubling up. Bleh.
Nukular Biskits
@JeanneT:
I’ve been on business travel out here in San Diego since New Years and it was running rampant. Probably a third of my co-workers fell ill, especially the first two weeks, with several being out a week. The XO of the ship I’m supporting told me the crew had been similarly hit, with several coming down with pneumonia.
I had my flu vax back in October. Other than a runny nose for a couple of days, I’ve somehow managed to stay healthy.
TBone
@Nukular Biskits: you have inspired me to read it as soon as I have time to fully grok today.
TBone
@sentient ai from the future:
Elizabelle
@JeanneT: I hope you feel better soon.
Boston Globe has a story up today that Massachusetts currently being “walloped” by flu. Good times.
bluefoot
@Chetan Murthy: “quarantining” for certain values of the word ‘quarantine.’ Not that I’m cynical or anything. 😀
Related: and of course we’ll see what we saw in 2020 where resources will be taken from blue states & cities, and individually from brown and black patients. Now that discrimination is legal and encouraged, at least federally.
Elizabelle
Two comments: cannot imagine how you forgo a vaccine when a disease as horrible as Ebola is out there. Learn up, Uganda and all areas in danger.
Second: fie on Idaho. They deserve whatever they get, and if any preventable diseases catch fire among all the gunhumpers and retired law enforcement (big Covid vaccine resisters): well, maybe it is just their time and fate.
Mart
Pretty sure this bird flu is coming from a leak at a Fauci Lab not a live bird market. /s
Another Scott
@Elizabelle:
OTOH…
IdahoPress.com/Hot_Takes:
We can’t give up on the sensible people, and the non MAGA-cultists, no matter where they are. We’re all in this together.
[ insert Join, Or Die snake here ]
Best wishes,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@Another Scott: Join or Die. Idaho strikes me more as Live Free (and die).
But you are right. Good people in every single state, that deserve to live in the modern world, with modern vaccines and medicine.
These people believe they are exceptional, and clearly never studied the actual history of the American West (North, South, or East, either).
TBone
@Another Scott: I love your comment very much and would pay for a subscription to your newsletter.
WTFGhost
Of course, they might be following orders, saying there’s no evidence… or, they might not know themselves.
Given the difficulty of spreading mpox, I’d bet there’s no evidence of person-to-person spread. But government shouldn’t be a gamble – you should trust, not make bets.
Miss Bianca
@Suzanne: long long ago, I used to feed my dogs a “raw food” mix made primarily of ground-up menhaden (fish) meal. Then one of my dogs became deathly ill and would have died if my vet at the time (who was a genius diagnostician) hadn’t figured out that he had been infected with a fish parasite. Once he was treated for that, he was fine for several more years.
Since it could only logically have come from the food I was feeding him, that ended my “oh, raw food/grain-free is the way to go” kick right then and there.
ETA: Altho’ I mostly just grin and bear it on the occasions that my doggoes bag a bunny or want to gnaw on one of the packrats we trap around here. Yeah, I know…it’s inconsistent.
Another Scott
@Miss Bianca: I asked our vet long ago about “grain free” stuff for our mutt, because a colleague had his dog on it.
She said that dogs are omnivores. Even when they eat a deer or something, the deer has been eating all kinds of plants and maybe grains and acorns and who knows what else. And wild dogs often eat stomachs and similar things in their prey that would have those supposed undigested bad things in them. The implication was that she didn’t think there was anything good to the fad.
So we never tried it.
There’s too many avenues for spreading disease in raw foods. Why take the chance, is my mantra.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Another Scott
Meanwhile, …
We need to keep making our opinions known to our representatives – no matter which side of the aisle they’re on.
Best wishes,
Scott.
TKH
@Elizabelle:
There is only a “candidate vaccine” for the Uganda strain of Ebola. It is by no means assured that it works. This vaccine worked against the West African strain. And the WHO is on it:
WHO and partners enable access to candidate vaccine and treatments for outbreak of Sudan Ebola virus disease in Uganda
31 January 2025
News release
Geneva
Reading time: 2 min (676 words)
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WHO and partners have immediately boosted their support to the Ugandan government’s response to an outbreak of Sudan virus disease outbreak (SVD, part of the Ebola family), including by facilitating access to a candidate vaccine and candidate treatments. The first 2160 doses of the vaccine candidate and the treatments are already in Kampala, Uganda, as they were prepositioned as part of outbreak preparedness.
The vaccine trial processes underway include orientation of the research teams on the trial procedures, and logistics arrangements. Research teams have been deployed to the field to work along with the surveillance teams as approvals are awaited.
The candidate vaccine and the candidate treatments (a monoclonal antibody and an antiviral) are being made available through clinical trial protocols, which will make it possible to further document their efficacy and safety.
As of 30 January, there was one confirmed case and 45 contacts who are being followed up.
Uganda has experienced five previous SVD outbreaks. The last one was declared in September 2022 and ended in January 2023, with 164 cases and 77 deaths. During that outbreak, a WHO committee of external experts evaluated candidate vaccines and provided recommendations on their suitability for evaluation in Uganda, as part of a clinical trial against the SVD virus.
WHO is working with the Ministry of Health of Uganda and its designated Ugandan Principal Investigators and their teams from Makerere University Lung Institute and the Ugandan Virus Research Institute, as well as worldwide filovirus and trial experts and regulators, to initiate the trials.
The trials were designed via a global collaborative effort coordinated by WHO, that included developers, academic institutions, regulatory authorities, other experts and researchers from Uganda and other countries at risk of filoviruses outbreaks.
The aim of the vaccine trial is to evaluate a potentially efficacious candidate vaccine, and if efficacious, to possibly contribute to ending the ongoing outbreak and protect populations at risk in the future. Those eligible to join the trial are those at highest risk of SVD, i.e. close contacts of a person who has been confirmed to have had SVD or who has died from the disease. The study sites will therefore be the locations where contacts of the case or cases reside. Study teams will be mobile and able to rapidly move to these areas to do their work using the ring vaccination approach.
WHO is working with the Ministry of Health and with Makerere University Lung Institute and the Ugandan Virus Research Institute, who will lead the trials’ implementation.
The development of the protocols and research priorities has been done via the MARVAC Consortium and the Collaborative Open Research Consortium (CORC) for the Filoviridae Family, and numerous developers facilitated the availability of the candidate vaccine and treatments: IAVI provided their candidate Sudan vaccine, Gilead provided remdesivir, an antiviral.
Among those supporting the trials’ implementation are the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Canada’s International Development Research Centre, the European Commission’s Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) and WHO. This rapid action is the result of tireless efforts to build international cooperation on research, innovation and evaluation and deployment of countermeasures in the face of dangerous pathogens.
While outbreaks of SVD are controllable without vaccines, control can be achieved more quickly using safe and effective vaccines. In the meantime, a comprehensive outbreak response is underway in Uganda to rapidly halt transmission, identify contacts and carry out epidemiological investigations, while enhancing community awareness.
WHO has allocated US$ 1 million from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies to help accelerate outbreak control efforts.
Sudan virus disease is a severe, often fatal illness affecting humans and other primates that is due to Orthoebolavirus sudanense (Sudan virus), a viral species belonging to the same genus of the virus causing Ebola virus disease. Case fatality rates of Sudan virus disease have varied from 41% to 100% in past outbreaks. There are no approved treatments or vaccines for Sudan virus, but early initiation of supportive treatment has been shown to significantly reduce deaths from Sudan virus disease.
bluefoot
@Miss Bianca: Does this mean you gave your dog ivermectin? 😆