I hope I’m wrong! But if the previous Trump administration is any guide, along with the anti-public health radicalization of the right, they won’t be. Anyway, the RAND Institute offers several policy suggestions:
Recommendation 1: Declare H5N1 a PHE and mandate ongoing nationwide testing of representative samples of dairy and beef cattle, free of charge to farmers. Implement increased testing of farm and dairy workers, livestock vaccinations, and indemnity payments…
Recommendation 2: Expand CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance program to test for H5N1 and associated variants from different hosts…
Recommendation 3: Make H5N1 vaccines available to anyone likely to have been exposed to infected animals, and prepare a plan for nationwide distribution.
(Luciana Borio and Scott Gottlieb have a similar, less clear set of suggestions)
These are all good suggestions, but with anti-vaccinationist extremists on tap to be appointed at multiple federal agencies, does anyone think this will actually happen (especially Recommendation 3)? With Biden and Harris, there at least was the hope that occasionally they would listen (for example, the recent release of $306 million to fund avian influenza response).
Anyway, there are going to be a lot of missed opportunities to prevent bad things from happening over the next few years.
mikethemadbiologist
The RAND Institute’s recommendations for H5N1 prevention, including mandatory testing and vaccine distribution, are solid but face challenges due to political opposition and anti-vaccination extremism. There’s concern that these vital public health measures will be overlooked, leading to missed opportunities for effective prevention.