The UK Health Security
Agency began hiring for a "Vaccine Supply Operations Lead" to handle
"pandemic flu preparedness" during "what is expected to be the
UK’s largest vaccination programme."
MSU math professor Casim Abbas shows the result of his morning's egg collection on Feb. 8, 2023. International media has started to link the H5N1 Avian Influenza pandemic as the next possible pandemic among humans after relatively innocuous comments made by WHO Director General Tedros on the topic of the virus beginning to infect mammals. (Image: MATTHEW HATCHER/AFP via Getty Images)
Neil lives in Canada and writes about society and politics.
Published: February 15, 2023
News analysis
Major outlets have begun linking the H5N1 avian influenza pandemic
that has been ransacking poultry and other animals with a potential new human
pandemic following remarks made by the Director General of the World Health
Organization (WHO).
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website,
H5N1 avian influenza, also known as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI),
began hitting American “aquatic birds, commercial poultry and backyard or
hobbyist flocks” starting in January of 2022.
Thus far, the disease has affected more than 58 million birds
across 47 states, the CDC calculates, based on the total flock sizes where
outbreaks were detected.
Yes, #H5N1 has infected humans in the past. But currently, there have not been cases of human to human transmission.
— Rob Swanda (@ScientistSwanda) February 12, 2023
H5N1 is a circulating avian influenza A that has recently infected several mammal populations. It has previously infected over 800 humans in the past two decades. pic.twitter.com/Ll5W9ORNwt
North of the border, the Canadian government estimates that approximately 7.1 million
birds have been affected by the virus, also based on flock sizes of confirmed
outbreaks.
The CDC notes that 2022’s emergence of the disease is the first
time it has been seen since 2016. Additionally, 6,111 wild birds and one person
have been affected by the virus as of Feb. 8, statistics show.
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A connection between H5N1 and humans has primarily gone
untouched. The only case in the U.S. occurred in April of 2022 in Colorado in a
worker involved in the culling of infected birds.
“The patient reported fatigue for a few days as their only
symptom and has since recovered,” the CDC stated.
But during a Feb. 8 media briefing, WHO Director General Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus brought up a development in the H5N1 avian influenza
pandemic wherein the virus has begun transmitting from birds to mammals.
Tedros stated, “Over the past few weeks there have been several
reports of mammals including minks, otters, foxes and sea lions having been
infected with H5N1 avian influenza.”
“H5N1 has spread widely in wild birds and poultry for 25 years,
but the recent spillover to mammals needs to be monitored closely,” he added,
describing the risk to humans as “low.”
“Since H5N1 first emerged in 1996 we have only seen rare and
non-sustained transmission of H5N1 to and between humans,” the Director General
continued. “But we cannot assume that will remain the case, and we must prepare
for any change in the status quo.”
A Feb. 10 report by the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious
Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) stated that, according to U.S. Department
of Agriculture officials, H5N1 has recently been found in:
- Oregon: skunks
and a racoon
- Wyoming,
Wisconsin, South Dakota: foxes
- California
and Washington: bobcats
- Montana: grizzly
bears
- Nebraska: mountain
lions and amur tigers
The WHO’s most recent Avian Influenza Weekly Update, dated Feb. 3, shows
that while the spread of H5N1 to human beings is rare, it does have an
exceptionally high fatality rate.
Data shows that from 2003 to present, in an area that includes
China, Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, there have been 868 human infections, with
a fatality rate of 53 percent, amounting to 457 deaths.
However, almost all cases were reported between 2003 and 2014.
Since 2016, there have only been two reported human cases: one
from Laos in 2020 and one from China in 2022.
The Chinese case was reported by the authorities as resulting in
death of the patient.
Media fanning
A Feb. 14 article published in The Economist titled
“Will Avian Flu be the Next Human Pandemic?” was sub-headed as “The virus has
spread from birds to mammals, heightening the risk.”
The article characterized Tedros’s comments as “warn[ing] that
the world had to prepare for a possible bird-flu pandemic.”
“How worried should humankind be?” the publication asked.
“Before covid-19, it was widely believed that the next human
pandemic would be caused by an influenza virus,” The Economist answered. “The
1918 influenza pandemic, which is now known to have had genes of avian origin,
killed about 50m people.”
Same day reporting by CNN on the topic was more
subdued, but still laid the foundation for a potential transition of H5N1 from
birds, and now mammals, to humans.
The article, titled “Bird Flu Isn’t a Direct Threat to Humans
Yet, Experts Say, but They’re Keeping a Close Eye On the Virus,” took advantage
of the opportunity to perpetuate the notion that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that
causes COVID-19, had a natural origin in bats, and spread to humans, rather
than being
manufactured by gain of function research at the Wuhan
Institute of Virology.
“But highly pathogenic avian influenza is no Covid-19. Scientists
are reassuring the public that, with a few rare exceptions, the virus hasn’t
made the jump to humans at a large enough scale to trigger an outbreak,” CNN
stated.
The article continued: “It has gone far beyond birds, though,
and its recent spread among members of a separate species has some experts
concerned about the way the virus is changing.”
CNN noted that in the current outbreak, only 10 human cases of
avian influenza had been reported worldwide as of December 2021.
Politico Europe was early to the punch
in Feb. 8 reporting, which shared an almost identical narrative, “The recent
spillover of bird flu to mammals has led the World Health Organization to warn
that while the risk to humans currently remains low, it cannot be assumed that
this will remain the case.”
UK tabloid Daily Mail combined all the aspects of the
story into an alarmingly titled Feb. 14 article: “Bird Flu ‘May Mutate To Kill
More Than 50% of Humans.'”
The outlet paraphrased the World Organisation for Animal Health
as warning that “mammals could act as ‘mixing vessels’ for different influenza
viruses, potentially unleashing a new variant that could be ‘more harmful’ to
humans.”
Government prelude
One eyebrow-raising form of confluence with the trending
narrative change is found in a recent employment ad posted by the UK Health
Security Agency.
The Agency is hiring for a Vaccine Supply
Operations Lead as part of its Vaccines and Countermeasures Response Team.
The advertisement states the Team “leads the procurement
and supply of vaccines…and the national stockpiles, vaccine agreements and
storage and distribution requirements for pandemic flu preparedness and
emergency response planning.”
U.K. - Why is the government currently URGENTLY recruiting for ‘The National immunisation Programme’
— Bernie's Tweets (@BernieSpofforth) February 2, 2023
“Expected to be the UK’s largest vaccination programme, which will be delivered at pace and will be a key ministerial priority”
Seriously… WTF is this ? 👀 pic.twitter.com/T2KgfwIl7P
Although the live advertisement expires Feb. 21, a previous
version of the advertisement expiring Feb. 14 was copy and pasted to Twitter,
containing the following verbiage:
“The role of Vaccine Supply Operations Lead is a new post to
support the operations, providing accurate and timely reports for a range of
stakeholders during what
is expected to be the UK’s largest vaccination programme which will be
delivered at pace and will be a key Ministerial priority.”
[Emphasis added]
The Feb. 21 version was revised to state, “The role of Vaccine
Supply Operations Lead is a post to support operational activity, including
providing accurate and timely reports for a range of stakeholders for the
on-going COVID-19 vaccination programme. The role will be directly responsible
for the daily operational management of all COVID-19 related products, ensuring
their timely distribution across the UK, Crown Dependencies, and Overseas
Territories.”
CDC Plot To Track The Unvaccinated Revealed At September 2021 ICD-10 Coordination and Maintenance Committee Meeting pic.twitter.com/0E5AaCmDAm
— National File (@NationalFile) February 1, 2023
In
early February, news outlet National File reported that the CDC had issued a quiet
update to its ICD-10 billing and tracking codes to include specific categories
for:
- “Unvaccinated for COVID-19”
- “Partially Vaccinated for
COVID-19”
- “Other underimmunization
status”
The
outlet cited an April 2022 document from the U.S. Centers for Medicaid &
Medicaid Services that stated the ICD-10 changes had already been installed.
https://www.visiontimes.com/2023/02/15/media-links-h5n1-next-human-pandemic.html
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