Trump names COVID lockdown critic Dr. Jay Bhattacharya as pick for NIH director
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(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump is nominating a critic of COVID-19 lockdown policies to serve as the head of the National Institutes of Health.
In a statement, Trump said he has picked Dr. Jay Bhattacharya to serve as NIH director to work in cooperation with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — whom Trump named as his pick for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services — to direct the nation’s medical research.
“Together, Jay and RFK Jr. will restore the NIH to a Gold Standard of Medical Research as they examine the underlying causes of, and solutions to, America’s biggest Health challenges, including our Crisis of Chronic Illness and Disease,” Trump said in the statement. “Together, they will work hard to Make America Healthy Again!
Bhattacharya is a professor of health policy at Stanford University who gained notoriety for openly opposing COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.
In addition to a medical degree, he has a doctorate in economics.
Trump also nominated Jim O’Neil to serve as the deputy secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to “oversee all operations and improve Management, Transparency, and Accountability,” according to a statement.
(WASHINGTON) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is updating its recommendations for testing, treatment and protection for workers who may be exposed to animals infected with bird flu.
The update comes after the agency found evidence of dairy workers with positive antibodies, suggesting more bird flu infections that previously reported, according to a new report released Thursday afternoon.
Serologic testing, which looks at antibodies in the blood, found that eight out of 115 workers, or 7%, who were exposed to bird flu during outbreaks among cows at dairy farms in Michigan and Colorado had evidence of recent infection.
All eight workers said their jobs included either milking cows or cleaning a milking parlor. Four workers recalled experiencing symptoms, mainly conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye. The remaining four patients said they did not experience symptoms when the cows were ill.
As a result, the CDC said it is updating its guidance addressing who should be tested for bird flu to include workers who were exposed to bird flu and do not have symptoms.
“There may be individuals infected but who do not recall having symptoms,” Dr. Nirav Shah, the CDC’s principal deputy director, told reporters during a media call Thursday morning. “That means we need to cast a wider net in terms of who is offered a test.”
Secondly, the CDC is now recommending offering oseltamivir – a prescription medication to treat influenza that’s often marketed under the name Tamiflu – to asymptomatic workers who have experienced high-risk exposure to animals infected with bird flu and who did not wear adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
Shah said a high-risk exposure event could include a splash in the face with raw cow milk, or a culling event without PPE being worn.
He added that the Tamiflu treatment recommendation both reduces asymptomatic cases from becoming symptomatic because they are being treated, and reduces the risk of infected individuals spreading the virus to close contacts.
Lastly, the Shah said the CDC was changing its PPE guidance for workers.
Although the risk of bird flu transmission from dairy cows to humans Is low, the CDC said there have been few reports addressing how PPE is used during work activities on dairy farms.
The new CDC report said the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) and the Colorado Department of Agriculture (CDA) offered PPE to all Colorado farms before or during the bird flu outbreak in cows in 2024.
When asked if they had access to PPE before a bird flu outbreak, 88% of workers reported access to gloves, 76% reported access to eye protection such as safety glasses or goggles, 71% reported access to rubber boots or boot covers, and 69% reported access to head covers, according to the report.
“Reported use of many individual PPE items was higher among dairy workers who reported exposure to ill cows in the week before or week after the detection of [bird flu] on the farm compared with those who did not report exposure to ill cows,” according to the CDC report.
Shah said that CDC recommendations will now prioritize what PPE a farm worker should wear based on which farm tasks present the highest risk for bird flu.
“Simply put, the higher-risk activities will call for more PPE use,” Shah said. “The purpose of these actions is to keep workers safe, to limit the transmission of H5 [bird flu] to humans and reduce the possibility of the virus changing,” Shah said.
As of Thursday, there have been 46 human cases of bird flu reported in the U.S. this year, Dr. Demetre Daskalakis, the CDC’s director of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said during the media call.
Of those cases, 26 were due to the outbreak in dairy cows and 20 were due to people coming into contact with infected poultry. There is one case in Missouri that had no known animal exposure.
All of the patients experienced mild conjunctivitis or mild respiratory symptoms and all have recovered, according to the CDC.
(LOS ANGELES) — While Los Angeles County is reporting three locally acquired cases of dengue this year — which is rare for the region — there have been at least 3,085 cases nationally of locally acquired virus so far this year, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There has been about double the number of locally acquired dengue cases so far this year nationally compared to last year, according to the CDC. Puerto Rico currently makes up the bulk of those cases – with over 2,960 reported. The U.S. territory declared a public health emergency back in March.
“The City of Baldwin Park is aware of the recent cases of locally acquired dengue in our community. While the risk of transmission remains low, we must take this situation seriously and act proactively,” said Mayor Emmanuel J. Estrada.
Dengue viruses spread through mosquito bites. The most common symptom is a fever with aches and pains, nausea, vomiting and rash. Symptoms usually begin within two weeks after being bitten by an infected mosquito and last 2-7 days. Most people recover after about a week.
Locally acquired cases mean that the people infected have no history of traveling to an area where dengue normally spreads. Local dengue transmission is typically common in tropical and subtropical areas of the world – including Florida, and U.S. territories in the Caribbean.
Last year, there were only two locally acquired cases reported in the state of California, the first local cases in the state reported in over a decade, according to CDC data.
The CDC issued a health alert in June warning health care providers of an increased risk of dengue virus infection this year. Globally, new cases of dengue have been the highest on record, according to the CDC. The agency also noted that cases are likely to increase as global temperatures increase.
The best way to prevent dengue is to avoid mosquito bites, according to the CDC.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the first over-the-counter combination COVID-19 and flu test outside of emergency use on Monday evening.
This means the Healgen Rapid Check COVID-19/Flu A&B Antigen Test is available without a prescription. The FDA said the test is for those who are experiencing respiratory symptoms.
While there are other over-the-counter combination tests currently available, this is the first to be marketed to consumers using the traditional approval pathway outside of a public health emergency.
The new combination test uses a nasal swab sample to deliver at-home results for COVID-19 and influenza in approximately 15 minutes.
Healgen’s test detects proteins from both SARS-CoV-2, which is the virus that causes COVID-19, and influenza A and B, which are the viruses that cause flu.
“As we enter this year’s annual flu season with respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 on many of our minds, our ability to detect these pathogens effectively and efficiently can be impactful on our daily lives,” said Dr. Michelle Tarver, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Devices and Radiological Health, in a statement. “Today’s authorization expands the options for individuals with respiratory symptoms to receive information about their health from the comfort of their home.”
“The FDA continues to take actions that support the development and availability of at-home tests for a variety of medical conditions,” the statement continued.
The test is for use by people 14 and older who can take their own sample, or those 2 and older, who have a sample taken by an adult, according to the federal health agency.
Data reviewed by the FDA found the test correctly identified 99% of negative and 92% of positive COVID samples. Additionally, the test correctly identified 99.9% of negative flu samples, and 92.5% and 90.5% of positive flu samples, respectively.
Like other over-the-counter COVID-19 antigen tests, the FDA says a positive test result likely means a patient is positive while a negative rest result may require a confirmation test.
However, people who test negative and continue to experience symptoms including cough, fever and shortness of breath should follow up with their health care provider, the FDA says. Similarity, the FDA says those who test positive should take appropriate precautions to avoid spreading either virus and should also follow up with their health care provider.
