Category: Health

(NEW YORK) — As seasonal influenza ramps up, and with bird flu continuing to circulate, some public health experts are worried there may be a strain on the public health system.

Since the bird flu outbreak began earlier this year connected to dairy cows and poultry, there have been 55 human cases reported in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This includes a child in California, who was confirmed on Friday by the agency to be the first pediatric case linked to the outbreak.

There is currently no evidence of person-to-person transmission of bird flu and the risk to the general public is low, federal health officials say. But with millions of seasonal flu infections around the corner, there is some concern about additional stress on how public health surveillance systems will track the virus.

“I think it does add a layer of stress, at least in the public health planning part of things, because we have to think about what resources would be necessary were we to have a significant outbreak of bird flu,” Dr. Tony Moody, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases specialist at Duke University, told ABC News.

Bird flu and seasonal flu at the same time

Currently, respiratory virus activity is low in the U.S., but the country is on the brink of entering traditional flu season.

Dr. Otto Yang, a professor of medicine and microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the flu season earlier this year in the Southern Hemisphere looked typical so the same can be expected for the Northern Hemisphere.

Countries in the Southern Hemisphere experience their flu season before countries in the Northern Hemisphere. This often provides a glimpse as to what the upcoming flu season may potentially look like for the Northern Hemisphere, though it is not fully predictive of what may occur in each individual country.

“It looks like everything so far points to a fairly typical flu season in terms of the numbers, not [an] especially severe flu season, but not one especially mild either,” he told ABC News.

So far, all bird flu cases in humans in the U.S. have been mild and patients have all recovered after receiving antiviral medication. Almost all confirmed cases have had direct contact with infected livestock.

Yang said he doesn’t see bird flu putting a major strain on the health system right now, but there are unknown factors such as whether COVID-19 or RSV will lead to a higher number of cases than normal.

Moody added that health systems have conversations every year about respiratory virus season regarding whether there are enough beds, enough staff and enough equipment to treat sick patients, and that unknown factors always present a threat.

“That’s what we would be thinking about, is, what can we do to try to blunt that as much as possible, because it’s not so much that the public health system can’t absorb it,” he said. “They just can’t absorb everything all at once.”

Testing for bird flu

With flu season expected to start ramping up in the coming weeks, it may be increasingly difficult to differentiate bird flu from seasonal flu without more extensive testing, experts say.

“The reality is, we want to be ahead of a problem. There’s a surveillance challenge that was easier in the summer because we didn’t have seasonal flu cycling,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News medical contributor. “As we enter flu season, we’re going to have a respiratory mix that includes flu and may include cases of avian, and it’ll be an even greater needle in the haystack.”

Right now, a PCR test, which checks for genetic material, is needed to detect a novel flu virus in a patient. More than 60,000 tests have been completed by public health labs to detect any presence of bird flu since February of this year, according to the CDC.

Tests are sent to public health labs if there is suspicion of bird flu exposure from a clinician or a sample was submitted for surveillance purposes. Health care systems send in a quantity of flu samples to public health labs for additional testing to help detect any new bird flu cases, which is how a case in Missouri was initially identified.

“We’re doing some opportunistic sampling of cases that would get additional sequencing. [Our hospital] is sending five samples per week to state labs that would ultimately get deeper identification for bird flu,” Brownstein said.

The nation’s flu surveillance systems “are built to be able to detect novel flu infections even during peak flu season” the CDC told ABC News in a statement in part. “The level of testing performed is designed to scale with increases in seasonal flu activity so that we’re casting a wider net and maintaining the ability to detect rare infections with novel influenza viruses.”

Other surveillance methods like emergency department trends and wastewater data may become less reliable as seasonal flu ramps up, Brownstein said.

“Patients that have access to rapid tests at home also aren’t necessarily collected and connected to surveillance systems” he added.

Risk of recombination

Questions have swirled about whether or not bird flu and seasonal influenza could form a recombinant virus, meaning a combination of the two.

There is currently no evidence that this has happened and, although it is possible for either virus to mutate with each new case, experts believe this is unlikely considering bird flu is not yet showing evidence of person-to-person transmission.

“It certainly is possible, but generally you get recombination when you have hosts where both strains can get in easily, and at the moment the bird flu strain is not traveling human to human, and so very, very few humans are infected with it,” Yang said. “It’s been a handful of cases, so the risk is really tiny.”

Moody said so-called “recombination events” do happen, with people becoming infected with multiple viruses at the same time or multiple strains of a virus. However, most of the time, they are “failures,” he said.

“That’s an important thing to understand, these recombination events are happening all the time and, most of the time, it doesn’t go anywhere,” Moody said. “Very, very rarely it does, and then that becomes a possibility for transmission”

How to best protect yourself

Moody and Yang say they both recommend that people receive the flu shot. Flu vaccines are currently available for everyone six months and older, according to the CDC.

In the last flu season prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, flu vaccination prevented an estimated 7 million illnesses, 3 million medical visits, 100,000 hospitalizations, and 7,000 deaths in the U.S., the CDC said.

The seasonal flu vaccine does not protect against bird flu, but it can reduce the risk of human influenza viruses, and therefore lower the risk of co-infection.

“Is there the potential for some cross-benefit for the avian flu? There may be. It’s hard to say, because, of course, these viruses are distinct from one another,” Moody said.

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(NEW YORK) — An infant has died in a listeria outbreak linked to a brand of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products, federal authorities said Friday.

As of Friday, 11 people have been infected in four states in the outbreak, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Among them, nine people have been hospitalized and an infant from California has died, the CDC said.

The infections have been linked to recalled ready-to-eat meat and poultry products by Yu Shang Food, based in Spartanburg, South Carolina, according to the CDC. The recalled products include pork hock, chicken feet, pork feet, duck neck, beef shank and pork tongue.

Most of the cases — seven — were in California, while two were in Illinois and one each in New York and New Jersey, according to the CDC. Those infected ranged in age from under 1 to 86, with a median age of 64, according to the CDC.

The infant who died and his pregnant mother were both infected in the outbreak, according to the CDC. The infant had a twin who also died, though listeria was not found in the other twin’s sample and the case is not included in the outbreak, the CDC said.

One other listeria illness was reported in an infant who recovered, the CDC said.

“We did not receive any reported illness from the group of 11 illness,” Yu Shang Food told ABC News. “Those 11 cases are collected by CDC from 2021 to 2024. Among of these 11 illnesses, there are 9 people only mentioned they had visited Asian stores before they got sick, but not mention they purchased YUSHANG brand products or ate YUSHANG brand products. There was 1 infant dead, but no evidence showed the mother ate Yushang brand products to get sick, only mentioned she ate Yushang brand products before got sick.”

“The true number of sick people in this outbreak is likely higher than the number reported, and the outbreak may not be limited to the states with known illnesses,” the CDC said.

Yu Shang Food has recalled approximately 72,240 pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry products due to possible listeria contamination, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) said on Thursday.

The recalled foods include products made before Oct. 28, the CDC said. The products subject to recall have the number “P-46684” or “EST. M46684” inside the USDA mark of inspection. They were shipped to retail locations nationwide and were sold online.

The full list of recalled items can be viewed here. Anyone with the products is advised to throw them away or return them to the place of purchase, and surfaces should be thoroughly cleaned. Listeria can survive in the refrigerator at cooler temperatures and easily contaminate other foods.

“FSIS is concerned that some product may be in consumers’ refrigerators/freezers,” the agency said.

The FSIS said the problem was discovered when a finished food product produced by Yu Shang Food tested positive for listeria on Oct. 21. Listeria was detected in additional testing of product and environmental samples collected by the FSIS, it said.

“Working in conjunction with public health partners, FSIS determined that there is a link between the [ready-to-eat] meat and poultry products from Yu Shang Food, Inc. and an illness cluster,” the FSIS said.

The company initially issued a recall on Nov. 9 that was expanded on Thursday.

People aged 65 and older, pregnant women and those with weakened immune systems are more at risk of serious illness due to listeria, according to the CDC.

Symptoms usually start within two weeks of eating food contaminated with listeria and can include fever, muscle aches, headache, tiredness, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and seizures, according to the CDC.

The CDC advises contacting a health care provider right away if symptoms develop.

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(NEW YORK) — Some hospitals in the U.S. are seeing an increase in RSV and higher levels of “walking pneumonia” among young children despite overall respiratory illness activity remaining low nationally.

Cook Children’s Medical Centers in Texas reported a “steep increase” in children visiting the emergency room due to respiratory-related illnesses.

On Tuesday, at the health system’s Fort Worth location alone, there were 572 patients — a near-record-high number — in the emergency department. Officials said the increase in hospital visits is due to a spread of RSV and walking pneumonia in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Additionally, University of North Carolina hospitals reported 40 walking pneumonia cases in the last week of October compared to no cases the same time last year.

Infectious disease specialists say that although parents should stay alert when it comes to respiratory illnesses spreading, this season also may also be marking a return to typical seasons seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s the calm before the storm,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News. “It feels that there’s so much going on … that we almost forget about respiratory viruses, but they’re very regular. They’re kind of falling back into normal pre-pandemic cadence.”

Walking pneumonia seeing cyclical increase

So-called “walking pneumonia” is a respiratory tract bacterial infection caused by the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Infections are generally mild, and people may seem better than expected for those with a lung infection, hence the term walking pneumonia, the CDC said. Sometimes serious complications, however, emerge requiring hospitalization.

For the week ending Nov. 2, the latest for which CDC data is available, 2.8% of all pneumonia-associated ED visits led to an M. pneumoniae diagnosis, up from just 2% at the end of September.

Rates were highest among those ages 1 and younger, making up 7.8% of all pneumonia-associated ED visits with an M. pneumoniae diagnosis for the week ending Nov. 2.

Experts say mycoplasma infections have a cyclical nature and tend to surge every three to seven years.

“Just like other respiratory viruses, there was not a lot of exposure during the pandemic years because of social distancing and people staying away from each other, and so we’re catching up to that,” Chin-Hong said. “Mycoplasma may also be one of these things where you’re kind of seeing the perfect storm. So, it comes back every four or five years and people are getting back to their normal lives.”

RSV activity returning to pre-pandemic levels

Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is a common respiratory virus with most children affected by their second birthday, according to the CDC.

Although it typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms and most people recover in one to two weeks, it can be a serious infection for infants and older adults, resulting in hospitalization, the CDC said.

Current levels remain lower than those seen at the same time during the past few seasons.

“While RSV activity is increasing in certain regions, particularly among young children, it’s important to remember that we’re seeing a return to more typical pre-pandemic patterns,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.

“This year’s season is starting later and progressing more slowly compared to the past few years, which were marked by earlier and more severe outbreaks,” he added.

Brownstein pointed out that while national levels remain low, certain regions in the southern U.S. and eastern U.S. are seeing localized surges, especially among young children.

When to go to the emergency room

Chin-Hong said if symptoms are mild, including low-grade fever, dry cough, sore throat, headaches and mild aches and pains, parents can keep their children home and contact their primary care provider with any questions.

However, when symptoms become more severe including difficulty breathing, a long-lasting fever or lethargy, then it might be time to visit the emergency room.

If you have “a child who’s having a cough for more than seven days and maybe they’re not shaking that off, then you worry about something like walking pneumonia,” Chin-Hong said.

How to prevent RSV and walking pneumonia

To prevent RSV, there are three vaccines approved for adults ages 60 and older as well as some adults between the ages 50 and 59 who are at higher risk. There is also a vaccine available for pregnant women between 32 weeks and 36 weeks of pregnancy.

For babies under eight months, there are two monoclonal antibody products available. Monoclonal antibodies are proteins manufactured in a lab that mimic the antibodies the body naturally creates when fighting an infection.

“For walking pneumonia. or mycoplasma, there’s no vaccine for that, but by getting vaccines for RSV, COVID [and] influenza, you reduce the probability of co-infections that can make things worse,” Chin-Hong said.

Experts also recommended applying lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as wearing a mask in spaces with poor ventilation.

“Practicing good hygiene, like frequent hand-washing and covering coughs and sneezes, remains essential in preventing the spread of respiratory infections,” Brownstein said.

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(NEW YORK) — President-elect Donald Trump announced Tuesday that heart surgeon-turned-TV-host Dr. Mehmet Oz would lead the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

“America is facing a Healthcare Crisis, and there may be no Physician more qualified and capable than Dr. Oz to Make America Healthy Again,” Trump said in a statement. “He is an eminent Physician, Heart Surgeon, Inventor and World-Class Communicator, who has been at the forefront of healthy living for decades.”

The position of CMS administrator requires Senate confirmation.

Here’s what to know about Oz, his medical career and some medical claims he’s made that have come under fire.

Is Oz a real doctor?

Oz graduated with a Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and completed a Master of Business Administration from UPenn’s Wharton School of Business at the same time.

He completed his surgical training in cardiothoracic surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital (Columbia Campus).

He was previously the director of the Cardiovascular Institute at New York Presbyterian Hospital and vice-chairman and professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. His title was then changed to Professor Emeritus of Surgery in 2018.

Medicine “was my calling,” Oz said in a Wharton Magazine profile from 2010. “I knew it from a very early age. I played a lot of sports growing up, and like a lot of other athletes, I really enjoyed the challenge of using my hands. I just loved the idea of being in a field where you could [do that].”

Oz began his TV career as a health expert on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” before launching “The Dr. Oz Show,” which ran from 2009 to 2022. The show ended when Oz launched an unsuccessful bid for the U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania.

What would Oz run as CMS administrator?

CMS administers the Medicare program, the federal health insurance program for those mostly aged 65 and older.

The agency also works with state programs to administer Medicaid, which is health insurance for disabled and low-income Americans, and the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides low-cost coverage to children with families that don’t qualify for Medicaid.

Oz has supported Medicare Advantage, which is run by commercial insurers and has been promoted by Trump. Project 2025 — a plan of conservative policy proposals proposed by the Heritage Foundation and not endorsed by Trump — has proposed Medicare Advantage be the default option for Medicare coverage.

Experts have said this could privatize the program and prevent people from receiving care from doctors and hospitals that don’t accept Medicare Advantage.

In Tuesday’s announcement, Trump said Oz would work closely with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. the president-elect’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees CMS.

What are Dr. Oz’s past controversies?

During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Oz promoted hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, as a COVID-19 treatment. Trump later touted the drug as a “game changer,” although medical researchers warned more study was needed.

In June 2020, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration revoked emergency authorization for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat COVID-19, saying evidence shows the recommended dose is unlikely to be effective against the virus.

Oz also made past statements indicating that he endorsed spacing out childhood vaccines and expressed ambivalence towards a discredited theory that vaccines cause autism, according to a 2022 study. In later episodes of his TV show, Oz would go on to endorse the measles, mumps, rubella shot.

Oz also came under fire due to his claims about certain “miracle” products to help consumers lose weight.

During a 2014 hearing before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on consumer protection, then-Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri grilled Oz, claiming he had a role in “perpetuating” scams.

“When you feature a product on your show, it creates what has become known as the ‘Oz effect,’ dramatically boosting sales and driving scam artists to pop up overnight using false and deceptive ads to sell questionable products,” she said. “While I understand that your message is also focused on basics like healthy eating and exercise, I’m concerned that you are melding medical advice news and entertainment in a way that harms consumers.”

During the hearing, Oz defended his statements, saying he believed in the benefits of the products he promoted on his show.

“I actually do personally believe in the items I talk about in the show. I passionately study them. I recognize that often times they don’t have the scientific muster to present as fact. But, nevertheless, I give my audience the advice I give my family all the time. I give my family these products, specifically the ones you mentioned. I’m comfortable with that part,” he said.

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(YEMASSEE, SC) — With four primates still on the loose after 43 of them escaped on Nov. 6 from the Alpha Genesis Inc. research laboratory in South Carolina, the Low Country facility has come under intense scrutiny.

Animal rights groups have cited the company’s history of violations and previous monkey breakouts; a member of Congress has called for an inquiry into its oversight by multiple federal agencies; and residents voiced concern the furry fugitives might spread disease throughout their community.

On top of it all, Alpha Genesis founder and CEO Gregory Westergaard told ABC News his company is investigating whether the release of the monkeys was “an intentional act” by an employee.

The quest for freedom by the pack of young female rhesus macaques coincides with the rapid expansion of the 100-acre Alpha Genesis facility and is casting light on a disruption in the U.S. medical research industry that sounds like a plot for a science fiction thriller. A 2023 report sponsored by the National Institutes of Health warned of a crisis involving the Chinese government that “undermines the security of the nation’s biomedical research enterprise.”

The case of the absconding primates has also raised questions about why the amount of federal contracts received by the testing and breeding operation has jumped more than 160% since 2021. According to USASpending.gov, a government website that tracks federal spending, the company has been granted $19 million in federal contracts this year alone.

“It’s shocking how much money is being spent on testing primates,” Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told ABC News.

Mace’s district encompasses the Beaufort County community of Yemassee, where the 6,701 primates housed at the sprawling Alpha Genesis facility nearly triple the number of town residents.

In a formal letter to the NIH, the agency that funds laboratory research, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which inspects and regulates breeding facilities, Mace expressed “very urgent concerns regarding federal oversight of Alpha Genesis.” Mace said the prolonged attempts to recapture all of the primates are “placing the animals and my constituents at risk.”

“A lot of constituents were concerned about whether or not the primates that escaped were sick or ill, or have been tested on,” Mace told ABC News. “There were a lot of folks concerned about the facility being a breeding facility and the testing that goes on there as well.”

The escape highlights an ‘issue of national security’

The incident some locals have referred to as “the great escape” has illuminated the international crisis hitting the animal research industry that Alpha Genesis’ Westergaard said has become “an issue of national security.”

In 2020, the Chinese government, the world’s primary breeder of research monkeys, banned the exports of nonhuman primates (NPH) to labs in the United States and elsewhere, triggering an international shortage of the animals just as research scientists were scrambling to come up with vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a May 2023 report by National Academy of Engineering and National Academy of Medicine.

Primates, according to the NIH-supported report, are valuable in answering certain research questions because of their genetic, anatomic, physiologic and behavioral similarities to humans. However, the China ban on exporting research animals exacerbated the shortage and stalled NIH-funded research, according to the report.

The report concluded that the United States “needs to prioritize expansion” of domestic primate breeding programs.

“Relying on importing these animals from other countries is unsustainable, and dependence on international sources undermines the security of the nation’s biomedical research enterprise,” the report warned.

In 2021, the National Primate Research Centers could not meet two-thirds of researcher requests for rhesus macaques, according to the report.

“Researchers also face increased wait times for animals, and costs have risen 10% to 200% for a single animal, depending on the species,” the report said.

What we know about Alpha Genesis’ research

The crisis prompted Alpha Genesis to increase its domestic breeding of research primates. According to Rep. Mace, the company also manages the NIH’s so-called “Monkey Island” on Morgan Island in Beaufort County, which holds another 3,300 primates.

Westergaard told ABC News that Alpha Genesis employs 275 people, plus 30 or so contractors.

In addition to breeding lab monkeys, Alpha Genesis provides researchers across the country with biological products and materials, including serum, plasma, whole blood and tissue samples from a wide variety of research species, according to the company’s website. The private company’s researchers have helped develop several therapeutic drugs and vaccines, including those to treat the COVID-19 virus.

According to NIH online records provided to USASpending.gov, the crisis appears to be in accord with a boost in federal contracts Alpha Genesis has received, jumping from $7.3 million in 2021 to $12.3 million in 2022, $14.2 million in 2023 and $19 million this year.

Primates are worth up to $30,000 each

“The price of research monkeys has indeed increased a great deal since the Chinese banned all exports,” Westergaard said in an email to ABC News. “Prior to the ban monkeys sold for around $4K – $6K, after the ban prices have increased to $10K – $30K+ due to increased costs of raising animals in the US compared to China. An important point to note is that the shortage remains severe and a great deal of research in the US simply cannot be done because animals are not available at any cost.”

Westergaard said some suppliers of laboratory primates have turned to the illegal sourcing of wild-caught monkeys from Cambodia, “which we have not done.”

“It should also be noted that the Chinese government is seeking worldwide domination in medical research and the development of bio-weapons to target US citizens and our allies,” Westergaard said.

He added, “Alpha Genesis is a leading provider of NHPs to the US market and has been instrumental in attempting to fill this void. The alternative is to allow the Chinese to dominate medical development to the severe detriment of our National Security interests.”

“It should also be noted that the Chinese government is seeking worldwide domination in medical research and the development of bio-weapons to target US citizens and our allies,” Westergaard said.

He added, “Alpha Genesis is a leading provider of NHPs to the US market and has been instrumental in attempting to fill this void. The alternative is to allow the Chinese to dominate medical development to the severe detriment of our National Security interests.”

Human error or intentional act?

Asked by ABC News whether the rapid expansion of Alpha Genesis’ breeding and testing operations might have played a role in the escape of the 43 primates, Westergaard said the cause of the escape remains under investigation, including whether it was the result of “human error” or an “intentional act.”

“All the information we have thus far indicates that this is human error due to an employee failing to secure containment doors behind her, and a third door directly containing the animals, while doing routine cleaning and feeding,” Westergaard said in an email. “The enclosure was brand new and in perfect working order. We continue to investigate in an attempt to determine to the greatest extent possible whether this was or was not an intentional act.”

Westergaard said that immediately after the incident occurred, the employee’s supervisor told her she could be fired if it was determined that no structural failure of the primates’ enclosure led to the incident. Westergaard said the employee walked off the job and has not returned.

As of early Tuesday, four of the escaped primates remained on the loose, Westergaard said. Two were caught Monday, he said.

“The girls from today are in good health and the others continue to thrive,” Westergaard said Monday. “We believe the four monkeys remaining are probably all together either in the area adjacent to our property or somewhere else very close by.”

Mace has requested answers from NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli, USDA Deputy Administrator for Animal Care Sarah Helming, and Acting Director Axel Wolf of the NIH’s Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare. She also noted that this was not the first time problems had arisen at the research lab.

Mace, who told ABC News she is against animal testing, cited in her letter a September 2022 USDA inspection report of Alpha Genesis that found six separate incidents of animals escaping from their primary enclosures between January and August of 2022. Mace also cited escapes dating back to 2014, when more than two dozen monkeys slipped out of the facility, resulting in a fine from the USDA.

The 2022 USDA inspection report, which ABC News reviewed, also found an infant monkey died after becoming entangled in a stretch of gauze material used in an enclosure to hold a water bottle; said two primates were found dead in their enclosures with their fingers entrapped in structures inside their cages; and documented that one animal died from trauma and four others required veterinary care after they were placed in incorrect enclosures and were attacked by other primates unfamiliar with them.

As a result of the inspection, Alpha Genesis, according to the report, took corrective action to secure enclosures and “made significant changes” to avoid putting primates in the wrong enclosures.

The latest USDA routine inspection of Alpha Genesis lab was conducted on May 21 and concluded, “No non-compliant items identified during this inspection,” according to USDA online records.

“This is also true of several other inspections in recent years,” Westergaard said. “For a facility of this size that is quite remarkable.”

Mace said she met with Westergaard last week to discuss the escape and what Alpha Genesis is doing to round up the monkeys.

“It was an interesting conversation,” Mace said. “He tried to tell me how good the primates have it at his facility. And my response was, they have it good until you kill them with disease.”

Asked about the conversation, Westergaard responded: “I spoke to the congresswoman last week and at that time she said that she recognized the economic importance of our company to the people of the Low Country and that as a locally-owned business, she would continue to offer her full support.”

Alternatives to testing primates

Angela Grimes, CEO of Born Free USA, an international wildlife conservation and animal protection organization, told ABC News that her group has sent a letter to Alpha Genesis offering to rehome the escaped primates to its animal sanctuary in South Texas, where more than 200 rhesus macaque monkeys now reside, including some rescued from U.S. research labs. She said an anonymous donor has pledged $250,000 to help move the animals to the sanctuary.

“What we’d like to see is these animals be released to the Born Free USA sanctuary in South Texas, where they can have some of that freedom that they’ve just gotten a taste of,” Grimes said.

Grimes said Alpha Genesis has not responded to her group’s offer.

The nonprofit Born Free USA Primate Sanctuary, a 175-acre facility in Dilley, Texas, has been accredited since 2009 by the Global Federation of Animal Sanctuaries, GFAS executive director Valerie Taylor told ABC News, adding that her group conducts rigorous assessments and inspections of animal sanctuaries across the United States and around the globe to ensure the highest standard of animal care possible. Taylor said U.S. animal sanctuaries undergo accreditation every three years and that her organization recently visited the Born Free USA sanctuary as part of the reaccreditation process.

“We meet and exceed GFAS’ highest standards,” Grimes said.

Grimes said the medical research industry needs to research alternatives to subjecting primates to experimental testing of deadly diseases.

“I understand human health is important, but I also look at the other viable alternatives that are out there that do not result in the suffering and death of animals,” Grimes said.

Westergaard said testing of primates is necessary, though.

“There is no safe or effective way to make the leap from simpler model organisms like mice and rats to humans without using NHPs as an intermediary,” Westergaard said. “The therapeutics created using NHPs as research models directly lead to lifesaving and life-prolonging treatments and cures for human disease. Without NHPs as a research model, the world would still be ravaged with wide-spread polio, smallpox wouldn’t be eradicated, and HIV would still be a death sentence.”

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(SAN MATEO COUNTY, Calif.) — Health officials in California have confirmed the first domestic case of a more severe strain of mpox in a traveler from Eastern Africa, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The risk to the public remains low, according to the agency. Health officials are working to identify any people who may have been exposed to the person who recently traveled from Eastern Africa and was treated shortly after returning to the U.S. at a local medical facility, the CDC said.

Casual contact — including during travel — is unlikely to pose significant risks for transmission, the agency noted.

This is the first confirmed case in the U.S. of a strain, or clade, of the virus called clade 1b.

Another strain, clade 2b, was primarily responsible for the global outbreak in 2022. During the outbreak, mpox primarily spread through close sexual contact — and a strong vaccination effort was credited with helping slow the surge of cases. This less severe version continues to circulate in the U.S at low levels. The CDC does not currently recommend booster shots for those who are considered high-risk and already fully vaccinated.

Clade 1b was recently found in September in the Congo, likely responsible for a growing outbreak in Africa that led the World Health Organization to declare a global health emergency. Early data shows that this clade is more severe and may be spreading through other contact routes in households and often to children.

People with mpox, which was formerly known as monkeypox, often get a rash that can be located on hands, feet, chest, face, mouth or near the genitals, the CDC said.

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(NEW YORK) — With the recent pick of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the environmental attorney’s views on vaccines have been thrust back into the spotlight.

Kennedy has been a prominent vaccine skeptic, arguing that more research of vaccines is needed, although he has claimed in interviews that he has “never been anti-vaccine.”

Vaccine researchers tell ABC News that his recent comments don’t align with his past campaigns and that, if confirmed, he could convince vaccine-hesitant parents to not vaccinate their children.

“He’s really not a vaccine skeptic; I’m a vaccine skeptic,” Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center, an attending physician in the division of infectious diseases at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a member of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, told ABC News.

“Everybody who sits around the table at the FDA vaccine advisory committee is a vaccine skeptic, right? Show us the data, prove that this vaccine is safe, prove that it’s effective, because then and only then will we authorize it, or recommend authorization or licensure,” he said.

Offit argued that Kennedy is a “vaccine cynic,” adding, “He thinks that we’re not getting the right information, that there’s an unholy alliance between the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA with the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] to hide the real data, and he’s going to find the real data, which is utter nonsense.”

Claims that vaccines cause autism

Kennedy has previously claimed that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine — a myth that was born out of a now-debunked paper from the U.K. in 1998.

The fraudulent paper has since been discredited by health experts, retracted from the journal in which it was published, and its primary author, Andrew Wakefield, lost his medical license. More than a dozen high-quality studies have since found no evidence of a link between childhood vaccines and autism.

Dr. Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said he’s worried that COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has spilled over into hesitancy towards childhood vaccines.

There have been more measles outbreaks this year than last year and a five-fold increase in whooping cough cases this year from the year before, according to CDC data, which Hotez says is a sign that more parents may be increasingly vaccine-hesitant.

According to the CDC, there have been a total of 277 measles cases reported in 30 states in 2024 — more than four times the amount last year — with 16 outbreaks this year compared to four outbreaks in 2023. An estimated 96% of measles cases this year were not fully vaccinated. Additionally, whooping cough cases are at the highest levels this year since 2014, according to CDC data.

This comes as vaccinations among kindergarteners dipped in the 2023-2024 school year for the fourth year in a row – failing to meet the 95% threshold goal aimed to prevent a single infection from sparking an outbreak. The last time that threshold was met was pre-pandemic, during the 2019-2020 school year.

“Now you put someone like Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s most prominent, well-known anti-vaccine activist at the top of the food chain, at the top of Health and Human Services,” Hotez said. “I don’t see how these things improve any. If anything, they could start to decline even further. …So, I worry about further erosion in the number of kids getting vaccinated in the U.S.”

Claims about the COVID-19 vaccine

Kennedy also spread vaccine misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic including claims that Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation were trying to profit off a COVID-19 vaccine.

During a December 2021 Louisiana House of Representatives meeting discussing a proposal to require schoolchildren to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Kennedy falsely called the vaccine the “deadliest vaccine ever made.”

Health officials say COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective following clinical trials that involved tens of thousands of people, and have since helped save millions of lives.

Offit says he is worried that, as the head of the HHS, Kennedy would help select directors of the CDC, FDA and the National Institutes of Health who are not qualified, and could similarly espouse vaccine-skeptic views.

“My worry is that he is not going to pick technically competent people,” he said. “My worry is he’s going to have a role in selecting ideologues who are not well-educated about infectious diseases or vaccines, and maybe who lack government experience as well.”

Both Offit and Hotez said it will be important over the next four years for doctors to have conversations with vaccine-hesitant parents to educate them on the importance of vaccinating their children in case they are swayed by vaccine-skeptic rhetoric from Kennedy.

Offit said he is already getting emails from pediatricians about parents who are hesitant to vaccinate their children because of Kennedy’s past comments.

“Over the last few days, I’ve gotten emails from pediatricians, one particularly in Connecticut that comes to mind, where they’re saying, ‘Parents are coming in, and they’re saying they don’t want to get vaccines, in part because of what [Kennedy] said. What should we do?'” Offit said. “So, I think that’s where the rubber meets the road. It’s certainly a lot more work for clinicians than it used to be.”

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(NEW YORK) — Women are stocking up on birth control and asking for long-term contraception methods following President Donald Trump being elected to a second term last week, doctors say.

Searches for “birth control” and “Plan B” doubled between Nov. 2 and the two days after the election, with a notable spike the day after the election, Google Search data shows.

Doctors told ABC News that patients are worried that access to birth control and contraception might be limited after Trump takes office due to efforts made during his first term and comments made on the campaign trail.

Dr. Brittany Cline, an OB-GYN at Northwestern Medicine, in Chicago, said she has seen an increase in the number of appointments being made for contraceptive or birth control counseling as well as appointments for long-acting contraceptives being either inserted or replaced or exchanged.

“We have, in clinic, seen many patients coming in for their [intrauterine device] replacements, even this week,” she told ABC News. “On Monday, I used all of our intrauterine devices that the clinic had, and I think that this is going to continue over the next few months and even years down the line, as people try to take some control over their bodies.”

Cline said she also received a message from a patient this week requesting four years of her birth control prescription be sent to a pharmacy.

‘That’s something that I have not, you know, seen before. Usually, we supply, you know, 12 months, one year at a time,” she said. “We do know that as many medications, there is a shelf life, and so it would not be safe for me to prescribe four years’ worth of contraception to a patient because of the shelf life.”

Dr. Leslie Kantor, professor and chair of the Department of Urban Global Public Health at the Rutgers School of Public Health, in New Jersey, told ABC News that she has heard anecdotal reports of more traffic to websites that have information about birth control.

She said patients may be worried because of the federal contraceptive coverage guarantee. Under a provision of the Affordable Care Act, most private insurance plans must cover the full cost of most contraceptives, such as birth control, without making patients pay out-of-pocket costs.

If the incoming Trump administration allows employers and schools to use religious and moral exemptions to prevent coverage of contraceptives, as the White House did during Trump’s first term, this may lead to out-of-pocket costs that make contraceptives unaffordable to some, experts previously told ABC News.

The experts say patients may be concerned due to comments Trump made on the campaign trail suggesting he’s open to restricting contraceptives.

During an interview with Pittsburgh TV station KDKA-TV, Trump was asked if he supports any restrictions on a person’s right to contraceptives.

“Well, we’re looking at that and we’re going to have a policy on that very shortly,” Trump responded. “And I think it’s something you’ll find interesting and it’s another issue that’s very interesting.”

When asked to clarify if he was suggesting he was open to supporting some restrictions on contraceptives, “like the morning-after pill,” Trump dodged, saying. “Things really do have a lot to do with the states — and some states are going to have different policy than others.”

Some states have also taken it upon themselves to provide contraception access. In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer launched Take Control of Your Birth Control, a program to provide Michigan families access to free contraception including over-the-counter oral birth control pills, emergency contraception, condoms and family planning.

Both Cline and Kantor recommended that patients speak to their health care providers about the best birth control method for them as well as what options are available for them down the road.

“The advice that I would give to people right now is this is a great time to figure out the best birth control method for you, and you can do that in a variety of ways,” Kantor said. “It’s a terrific time to find an ongoing method of birth control that will work. …There’s no reason, however, to panic. Access to birth control is not going away tomorrow, and in fact, it’s not going away on the day that Trump becomes president.”

ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim and Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Infant mortality rates remained relatively unchanged from 2022 to 2023, but racial and ethnic disparities still persist, new provisional federal data released early Thursday finds.

The U.S. provisional infant mortality rate in 2023 was 5.61 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, unchanged from the 2022 rate, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS).

The report also found that infants born to Black mothers still died at much higher rates than those born to white and Asian mothers — more than double the rate of white infant mortality, according to the CDC.

Additionally, changes in the neonatal mortality rate from 3.59 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2022 to 3.65 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2023, and the postneonatal mortality rate from 2.02 deaths per 1,000 live births to 1.96 deaths per 1,000 live births from 2022 to 2023 were not seen as statistically significant, the report’s authors said.

Neonatal refers to the first four weeks of an infant’s life and postneonatal refers to the period between 28 days and 364 days after birth.

Dr. Danielle Ely, co-author of the report and a health statistician at the NCHS, said 2022 was the first year there was a significant increase in the infant mortality rate in about 20 years. That the rate did not increase in 2023 shows the rise in 2022 was likely not a fluke, she said.

“So what we’re seeing is that what we were hoping would be just a one-year blip is now a two-year higher rate,” she told ABC News. “It is unfortunate that it did not go down again to where it was in 2021 at least or at least down from 2022. It just quite literally stayed the same, the infant mortality did.”

Black infants died at a rate of 10.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births, more than double the rate of 4.5 deaths per 1,000 live births for white women and 3.4 deaths per 1,000 live births for Asian women, per the CDC data.

Infants born to American Indian and Alaska Native women also had higher rates than white and Asian women at 9.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, according to the report.

Data also showed infants born to Hawaiian or Pacific Islander women died at a rate of 8.2 deaths per 1,000 live births, and those born to Hispanic women died at a rate of 5.0 deaths per 1,000 live births.

Why racial disparities continue to persist is “the $100 million question,” Dr. Kirsten Bechtel, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital and an expert in infant mortality, told ABC News.

“One of things that’s great about this data is that it helps us work backward. It’s like the canary in the gold mine,” Bechtel, who was not involved in the report, said. “Death is an outcome that everyone agrees on is a problem, but why that problem happens is oftentimes subject to vigorous discussion.”

She said one reason behind the disparities could be that Black mothers have a higher rate of pre-term birth, and pre-term birth is associated with higher infant mortality.

“That has a lot to do with access to timely prenatal care,” Bechtel said. “Trying to get folks access to timely care during pregnancy and timely care that is evidence-based. We also know there is some elements of structural racism that is built into some of the care these women receive.”

Bechtel said the findings show that pregnant people need to be supported financially with access to medical care and by the community helping take care of a child.

“Raising a child can be very daunting, especially if you have socioeconomic challenges or you have to go to work and you can’t take time off after your baby’s birth,” she said. “So we really need to look at policies that support pregnant people.”

Harika Rayala, M.D., MSJ, is a neurology resident physician at the University of Virginia and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

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The election of former President Donald Trump to a second term has put a spotlight on what his return to the White House may look like, particularly when it comes to women’s health.

Online searches for topics related to women’s health have spiked since the Nov. 5 election, particularly when it comes to birth control, Google data shows.

Searches for IUDs, birth control pills, and Plan B are trending higher than they have since June 2022, when Roe v. Wade was overturned, giving states the power to decide abortion access.

Since then, at least 14 states have ceased nearly all abortion services, and 21 states have put into effect restrictions on abortion.

The current abortion landscape combined with Trump’s comments about birth control on the campaign trail and his first administration’s efforts to roll back insurance coverage of contraceptives have led to uncertainty about what will happen in his second term.

Here are five questions answered.

1. What does the term ‘birth control’ include?

Birth control, also known as contraception, is the broad term for the act of preventing pregnancy.

The term includes everything from medicines and methods to devices and surgery used to prevent pregnancy, according to the National Library of Medicine.

One of the most widely-known and used types of contraception is the birth control pill, an oral, hormonal medication that commonly requires a prescription.

Around 14% of women in the United States between the ages of 15 to 49 currently use the pill, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

2. What did Trump say about birth control on the campaign trail?

During an interview with a Pittsburgh TV station in May, Trump was asked if he supports any restrictions on a person’s right to contraceptives.

“Well, we’re looking at that and we’re going to have a policy on that very shortly,” Trump responded with. “And I think it’s something you’ll find interesting and it’s another issue that’s very interesting.”

When asked to clarify if he was suggesting he was open to supporting some restrictions on contraceptives, “like the morning-after pill,” Trump responded, “Things really do have a lot to do with the states — and some states are going to have different policy than others.”

The former president quickly took to social media to clarify his position, claiming that he was not advocating for restrictions on contraceptives.

“I HAVE NEVER, AND WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL, or other contraceptives,” he wrote in a May 21 post on his social media platform.

The Trump campaign further attempted to clarify, claiming the policy Trump was referring to during the interview was mifepristone, often used in pregnancy termination. However, Trump was not asked about the abortion medication.

After winning the 2024 presidential election, Trump and the transition team have been advised on health-related appointments by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has also been in discussions to possibly fill a major role in the next administration, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

ABC News has not found public comment from RFK Jr. on the issue of birth control.

3. What happened on birth control during Trump’s first administration?

During Trump’s first term, the Department of Health and Human Services issued new rules allowing more employers to opt-out of the Affordable Care Act mandate guaranteeing no-cost contraceptive services for women.

The Supreme Court upheld the HHS decision in a 7-2 ruling in 2020, giving an employer or university with a religious or moral objection to opt out of covering contraceptives for employees.

4. As president, what power does Trump have over birth control?

As president, Trump would have the authority to order rollbacks of measures implemented by President Joe Biden’s administration to protect birth control.

As recently as October, the Biden administration announced a plan to require insurers to fully cover over-the-counter contraceptives.

In January, the administration announced several other measures to protect contraception access, including federal agencies issuing new guidance to “clarify standards” and make sure Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptive medications are available for free under the Affordable Care Act.

Once Trump is in office, he will also have the chance to appoint Supreme Court justices if vacancies arise. During his first term, Trump appointed three justices.

Trump could also work with Congress to enact legislation on women’s reproductive rights, including birth control. Following the Nov. 5 election, control of the House of Representatives is still up in the air, while ABC News has projected that Republicans will win the Senate.

5. What has the Supreme Court said on birth control?

When the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, a solo concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas included a line on birth control.

In his opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that the court “should reconsider” Griswold v. Connecticut, the Supreme Court ruling that invalidated a Connecticut law that made it illegal to use birth control devices or to advise about their use.

“We have a duty to ‘correct the error’ established in those precedents,” Thomas wrote, citing the Griswold ruling among others.

ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Will McDuffie, Kelsey Walsh and Soo Rin Kim contributed to this report.

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