Moderna awarded $590M to help accelerate development of mRNA-based bird flu vaccine: HHS
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(NEW YORK) — Moderna has been awarded approximately $590 million from the federal government to help speed up the development of an mRNA-based bird flu vaccine, alongside other influenza vaccines, health officials announced Friday.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a press release that the funding will allow the pharmaceutical company to accelerate the development of an H5N1 mRNA influenza vaccine “that is well matched to strains currently circulating in cows and birds and expands the clinical data supporting the use of mRNA vaccines that may be needed if other influenza strains emerge with pandemic potential.”
Moderna said the funding will support the expansion of clinical studies “for up to five additional subtypes of pandemic influenza.”
The U.S. government previously awarded the vaccine manufacturer $176 million in July 2024 to help expedite the development of an mRNA vaccine that could be used for bird flu.
mRNA technology is the same type that was used in the development of some COVID-19 vaccines. While some vaccines use a weakened or inactive virus to stimulate an immune response, mRNA vaccines teach the body how to make proteins that can trigger an immune response and fight off an infection.
Researchers can often design mRNA vaccines more quickly than they can produce the live or weakened pathogens needed for a live-attenuated or inactivated vaccine.
The federal government already has two bird flu vaccine candidates, which use traditional vaccine technology, available in the nation’s stockpile. Officials previously noted they’d have 10 million ready-to-use doses within the beginning of 2025. Vaccines were being stockpiled as a precaution.
“Avian flu variants have proven to be particularly unpredictable and dangerous to humans in the past. That is why this response has been a top priority for the Biden-Harris Administration and HHS,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement on Friday. “Accelerating the development of new vaccines will allow us to stay ahead and ensure that Americans have the tools they need to stay safe.”
Bird flu cases in humans have been spreading across the country since April 2024 with 67 confirmed cases as of Friday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The first death of a human bird flu patient was reported in Louisiana earlier this month. The patient was over the age of 65 and had underlying medical conditions, according to health officials.
Most human cases have occurred after coming into contact with infected cattle, infected poultry farms or other culling operations.
The CDC and other public health officials say there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission and the risk to the general public is low.
ABC News’ Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Five years ago, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic, leading to stay at-home orders and shutdowns across the U.S. and world.
The nation looks much different since then, and scientists and researchers have learned a lot about the virus, including how it infects people, the best forms of treatment and what puts someone at risk for long COVID.
There are still many questions, however. Health care professionals are working to find answers, such as how many people have truly died, how long the virus spread undetected in the U.S. and its origins.
“We know this emerged in China, around the city Wuhan. That’s very clear,” Dr. Cameron Wolfe, an infectious diseases specialist and a professor of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, told ABC News. “We know when [the] medical community identified it, but we don’t know quite how long it was circulating before then. I think it’s caused some of the consternation.”
How many people have died of COVID-19?
As of March 6, at least 1,222,603 Americans have died of COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. currently has the highest number of deaths of any country in the world, according to the WHO.
Experts, however, believe the true death toll is higher.
“More than a million people is a tragedy into itself, let’s start with that obvious fact,” Wolfe said. “I think the numbers are really hard to pin down for one key reason.”
Determining the exact cause of death can be complicated, Wolfe explained. Someone could die of COVID pneumonia — a lung infection caused by the virus — or die from a heart attack after contracting COVID.
Another example is an older adult who contracts COVID-19. They may become dehydrated, break a bone — because dehydration negatively impacts bone health — and suffer fatal complications, Wolfe said.
“How you count those outcomes is really important because, to me, that person wouldn’t have had their heart attack or that person wouldn’t have become dehydrated and fallen over and landed in the hospital if not for COVID triggering that event in the first place,” he said. “So, I actually think it’s really important to count those as COVID-associated mortalities, but they’re hard to count. They’re hard to track.”
Globally, more than 7 million people have died due to COVID-19, WHO data shows, although the agency says the pandemic caused an estimated 14.83 million excess deaths around the world in 2020 and 2021.
What is the mechanism behind long COVID
Scientists are not sure what causes long COVID but have identified certain risk factors such as an underlying health condition. Long-COVID symptoms can last for weeks, months or even years and can include — but are not limited to — fever, fatigue, coughing, chest pain, headaches, difficulty concentrating, sleep problems, stomach pain and joint or muscle pain, according to the CDC.
Research has found that patients with long COVID tend to have lower cortisol levels and lower testosterone levels.
“There are several questions that we still do not have answers for. What is the mechanism of the disease? Why do some people get more sick than others?” Dr. Fernando Carnavali, an internal medicine physician and a member of the team at Mount Sinai’s Center for Post-COVID Care, told ABC News.
Carnavali said scientists are using machine learning to study groups of long COVID patients in an attempt to determine the mechanisms that cause the condition.
“Do we have a single answer? Not as of yet, and most likely, perhaps we’ll have more than one answer,” he said.
Carnavali said the mechanism may not be the same for every long COVID patient. Additionally, people may have different symptoms due to different genetic predispositions.
“Some of the deficits that we have five years ago still remain, but I think that we should all understand and be hopeful that … researchers using machine learning will [provide] us some of the answers that we need as clinicians,” he said.
When did COVID enter the United States?
It’s still not exactly clear when the virus first entered the U.S. The first confirmed case in the country was Jan. 20, 2020, in a man in his 30s in Washington state, who developed symptoms after a trip to Wuhan.
However, studies have suggested the virus may have been circulating undetected for months beforehand.
Although the WHO was first notified on Dec. 31, 2019, about the mysterious pneumonia-like illness that originated in Wuhan, experts say it is likely that in an age of global travel, the virus was in the U.S. before then.
“It’s more likely circulated before Jan. 1 [2020]. It doesn’t seem unreasonable, November, December,” Dr. Lisa Olson-Gugerty, an associate teaching professor for Syracuse University and practicing family nurse practitioner in emergency medicine, told ABC News. “COVID masquerades itself as a flu-like illness, upper respiratory-like illness, like many other viral illnesses. It’s not easy to say, ‘Hey, I think this must be a new thing, and I’m going to tell everyone.'”
She went on, “I think it takes a bit of collective time to recognize a new viral strain, and it doesn’t seem unreasonable [there were] cases that could have been recognized as COVID before the date of release of information.”
Where did the virus come from?
There are two theories about where the virus, known as SARS-CoV-2, originated.
At least four U.S. agencies believe the virus was a result of natural transmission and that the virus jumped from animals to humans at a wet market.
The FBI, the CIA and the Department of Energy – the latter with “low confidence” — believe the COVID-19 pandemic “most likely” was the result of a laboratory leak in China.
Additionally, an April 2023 report from Senate Republicans conceded that “both hypotheses are plausible” but that the evidence points to the virus emerging from an accidental lab leak in Wuhan — and there may even have been multiple leaks.
If the virus did come from an animal, there are questions about which species may have spilled the virus over from animals to humans.
“I’ve seen a lot of conflicting information,” Olson-Gugerty said. “Did it come from a bat? Did it get into raccoon dogs or civet cats? Or was it a lab-created virus in Wuhan, China There does seem to be a jury that’s out.”
Wolfe said we may never know the true origins of SARS-CoV-2, but trying to answer the question helps scientists and public health professionals learn how to mitigate the spread so a pandemic — or even widespread illness — doesn’t happen again.
“This was the same question that happened during the Ebola pandemic, when we had to say, ‘Where did this come from? How can we educate people to minimize this future risk?'” he said. “It was important to examine where COVID-19 came from to try and put things in place that would stop that happening.”
He added, “We certainly, I would say, have better safety mechanisms now in place … so there are some good things that have come out of this.”
Human Bird Flu Cases in the U.S. as of January 6, 2025. Image by ABC News. Data via CDC.
(NEW YORK) — In the nearly nine months since the first human case of bird flu was detected in the United States, the virus has continued to spread.
The outbreak infected hundreds of herds and millions of birds before it spread to humans. As of Jan. 6, there have been 66 human cases of bird flu reported in 10 states, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Almost all confirmed cases involve direct contact with infected cattle or infected livestock.
On Tuesday, the first death of a human bird flu patient was reported in Louisiana. The patient was over the age of 65 and had underlying medical conditions, according to health officials.
The CDC says there is currently no evidence of human-to-human transmission and the risk to the general public is low.
However, public health experts say they are worried the virus could mutate and become more transmissible, amplifying the need to ramp up testing and to stockpile vaccines.
Dr. Tony Moody, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases specialist at Duke University, said the fact that cases have yet to pass from human to human is “both reassuring, but not completely reassuring.”
He told ABC News, “What we’re concerned about is that, eventually, we might get a variation of this strain that could pass from person to person. That’s really what we’re going to need to see, I think, to get substantial human cases and the potential for a new pandemic strain.”
He added, “So, in terms of peering into the crystal ball for 2025…I think the concern is whether or not we’re going to see something change that will turn it into a pandemic strain that could then really be a problem,” he added.
Fears of mutation or a combination virus
One fear experts have is that the virus will continue to mutate in a way that will cause more human-to-human transmissibility. The experts say that every new human case of bird flu allows the virus an opportunity to mutate.
Recent CDC data found mutations in samples of bird flu collected from the Louisiana patient. What’s more, the mutations were not found in poultry samples collected on the patient’s property, suggesting the changes appeared after the patient became infected.
Moody said that because the virus has not yet mutated in a way to spread more easily between humans, he’s not sure if or when it will happen.
“Given the number of cows that have been infected, the number of birds that have been infected and the fact that the virus essentially mutates every time it replicates, I’m kind of surprised that the mutations that they’re talking about haven’t happened yet,” he said. “So, I actually think there’s a bigger barrier to it becoming a real problem.”
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 believes there is a more likely scenario of the virus becoming more transmissible: an individual getting infected with bird flu and seasonal influenza at the same time.
He said this could lead to the virus “reassorting” to produce a hybrid, or recombinant, virus that could then transmit more easily from person to person.
“Everyone’s focusing on the potential for mutation; that is a serious concern for some,” he told ABC News. “The greater probability is that there could be a reassortment, what could ignite the pandemic or an epidemic.”
The experts say there is no evidence the virus is currently heading towards an epidemic or pandemic, but there has already been one case of severe disease.
Different genotypes, or genetic makeup of the virus, means there could more severe cases.
“What we’ve seen with [bird flu] in the United States is that the particular genotype that’s associated with dairy cows has primarily caused more mild disease in people,” Dr. Meghan Davis, an associate professor of environmental health and engineering at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News.
“What we’ve seen with the case in Louisiana … is caused by a different genotype, one that has been circulating in the wild birds, and these are much more severe cases,” she continued. “This highlights the ability of avian influenzas to cause a wide variety of disease … and I think it is possible that we’re going to see that moving forward.”
Making testing more available
The U.S. has begun ramping up testing with the U.S. Department of Agriculture issuing a federal order for raw milk samples nationwide to be collected and tested and the Food and Drug Administration announcing it is collecting samples of aged raw cow’s milk cheese to be tested.
However, for 2025, Hotez said he believes testing needs to be made more readily available to physicians, especially during flu season.
He said there are likely cases of bird flu going undiagnosed, and testing made more available in health care settings would catch those flying under the radar.
“I think one of the problems that we have, especially as we move into influenza season, there’s the risk that, if you’re a physician, if they want to do influenza testing, they’re only really testing for the usual seasonal influenza, they’re not testing for [bird flu],” he said. “Otherwise, we’re never going to fully know the actual extent of the problem.”
Stockpiling bird flu vaccines
In early July, the U.S. government awarded Moderna $176 million to develop and test a bird flu vaccine using mRNA technology, which is the same technology used for the COVID vaccine.
In October, federal health officials announced they were providing $72 million to vaccine manufacturers to help ensure currently available bird flu vaccines are ready to use, if needed.
There are currently no recommendations for anyone in the U.S. to be vaccinated against bird flu, but experts say that could change if the virus becomes more transmissible.
Moody said clinical trials for new vaccines are being conducted and there are already bird flu vaccines in a stockpile maintained by the U.S. government that have previously been licensed by the FDA.
However, these three vaccines were formulated to protect against older strains of bird flu so there are questions about their protectiveness.
“One of the difficulties in making a stockpile is you’re trying to predict the future. Picking which influenza is going to be a problem is always the difficult bit,” Moody said. “So, I think that those vaccines that are in the stockpile, based on the data that I’ve seen, have a pretty good chance of being helpful. Whether or not they’ll be the answer that’s a that’s a tougher question to address.”
He said the U.S. is in a better position currently to address bird flu if it becomes an epidemic or pandemic than the country was to address COVID in 2020.
“We know how to do this. We know how to make these vaccines. We know how to get everything rolled out, and so I think we are in a better position today,” Moody said.
(GAINES COUNTY, Texas) — The number of measles cases associated with an outbreak in western Texas has grown to 146, according to new data released Friday.
Almost all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, with 79 unvaccinated and 62 of unknown status. At least 20 people have been hospitalized so far, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS).
Just five cases have occurred in people vaccinated with one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases with 70, followed by 46 cases among children ages 4 and under.
So far just one death has been reported in an unvaccinated school-aged child, according to DSHS. It marks the first measles death in the U.S. in a decade, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Gaines County is the epicenter of the outbreak, with 98 cases confirmed among residents, according to DSHS. State health data shows the number of vaccine exemptions in the county have grown dramatically.
Roughly 7.5% of kindergarteners in the county had parents or guardians who filed for an exemption for at least one vaccine in 2013. Ten years later, that number rose to more than 17.5% — one of the highest in all of Texas, according to state health data.
The CDC as separately confirmed 93 cases in eight states so far this year in Alaska, California, Georgia, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island and Texas.
The total, however, is an undercount due to delays in reporting from states to the federal government.
The majority of nationally confirmed cases are in people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown. Of the cases, 4% are among those who received one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) shot.
Measles is one of the most contagious diseases known to humans. Just one infected patient can spread measles to up to nine out of 10 susceptible close contacts, according to the CDC.
Health officials have been urging anyone who isn’t vaccinated to receive the MMR vaccine.
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two vaccine doses, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective. Most vaccinated adults don’t need a booster.
Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 due to the highly effective vaccination program, according to the CDC. However, CDC data shows vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
