BIRD FLU VAX PREP INCHES FORWARD — Federal health officials maintain the risk of avian flu to the public remains low despite the CDC’s unsuccessful sequencing efforts from a recent infection in Missouri in a hospitalized patient with no known animal contacts. But the government says efforts to position vaccines that target the flu circulating in dairy cows are nearly complete. The federal government has prefilled syringes of vaccine candidates and is finalizing bulk fill of multidose vials, but the FDA has not yet greenlighted them, David Boucher, director of infectious disease preparedness and response in the HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, told reporters on Thursday. FDA advisory committee? Dr. Paul Offit, a Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia vaccine expert who sits on the FDA’s vaccine advisory committee, wants the panel to review data before the agency authorizes or approves the candidate vaccines. “We did this for Covid when thousands of people were dying a day, and we still went through that committee process,” Offit said. “This is not the same virus, this does not even spread easily person to person, there’s plenty of time to do that and I think we owe it to the American population to have an independent advisory board look at those data.” Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, said he would prefer that the government be ready to deploy avian flu vaccines in short order if needed. “[The FDA] probably should do their advisory committee as soon as they have what they need to do that,” Benjamin said. Boosting surveillance? Some public health experts are concerned the flu surveillance system is not sensitive enough to detect other avian flu cases. “Given the denominator, you would need to see a big uptick to pick up a signal,” Dr. Celine Gounder, editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News said. “We may well be caught flat-footed again because Congress isn’t investing enough in public health surveillance.” Rick Bright, who led the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and raised the alarm about the Trump administration’s early response to the Covid-19 pandemic, described the surveillance system as “random, reactive and very slow.” “We need to tighten up our surveillance capabilities and speed turnaround times for outbreak investigation or we will easily miss the emergence and spread of pandemic viruses, until it’s too late,” Bright said. “There are many unanswered questions about the case in Missouri. Some that might’ve been answered if samples were collected sooner.” IT’S FRIDAY. WELCOME BACK TO PRESCRIPTION PULSE. Your author finds himself reacquainted with Covid-19. Reach out with tips to David Lim (dlim@politico.com or @davidalim) and Lauren Gardner (lgardner@politico.com or @Gardner_LM).
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