Latest news with #AngelaRasmussen
The Guardian
9 hours ago
- Health
- The Guardian
Pandemic preparedness ‘dramatically eroding' under Trump, experts say
Amid controversial dismissals for independent advisers and staff at health agencies, alongside lackluster responses to the bird flu and measles outbreaks, experts fear the US is now in worse shape to respond to a pandemic than before 2020. H5N1, which has received less attention under the Trump administration than from Biden's team, is not the only influenza virus or even the only variant of bird flu with the potential to spark a pandemic. But a subpar response to the ongoing US outbreak signals a larger issue: America is not ready for whatever pathogen will sweep through next. 'We have not even remotely maintained the level of pandemic preparedness – which needed a lot of work, as we saw from the Covid pandemic,' said Angela Rasmussen, an American virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. 'But now, we essentially have no pandemic preparedness.' 'I'm concerned on a number of fronts,' said Jennifer Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health. Those concerns include a lack of quality information from officials, weakened virus monitoring systems, and public health reductions at the federal, state and local levels. 'The thing that I am most concerned about is the veracity of information coming out of the health agencies,' Nuzzo said. In the ongoing outbreaks of measles, for example, Robert F Kennedy Jr, the secretary of health and human services, has downplayed the severity of the disease, spread misinformation about the highly effective vaccine to prevent measles, and pushed unproven treatments. 'The communications on measles gives me deep worries about what would happen in a pandemic,' Nuzzo said. 'If a pandemic were to occur today, the only thing we would have to protect ourselves on day one would be information.' The H5N1 outbreak has been plagued by incomplete information, an issue that began in the Biden administration but has amplified under Trump. In Arizona, 6 million chickens were killed or culled at a Hickman's Family Farms location because of H5N1 in May. That's about 95% of the company's hen population in the state. Hundreds of workers, including inmate laborers, are now being dismissed as Arizona braces for egg shortages. Yet even as H5N1 outbreaks continue to spread on farms and wreak havoc on the food supply, no new bird flu cases have been reported in people for months. 'I am concerned that we may not be finding new infections in humans,' Nuzzo said – and a lack of testing may be the culprit. 'We're not testing – it's not that there are no new cases,' Rassmussen said. The last bird flu case in a person was listed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on 23 February. At that point, at least 830 people in the US had been tested after contact with sick animals. This kind of testing – monitoring the health of people who regularly work with H5N1-infected animals – is how the vast majority of cases (64 out of 70) have been found in this outbreak. But then, several CDC officials overseeing the bird flu response were fired on 1 April. Since then, only about 50 people in the US have been tested after exposure to sick animals – and no positive cases have been announced. It's also been difficult to understand the extent of the outbreak and how the virus spreads among animals. 'We still just don't have a good picture of the scope and scale of this outbreak – we never really have. And until we have that, we're not going to be able to contain it,' Rasmussen said. 'It's extremely bad,' she continued. 'We don't have any information about what's happening right now. The next pandemic could be starting, and we just don't know where that's happening, and we don't have any ability to find out.' Huge reductions in the public health workforce and resources has led to less monitoring of outbreaks, known as disease surveillance. 'Cutting back on that surveillance is leaving us more in the dark,' Nuzzo said. The CDC clawed back $11.4bn in Covid funding in March. This funding was used to monitor, test, vaccinate and otherwise respond to public health issues at the state, local, territorial and tribal level. 'We're seeing health departments scrambling,' Nuzzo said. 'That infrastructure is just dramatically eroding.' International monitoring programs to address outbreaks before they expand across borders have also been cancelled. 'We have taken for granted all of those protections, and I fear that we are poised to see the consequences,' Nuzzo said. Trump's crackdown on immigration also poses a major challenge in detecting cases and treating patients during outbreaks. 'A lot of the people who are most at risk are strongly disincentivized to report any cases, given that many of them are undocumented or are not US citizens,' Rasmussen said. 'Nobody wants to go get tested if they're going to end up in an Ice detention facility.' When cases are not detected, that means patients are not able to access care. Although it's rare for people to become sick with H5N1, for instance – the virus is still primarily an avian, not a human, influenza – this variant of bird flu has a 52% mortality rate globally among people with known infections. Allowing a deadly virus to spread and mutate under the radar has troubling implications for its ability to change into a human influenza without anyone knowing. And if such changes were detected, widening gaps in communication could be the next hurdle for preventing a pandemic, Nuzzo said. 'Communication is our most important public health intervention. People, in order to be able to know how to protect themselves, need to have access to facts, and they need to believe in the messengers. And the communication around the measles outbreaks are deeply eroding our standing with the American people.' Even stockpiled vaccines and other protective measures, like personal protective equipment, take time to distribute, Nuzzo added. 'And flu is a fast-moving disease that could cause a lot of damage in the months it would take to mount a vaccination campaign.' The US government's cancellation of its $766m contract with Moderna to research and develop an H5N1 vaccine also signals a concerning strategy from health officials, Nuzzo and Rasmussen said. Other restrictions on vaccine development, like a new plan to test all vaccines against saline placebos, is 'going to make it extremely difficult to approve any new vaccine' and would 'have a devastating impact on our ability to respond to a potential pandemic', Rasmussen said – especially in a rapidly moving pandemic where speed matters. 'You don't have time for that if this virus causes a human-to–human outbreak,' Rasmussen said. All of these policies mean the US is less prepared for a pandemic than it was in 2020, she said. And it also means there will be preventable suffering now, even before the next big one strikes. 'We are actively making people less safe, less healthy and more dead,' Rasmussen said.
Globe and Mail
11-06-2025
- Health
- Globe and Mail
Kennedy's firing of U.S. immunization committee is worrisome, Canadian scientists say
Canadian doctors and scientists say Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s firing of an immunization advisory committee south of the border is worrisome. On Monday, the U.S. health and human services secretary – a longtime anti-vaccine advocate – said he will appoint new members to the scientific group that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about vaccination. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, said Tuesday that the move will foster more false anti-vaccine beliefs, not only in the U.S. but also in Canada. 'It creates a culture in which anti-vaxx beliefs are more accepted and challenged a lot less. And also it creates an environment where there's an alternative to an evidence-based recommendation framework,' she said. Opinion: The measles outbreak shows why we need a vaccine registry Even though Kennedy's new appointments will make vaccine recommendations specific to the United States, any disinformation could also feed vaccine hesitancy among Canadians, Rasmussen said. 'We have a lot of the same anti-vaxx sentiment up here. Certainly this will at the very least empower [that],' she said. Rasmussen said current measles outbreaks in both countries show the consequences of disinformation that leads to parents not immunizing their children against preventable diseases. She said Canada could also experience some fallout if the new committee pulls back vaccination recommendations, because manufacturers may cut back on production and that could lead to shortages. 'There's a lot of potential for really, really damaging vaccine access throughout the U.S. and potentially around the world because the U.S. market has a big impact on what vaccine manufacturers are actually going to make and manufacture,' she said. 'There's so many ways that this can end up really badly for vaccination in general. And it really causes me a lot of concern.' Rasmussen said the firing of the advisory committee members is just the latest in a series of anti-public health actions Kennedy has taken. 'It's a death by a thousand cuts,' said Rasmussen, who is American and moved to Canada during the pandemic to work at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization. Ontario baby's measles-related death highlights that vaccination is critical, health experts say U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has already cut billions of dollars in research grants at the National Institutes of Health. In May, the administration cancelled a contract with mRNA vaccine manufacturer Moderna to develop a vaccine against potential pandemic influenza viruses, including H5N1 avian flu. 'It just seems that there is a top-down approach that views mRNA vaccines in particular – vaccination in general, but mRNA vaccines in particular – with distrust and is trying to dismantle that particular avenue of medical research,' said Dr. Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Montreal Children's Hospital. Papenburg, who is a member of Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization but was not speaking on its behalf, said although the Moderna contract cancellation and the firing of the U.S. vaccine advisory committee members are two separate actions, they're both concerning as Canada tries to prepare for potential human-to-human transmission of H5N1. 'Both are potentially very dangerous when it comes to America's and the world's ability to respond to emerging infectious diseases for which vaccines could be a useful medical countermeasure,' he said.
CTV News
11-06-2025
- Health
- CTV News
RFK Jr.'s firing of U.S. immunization committee worrisome, Canadian scientists say
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his wife Cheryl Hines talk to guests before President Donald Trump speaks during a summer soiree on the South Lawn of the White House, Wednesday, June 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) TORONTO — Canadian doctors and scientists say Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s firing of an immunization advisory committee south of the border is worrisome. On Monday, the U.S. health and human services secretary — a longtime anti-vaccine advocate — said he will appoint new members to the scientific group that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about vaccination. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan, said Tuesday that the move will foster more false anti-vaccine beliefs, not only in the U.S. but also in Canada. 'It creates a culture in which anti-vaxx beliefs are more accepted and challenged a lot less. And also it creates an environment where there's an alternative to an evidence-based recommendation framework,' she said. Even though Kennedy's new appointments will make vaccine recommendations specific to the United States, any disinformation could also feed vaccine hesitancy among Canadians, Rasmussen said. 'We have a lot of the same anti-vaxx sentiment up here. Certainly this will at the very least empower (that),' she said. Rasmussen said current measles outbreaks in both countries show the consequences of disinformation that leads to parents not immunizing their children against preventable diseases. She said Canada could also experience some fallout if the new committee pulls back vaccination recommendations, because manufacturers may cut back on production and that could lead to shortages. 'There's a lot of potential for really, really damaging vaccine access throughout the U.S. and potentially around the world because the U.S. market has a big impact on what vaccine manufacturers are actually going to make and manufacture,' she said. 'There's so many ways that this can end up really badly for vaccination in general. And it really causes me a lot of concern.' Rasmussen said the firing of the advisory committee members is just the latest in a series of anti-public health actions Kennedy has taken. 'It's a death by a thousand cuts,' said Rasmussen, who is American and moved to Canada during the pandemic to work at the University of Saskatchewan's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization. U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has already cut billions of dollars in research grants at the National Institutes of Health. In May, the administration cancelled a contract with mRNA vaccine manufacturer Moderna to develop a vaccine against potential pandemic influenza viruses, including H5N1 avian flu. 'It just seems that there is a top-down approach that views mRNA vaccines in particular — vaccination in general, but mRNA vaccines in particular — with distrust and is trying to dismantle that particular avenue of medical research,' said Dr. Jesse Papenburg, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist at Montreal Children's Hospital. Papenburg, who is a member of Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization but was not speaking on its behalf, said although the Moderna contract cancellation and the firing of the U.S. vaccine advisory committee members are two separate actions, they're both concerning as Canada tries to prepare for potential human-to-human transmission of H5N1. 'Both are potentially very dangerous when it comes to America's and the world's ability to respond to emerging infectious diseases for which vaccines could be a useful medical countermeasure,' he said. — With files from The Associated Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2025. Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content. Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press
Yahoo
07-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
A ‘detox' after Covid vaccination? Experts say it's nonsense
Podcast host Meghan McCain, the former co-host of 'The View,' made headlines when she posted to social media recently in support of a 'detox' supplement to be taken after Covid-19 vaccination or infection. The 'detox' supplement McCain touted costs $89.99 and is one of several versions sold online. It make claims about its ability to 'break down spike protein and disrupt its function' and provide 'your body with unparalleled support for cellular defense and detoxification.' Vaccine experts say such claims are nonsense. 'There's nothing to detox from, because the vaccines themselves are not toxins,' said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan. 'They're not toxic and they're not harmful.' McCain's X post about the supplement has been deleted, but McCain's personalized discount code continued to work on the website of the supplement maker, The Wellness Company. Neither McCain's representatives nor The Wellness Company responded to a request for comment. McCain also posted this week about 'concerning data' about mRNA vaccines and said friends had experienced health problems after getting the Covid-19 shot. As part of the post, she shared a video that suggested material in the vaccines could stick around long-term and change a person's genome. Vaccine experts say that just isn't true. The messenger RNA in Covid-19 vaccines instructs cells in the body to make a certain piece of the virus' spike protein — the structure on the surface of the coronavirus. The mRNA vaccine is like a blueprint that the body uses to train the immune system to recognize the virus that causes Covid and protect against it, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 'MRNA is only in there in minute amounts,' Schaffner said. 'The spike protein is metabolized. It's broken up by our own body very, very quickly. So it's not in a position to disseminate or be distributed throughout the body requiring some sort of 'detoxification.' 'It's simply not scientifically a valid concept.' Since mRNA is so short-lived, vaccine makers do make a modification that allows it to stick around a little longer than it would otherwise, Rasmussen said. 'But mRNA, even modified mRNA like in these vaccines, does not stay around forever,' Rasmussen said. 'It's still not a very stable molecule.' Rasmussen said she has also read that some believe the lipid nanoparticle used to get the mRNA into the cells lingers and is toxic. The lipid nanoparticle, Rasmussen said, 'also don't stick around forever.' She said they get broken down at about the same rate the mRNA does, 'or even maybe a little before.' Schaffner believes maybe some of the language scientists use to describe how mRNA vaccines work may be unhelpful. 'I wonder if the very name of the protein, this 'spike protein' just makes people uneasy,' Schaffner said. If scientists called it something like the 'key protein' — since it's like a key that goes into a lock in the cell, which enables the protein to get inside 'and then do its good work' — that 'might not have evoked quite as much anxiety,' Schaffner suggested. Rasmussen believes people would still misconstrue the science regardless, particularly with leaders in the Trump administration who have spent years undermining the safety of vaccines or have a history of promoting dubious supplements. 'A lot of this isn't misinformation, it's really disinformation because people who start this stuff know what they're doing,' Rasmussen said. Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says the availability of vaccine 'detox' products speaks to a bigger problem with the way the United States manages dietary supplements. Unlike pharmaceuticals, which must be tested and approved before they go to market and then comply with strict regulations about how they can be marketed, the US Food and Drug Administration doesn't have the authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed. Fear or distrust of Covid-19 vaccines is an easy target for supplement makers, Cohen said. 'This is a perfect scenario for supplements to jump in to the rescue,' Cohen said. 'You manufacture a false health concern, and then you have the solution that you can settle with a supplement. It's really a perfect opportunity for supplement manufacturers to profit from. From something that doesn't even exist.' It's hard, he said, to even define what 'detoxing' from a Covid-19 vaccine would mean. 'Are you trying to wash away the effects that boosted immunity against Covid? Is that the goal? I think it's a very vague, moving sort of target,' Cohen said. 'Or is it more that there's some fear that the Covid vaccine causes more harm than the government's letting on. Then the idea is that you sell these supplements to prevent that mystery harm.' 'I think it's a health fear mongering approach and profiting by the fear,' Cohen added. No vaccine is perfect, the experts said, but the risk with the Covid vaccine is extremely small and the problems like a sore arm or a low-grade fever that some of his patients have experienced resolved quickly. 'That's not something that any supplement will help resolve faster,' Cohen said. Research has consistently shown that the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and millions of people have gotten them without serious incident. As of May, the FDA required Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna to use expanded warning labels with more information about the risk of a rare heart condition after vaccination. Some studies have found that Covid-19 infection itself carries a higher risk of myocarditis or pericarditis than vaccination. Schaffner said if there were true problems with any of the Covid vaccines, the country's surveillance system would have caught it by now. That's what happened with the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine: Surveillance identified a rare risk of a severe blood clotting syndrome, particularly among some women. The vaccine is no longer in use. 'The system works,' Schaffner said. 'These mRNA vaccines are safe, and that's been seen in millions and millions of patients.' What may be even more dangerous, experts say, is the disinformation surrounding vaccines that drives people to want to take a supplement to detox from them in the first place. 'This is a much bigger problem,' Rasmussen said. 'It's important to smack this disinformation down where we can. It's morally wrong and reprehensible.'
CNN
07-06-2025
- Health
- CNN
A ‘detox' after Covid vaccination? Experts say it's nonsense
Podcast host Meghan McCain, the former co-host of 'The View,' made headlines when she posted to social media recently in support of a 'detox' supplement to be taken after Covid-19 vaccination or infection. The 'detox' supplement McCain touted costs $89.99 and is one of several versions sold online. It make claims about its ability to 'break down spike protein and disrupt its function' and provide 'your body with unparalleled support for cellular defense and detoxification.' Vaccine experts say such claims are nonsense. 'There's nothing to detox from, because the vaccines themselves are not toxins,' said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan. 'They're not toxic and they're not harmful.' McCain's X post about the supplement has been deleted, but McCain's personalized discount code continued to work on the website of the supplement maker, The Wellness Company. Neither McCain's representatives nor The Wellness Company responded to a request for comment. McCain also posted this week about 'concerning data' about mRNA vaccines and said friends had experienced health problems after getting the Covid-19 shot. As part of the post, she shared a video that suggested material in the vaccines could stick around long-term and change a person's genome. Vaccine experts say that just isn't true. The messenger RNA in Covid-19 vaccines instructs cells in the body to make a certain piece of the virus' spike protein — the structure on the surface of the coronavirus. The mRNA vaccine is like a blueprint that the body uses to train the immune system to recognize the virus that causes Covid and protect against it, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 'MRNA is only in there in minute amounts,' Schaffner said. 'The spike protein is metabolized. It's broken up by our own body very, very quickly. So it's not in a position to disseminate or be distributed throughout the body requiring some sort of 'detoxification.' 'It's simply not scientifically a valid concept.' Since mRNA is so short-lived, vaccine makers do make a modification that allows it to stick around a little longer than it would otherwise, Rasmussen said. 'But mRNA, even modified mRNA like in these vaccines, does not stay around forever,' Rasmussen said. 'It's still not a very stable molecule.' Rasmussen said she has also read that some believe the lipid nanoparticle used to get the mRNA into the cells lingers and is toxic. The lipid nanoparticle, Rasmussen said, 'also don't stick around forever.' She said they get broken down at about the same rate the mRNA does, 'or even maybe a little before.' Schaffner believes maybe some of the language scientists use to describe how mRNA vaccines work may be unhelpful. 'I wonder if the very name of the protein, this 'spike protein' just makes people uneasy,' Schaffner said. If scientists called it something like the 'key protein' — since it's like a key that goes into a lock in the cell, which enables the protein to get inside 'and then do its good work' — that 'might not have evoked quite as much anxiety,' Schaffner suggested. Rasmussen believes people would still misconstrue the science regardless, particularly with leaders in the Trump administration who have spent years undermining the safety of vaccines or have a history of promoting dubious supplements. 'A lot of this isn't misinformation, it's really disinformation because people who start this stuff know what they're doing,' Rasmussen said. Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says the availability of vaccine 'detox' products speaks to a bigger problem with the way the United States manages dietary supplements. Unlike pharmaceuticals, which must be tested and approved before they go to market and then comply with strict regulations about how they can be marketed, the US Food and Drug Administration doesn't have the authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed. Fear or distrust of Covid-19 vaccines is an easy target for supplement makers, Cohen said. 'This is a perfect scenario for supplements to jump in to the rescue,' Cohen said. 'You manufacture a false health concern, and then you have the solution that you can settle with a supplement. It's really a perfect opportunity for supplement manufacturers to profit from. From something that doesn't even exist.' It's hard, he said, to even define what 'detoxing' from a Covid-19 vaccine would mean. 'Are you trying to wash away the effects that boosted immunity against Covid? Is that the goal? I think it's a very vague, moving sort of target,' Cohen said. 'Or is it more that there's some fear that the Covid vaccine causes more harm than the government's letting on. Then the idea is that you sell these supplements to prevent that mystery harm.' 'I think it's a health fear mongering approach and profiting by the fear,' Cohen added. No vaccine is perfect, the experts said, but the risk with the Covid vaccine is extremely small and the problems like a sore arm or a low-grade fever that some of his patients have experienced resolved quickly. 'That's not something that any supplement will help resolve faster,' Cohen said. Research has consistently shown that the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and millions of people have gotten them without serious incident. As of May, the FDA required Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna to use expanded warning labels with more information about the risk of a rare heart condition after vaccination. Some studies have found that Covid-19 infection itself carries a higher risk of myocarditis or pericarditis than vaccination. Schaffner said if there were true problems with any of the Covid vaccines, the country's surveillance system would have caught it by now. That's what happened with the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine: Surveillance identified a rare risk of a severe blood clotting syndrome, particularly among some women. The vaccine is no longer in use. 'The system works,' Schaffner said. 'These mRNA vaccines are safe, and that's been seen in millions and millions of patients.' What may be even more dangerous, experts say, is the disinformation surrounding vaccines that drives people to want to take a supplement to detox from them in the first place. 'This is a much bigger problem,' Rasmussen said. 'It's important to smack this disinformation down where we can. It's morally wrong and reprehensible.'
