Federal Government Changes May Influence Avian Influenza Surveillance and Disease Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is preparing for staff cuts and the Trump Administration may be withholding public health information in one of the agency's publications, which can impact disclosing health information being seen by providers and other stakeholders.
With the avian influenza circulating greatly in animals including birds, cattle, and cats, one of the bigger concerns around this is how severe and virulent the virus could become—if given the right settings and circumstances—and this goes from a mostly animal-to-animal transmission to zoonotic transmission to finally one that jumps from person-to person.
"We've had one transmission from a bird to a human, which resulted in the individual's death. Bird flu can carry a 50% to 60% mortality in the right settings, and so we're concerned that it may evolve to become more infectious,” American Public Health Association's (APHA) Executive Director Georges C Benjamin, MD, said. "It's already shown they can move from one species to another, and then eventually it could change in a way that becomes adaptive to humans, easily spread by humans, and if it also becomes easily spreadable and more lethal, we would have a significant outbreak. And I can tell you it would probably be worse than COVID."
And as this form of influenza is evolving quickly, there is a need to keep up surveillance, especially at the federal government level. This is where the role of the CDC is vital to keep the public up-to-date on disease threats and respond to reports of individual cases or outbreaks.
News reports are offering 2 ways in which the CDC could become greatly affected under the Trump Administration.
NPR reported that the CDC is preparing for layoffs. The federal agency’s staff were told to list the staff who were considered probationary and temporary.1 In addition, the agency’s leadership was asked to develop a list of people who “were mission critical and not mission critical.”1
Additionally, a report in the NY Times says that in last week’s CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), investigators wrote how avian influenza was transmitted from cats to people and then that report was deleted off the site.2 This weekly report was not published for 2 weeks, and now when it is, the administration is withholding necessary public information.
Read more: Will Trump Administration’s Funding Pauses, Withdrawal from WHO Hamper Public Health?
“If you look at all the things they've done: diminishing the workforce, halting research, stopping the study groups, limiting publication of the various scientific articles, including the MMWR…I worry about it, and the fact that everything that they've done will diminish our capacity to respond to any emergency, any new health threat,” Benjamin said.
In terms of our readiness, Benjamin does not believe we are prepared for a public health emergency. “If we had a big outbreak today, I don't know that we'd be able to handle it,” he said.
