Senate HELP Committee ranking member Bill Cassidy (R-LA) is calling on the Biden administration to do a better job of communicating its findings on the recent outbreak of avian flu among cattle that has infected at least one human.
In a three-page letter sent to President Biden on Friday, Cassidy urges the administration to publish a list of research activities it’s carrying out to address the outbreak, including its timelines for generating research and disseminating the findings to the public.
As of Thursday, nine states have reported outbreaks among 36 herds of cattle, according to data from the CDC.
“The ongoing outbreak has serious implications for both animal and human health, and the presentation of this virus among dairy cattle has left state and local officials, researchers, impacted industries, and the general public with significant outstanding questions,” Cassidy wrote. “As president, it is your responsibility to ensure that all relevant departments and agencies are coordinating to prioritize and address key questions.”
Cassidy underscores that it’s been more common in recent years for viruses to behave unpredictably, pointing to patients having different responses to mpox than had been seen previously during the outbreak in 2022.
H5N1 caught the attention of public health officials last month when the second human case in the United States was reported in Texas, presumably from contact with a dairy cow. That individual was treated with oseltamivir, which goes by the brand name Tamiflu, according to Texas Health and Human Services.
Public health officials have appeared generally optimistic on the country’s capacity to respond in the event that the virus further spreads to humans.
The FDA’s Peter Marks said last month that the US has a stockpile of some vaccines that are a “reasonably good match” for H5N1, saying that the supply gives the country a leg up in the event that the virus spreads further.
The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response did not immediately return Endpoints News‘ request for comment on how many doses of antiviral it has in the Strategic National Stockpile. But in a Washington Post op-ed last month, Dawn O’Connell, who leads ASPR, told medical expert Leana Wen that tens of millions of courses are available in the stockpile.
Roche’s Genentech, which manufactures Tamiflu, did not immediately return Endpoints’ request for comment on whether it’s seen an uptick in orders from states for Tamiflu.