Excerpt: “The more this virus circulates, the more there is a chance for mutations,” said Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology who directs the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health. And more mutations could mean a bigger risk of the virus becoming highly infectious among more people.
Excerpt: “We have no idea if this virus is going to evolve to become a pandemic strain but we know today that farmworkers are being exposed and we have good reason to think that they are getting sick,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health
Here & Now's Peter O'Dowd speaks with epidemiologist Jennifer Nuzzo about the bird flu that has recently sickened dairy cows in several states but so far only one dairy worker in Texas.
Professor Jennifer Nuzzo, epidemiologist and director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, joins host Megan Hall for a timely update on the recent outbreaks of H5N1 Bird Flu.
Excerpt: The discovery of bird flu virus particles in milk has moved the federal government to take more aggressive action to prevent the further spread of H5N1 on dairy farms. The Agriculture Department has rightly issued new testing recommendations meant to keep the virus from spreading across state lines. But this additional testing will do little to address the primary threat that H5N1 poses to humans: the infection of farmworkers. Our failure to protect them threatens their health and gives the virus an opportunity to evolve into a greater threat to people, including those who live far from dairy farms.
Excerpt: "It does feel like Ground Hog Day," said Jennifer Nuzzo, who heads Brown University's Pandemic Center. "We still seem to be stuck in reactive mode. We shouldn't be waiting for evidence that the virus is devastating us. We should be trying to act now to prevent the virus from devastating us."
Excerpt: But it's still not clear exactly where the flu virus has spread or what it's capable of, said several experts, including Jennifer Nuzzo, a professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health.
"Our surveillance is inadequate to know where this virus is and where it isn't, which is critical for protecting farmworkers and people involved in the dairy industry ‒ but also important for staying ahead of this virus to prevent a future pandemic," Nuzzo said.
Excerpt: “More testing is better,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. “But in many ways this policy is very leaky in terms of how much virus it will allow to move. And because we still don’t know what’s driving transmission between cows, we should not pin our hopes on this policy making a major dent in the infections we’re seeing.”
Excerpt: “Our job right now is to protect farmworkers,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health. “We can’t do that unless we know where the virus is or where it isn’t.”
Excerpt: Some public health experts are concerned about how long that testing is taking — and the lack of transparency thus far about the government’s findings. Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, questioned why the FDA did not immediately say it would test milk products and expeditiously culture any potential virus fragments found.
“Just from a government credibility standpoint, being transparent about what you’re doing, it’s important,” Nuzzo said.
Excerpt: To really understand the scale of spread as well as possible mechanisms of viral transmission, it’s necessary to conduct widespread testing of animals with and without symptoms, said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and director of Brown University’s Pandemic Center. “If we’re only testing cows with outward symptoms, we’re missing infections in those without.”
Excerpt: So let's start with the latest update, particles of this virus found in commercial pasteurized milk. How concerned should the everyday consumer be?
Dr. Jennifer Nuzzo, Brown University School of Public Health: I don't have any reason to be concerned at this point.
Finding evidence of genetic material, which is what the test results told us, by itself is not alarming. In order to know if the virus will infect us, we have to do a different kind of test. And this test was not that. They're actually undergoing those tests now.
But I don't have any reason to think that we will be harmed, because we use pasteurization. And I have no reason to think that the H5N1 virus is any different from all the other pathogens that we think could be in milk. Pasteurization doesn't remove the genetic material of those pathogens, but it changes the pathogens and either kills or it activates them, so that they can't infect us...
A new exercise, highlighting the ability of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to meet pandemic threats, will be tested this week at the Munich Security Conference.
The Advance Warning and Response Exemplars (AWARE) project will identify positive outliers in successful early warning and response to significant public health events, including outbreaks of pathogens of pandemic potential as well as climate-sensitive infectious diseases
The Pandemic Center sat down with Mr. Ledesma to dive into the results of his recent paper on pandemic preparedness, its impact on mortality rates during the COVID-19 pandemic, and what it can tell decision makers.
To mark the anniversary of the onset of the 2022 outbreak, the Pandemic Center sat down with Dr. Philip Chan, MD, MS, to discuss the public health response, what we learned, and how we can better prepare for future emergencies.
The Pandemic Center partnered with the Horizon Institute for Public Service to co-host the Game Changers Workshop for Biosecurity Policy, a three-day event in Washington, D.C. to help early- and mid-career professionals explore a career transition into the field of biosecurity policy.