Reviewing all the COVID pandemic coverage at Legal Insurrection, it would be hard to name the top morally righteous COVID-absolutist.
But if one were to create a list, near the top would have to be The Washington Post columnist and CNN medical analyst Dr. Leana Wen. Who could forget her demand that rights and privileges enjoyed by Americans be explicitly tied to getting the COVID-19 vaccine during the mandate push to autumn 2021?
“That if you wish to have these privileges, you need to get vaccinated.Travel, and having the right to travel in our state, it’s not a constitutional right as far as I know to board a plane, and so saying that you want to stay unvaccinated, that is your choice, but if you want to travel, you better go get that vaccine.”
Well, she’s back at it again, this time trying to create enthusiasm for the bird flu vaccine. She recently appeared on the CBS show Face the Nation and pushed the Biden administration to authorize the H5N1 vaccine (given the substantial likelihood it would not be enthusiastically greeted by the Trump Team).
There actually is a vaccine developed already against H5N1. The Biden administration has contracted with manufacturers to make almost 5 million doses of the vaccine.However, they have not asked the FDA to authorize the vaccine. There’s research done on it. They could get this authorized now, and also get the vaccine out so- and to farm workers and to vulnerable people.I think that’s the right approach, because we don’t know what the Trump administration is going to be doing around bird flu. If they have people coming in with anti-vaccine stances, could they hold up vaccine authorization?If they don’t want to know how much bird flu is out there, could they withhold testing? I mean, that’s a possibility, and I think the Biden administration in the remaining days should get testing and vaccines widely available so that at least it empowers state and local health officials and clinicians to do the right thing for their patients.
It’s like they are getting the pandemic team back together, as the media recently trotted out Dr. Deborah Birx. However, this time, social media and our memories mean that the American public is not receptive to any promoted policies.
The social media comments have been brutal, and there is no coordinated government-media effort to silence the dissent.
Congressman Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) quickly criticized her suggestion.
And Congressman James Spillane (R-NH) pushed back on Wen’s statements.
It must be noted that there are mRNA vaccines for H5N1 are in development.
Several H5N1 vaccines currently in development are mRNA-based. Moderna is developing an mRNA-based H5N1 avian influenza vaccine, which has received $176 million in funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services. The vaccine is in early clinical development, with Phase 1 trial data expected later this year and Phase 3 trials projected to start in 2025.
Additionally, a self-amplifying mRNA vaccine candidate has received FDA approval to begin Phase 1 trials in the US.
It appears that the more the vaccines currently being used are the more traditional antigen-based vaccines, and public health officials are considering the longevity of others in a stockpile for use during a pandemic.
Though federal health officials are moving ahead with a plan to produce 4.8 million doses of H5N1 avian influenza vaccine that targets the clade (strain) circulating globally and infecting US dairy herds and some farm workers, older H5N1 vaccines in the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) might be useful in a pinch.A team led by researchers from the US Food and Drug Administration looked at the ability of three H5N1 vaccines targeting three earlier H5N1 clades from Indonesia and Vietnam that circulated in the early 2000s to neutralize antibodies against the current 2.3.4.4b clade. All three are already licensed and are in the SNS. Two are adjuvanted, meaning they contain an immune-boosting substance.
So, I am not sure which vaccine Biden’s FDA needs to authorize, considering one is available already and we have a stockpile of others in a pinch.
Wen faced the nation today, and has been repudiated.
As a country, our best move is to allow our agriculture and veterinary experts to address this situation and be mindful of sensible personal protocols to take during flu season.
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