Pandemic Planning Downsized, Deadlier Bird Flu Strain Detected Again in U.S.

The White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy (OPPR), which was established by Congress in 2022, has been taken down to a staff of one, CNN reported. Under the previous administration, OPPR orchestrated the country’s response to future pandemics, such as bird flu and other threats, until January 20 when the Trump administration failed to staff it.

On January 20, Trump issued an executive order that laid out the structure of his National Security Council, naming the OPPR director as having a seat on the council. Dr. Gerald Parker, a veterinarian with a long history of government service and expertise in zoonotic diseases, was quietly appointed senior director for biosecurity and pandemic response. His appointment was never formally announced but was reported in the media, CNN said. Parker sits on the National Security Council and has been attending meetings on bird flu.

OPPR’s bird flu plans had been focused on infection surveillance and on safeguarding human and animal health, but the Trump administration has taken a different approach in the hopes of lower egg prices. As CMM previously reported, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA would fund bird flu vaccines for animals and spend US$500 million to help enhance biosecurity measure to keep the virus off farms. As OPPR was created by Congress, the current administration cannot completely disband it.

Bird flu continues to remain a threat in the U.S., and last week the USDA reported the first outbreak of the deadly H7N9 bird flu on a poultry farm since 2017, Reuters reported. The strain that has caused most damage to poultry in recent years and the death of one person in the U.S. is the H5N1.

To date, a total of 1,568 laboratory-confirmed human infections with bird flu H7N9 virus— including 616 fatal cases—have been reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) since early 2013. This marks a 39% facility rate in humans infected. The last case of human infection with H7N9 bird flu reported to WHO was in 2019 in the Western Pacific Region.

The latest outbreak of H7N9 was detected on a farm of nearly 48,000 commercial broiler breeder chickens in Noxubee, Mississippi. Mississippi health officials have quarantined the affected premises, and birds on the property have been depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease.

Still, the H7N9 disease is of concern because most patients have become severely ill, WHO reported. Most of the cases of human infection with this avian H7N9 virus have reported recent exposure to live poultry or potentially contaminated environments. This virus does not appear to be transmitted easily from person to person, and sustained human-to-human transmission has not been reported.