Sonya Stokes, an emergency room doctor in the San Francisco Gulf region, wraps herself up for the daily deluge of patients sick with cough, pain, fever, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms.
She is desperate for information, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a key source of emergency analysis of the flu and other public health threats, has been quiet for weeks since President Donald Trump took office.
“If we don’t have any more information, we’re blind,” she said.
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The flu is cruel this season. CDC estimates Since its launch in October, at least 24 million people have been ill, 310,000 hospitalisations and 13,000 deaths from the flu. At the same time, the outbreak of avian flu continues to infect cattle and farm workers. However, CDC analysis to inform people of these situations is delayed, and the CDC is blocking communications with doctors, researchers and the World Health Organization, says doctors and public health experts.
“Currently, CDC is not reporting influenza data through the WHO global platform, Flute [and] Fluids, what they provide information [on] For many years,” said Maria Wankelhove, interim director of WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparation, on February 12. Press briefing.
“We’re communicating with them,” she added. “But we haven’t heard anything.”
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from whom.
People close to the CDC have stagnated key analysis of seasonal influenza selected for distribution through the CDC’s health alert network. They asked not to be identified because of fear of retaliation. The network, shortened to Han, is the CDC’s main way of sharing emergency public health information with health authorities, doctors and sometimes the public.
Charts from that analysis reviewed by KFF Health News suggest that influenza could be at record highs. Approximately 7.7% of patients who visited clinics and hospitals without hospitalization had flu-like symptoms in early February, a higher proportion than the other four flu seasons depicted in the graph. . This includes at least 2003-04, fueled by atypical strains of influenza that were killed, particularly dangerous seasons. 153 children.
However, it is unclear whether without a complete analysis will foreshadow a surge in hospitalizations and deaths that hospitals, pharmacies and schools must prepare. Specifically, other data could relay the number of diseases like the flu caused by the flu virus, or which flu strains are infecting people. In addition, deeper reports may reveal whether the flu is more severe or contagious than usual.
“We need to know if we are dealing with more toxic tension or co-infection with another virus that makes the patient sick, and what to look for to know if the patient is at risk. “Stokes said. “Data delays create dangerous situations at the forefront.”
CDC is Influenza Dashboard It shows a surge in flu, but does not include all the data needed to interpret the situation. They also don’t provide customized advice in handaler that tells healthcare professionals how to protect patients and the public. For example, in 2023, other viruses were causing similar issues that year, prompting clinics to test patients with respiratory symptoms rather than assuming that the case was influenza.
“This is incredibly unsettling,” said Rachel Hardeman, a member of the CDC’s director’s advisory board. On February 10, Hardemann and other committee members wrote to the delegate of agency Susan Monares. “The CDC is essential to our country’s security,” the letter said.
The same was true of some studies It remains delayed or missing From the CDC’s outstanding scientific publications, from The Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Anne Schchat, former deputy director of the CDC, said he was worried about whether there would be political surveillance of scientific materials.
CDC spokesman Melissa Dibble declined to comment on delays or missing analysis. “It’s not unexpected to see flu activity improve and increase during this time of year,” she said.
Drafts of unpublished studies reviewed by KFF Health News have been withheld from MMWR for three weeks. Michigan milk carriers and dairy workers explain how to spread the bird flu in pet cats. The indoor cat became seriously ill and died. The workers were not tested, but the study states that one of them had stimulated the cat’s eyes before it got sick. This is a common avian flu symptom. The person told the researcher that the pet would “wear work clothes.”
After one cat got sick, a young man in the household coughed, according to the survey. However, the report says the young man tested negative for the flu and positive for the cold virus.
The corresponding CDC document summarizing the CAT study and another unpublished avian influenza analysis said the report is due to be published on January 23rd. These were reviewed by KFF Health News. Cat briefings show that dairy workers “removing clothes and footwear and washing away animal bipod residues before entering the home, protecting others in the home, including potentially indoor-only cats. I recommend it to.
The second summary refers to the “most comprehensive” analysis of avian influenza viruses detected in US wastewaters.
Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University, said that delays in reporting avian flu are upset because it is necessary to inform the public about aggravating situations with many unknown elements . The UK cultivated “inadequate data” and “high uncertainty” Its evaluation Dairy farmers at risk posed by the outbreak of the US.
“Delivery and delays in data create uncertainty,” Nuzzo said. “It could also make us react in counterproductive ways.”
Another avian flu study scheduled for a January publication appeared on MMWR on February 13th. Three weeks after it was predicted. That has become clear Based on the discovery of antibodies to the avian influenza virus in the blood, three cow veterinarians were unconsciously infected last year. One of the veterinarians worked in Georgia and South Carolina. This is a state that has not reported an outbreak on dairy farms.
The study provides further evidence that the US is not properly detecting cases in cattle and people. Nuzzo said it emphasizes how data can provide encouraging news. Only three of the 150 cow veterinarians had signs of previous infections, suggesting that the virus was not easily spreading from animals to humans. More than 40 dairy workers have been infected, but in general there have been more persistent contact with sick cows and milk containing viruses than veterinarians.
Instead, the recently released report was about wildfires in California and Hawaii.
“It’s interesting but not urgent,” Nuzzo said. She said the bird flu outbreak is an ongoing “an urgent health threat that requires up-to-date information to know how to protect people.”
“The American public is at greater risk if they don’t have information in a timely manner,” Shoe Chat said.
This week, a federal judge ordered the CDC and other health agencies to “restore” data sets and websites that the organization’s physicians identified as having changed in the lawsuit. Additionally, the judge ordered the agency to “identify other resources that DFA members rely on to provide medical care,” and restored them by February 14th.
In their letter, members of the CDC Advisory Committee requested a delay in investigating missing data and reporting. Hardeman, an advisor and health policy expert at the University of Minnesota, said the group didn’t know why data and scientific findings were withheld or deleted. Still, she added, “I am responsible for the acting director of the CDC, the head of the HHS and the White House.”
Hardeman said the Trump administration has the power to dissolve the advisory committee. She said the group hoped it would happen, but proceeded with the request regardless.
“We have a deep interest in public health and we want to protect the rigour of our work at the CDC,” she said. “We’re not here to be silent.”
KFF Health Newsformerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), produced detailed journalism on health issues, KFF – Independent sources of health policy research, voting and journalism.
