The CDC has released its weekly Morbidity and Mortality Report for the first time since the inauguration. On the website each page has this banner at the top.
CDC’s website is being modified to comply with President Trump’s Executive Orders.
www.cdc.gov/…
You might expect a lot to be in there, since it’s been three weeks, not one. You would be wrong. Exposure to PFAS in firefighters in HI. Emergency department use during the wildfires in CA.
What ISN’T in there?
Any discussion of H5N1 (that’s on a separate page, and still somewhat bland and “risk is low”)
Any mention of the tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas, and a school in California notifying students of possible exposure last year. You have to search for data.
Any mention of the measles outbreak in Texas and one starting in Atlanta Georgia. Texas has a high rate of vaccine rejection, and many of the affected kids are unvaccinated. You will have to dig for data on measles cases, which is only updated monthly.search.cdc.gov/...
Has the administration shut down discussion of infectious disease?
The website briefly posted, then deleted, a notice about possible transmission of H5N1 from cat to person and person to cat.
www.nytimes.com/…
C.D.C. Posts, Then Deletes, Data on Bird Flu Spread Between Cats and People
The data, which appeared fleetingly online on Wednesday, confirmed transmission in two households. Scientists called on the agency to release the full report.
Cats that became infected with bird flu might have spread the virus to humans in the same household and vice versa, according to data that briefly appeared online in a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but then abruptly vanished. The data appear to have been mistakenly posted but includes crucial information about the risks of bird flu to people and pets.
In one household, an infected cat might have spread the virus to another cat and to a human adolescent, according to a copy of the data table obtained by The New York Times. The cat died four days after symptoms began. In a second household, an infected dairy farmworker appears to have been the first to show symptoms, and a cat then became ill two days later and died on the third day...
Here’s what else they aren’t saying:
Flu in general is at its highest level in 15 years, and rising. Hospitals and ambulance services are straining. The CDC is not admitting any problem with hospitals, just saying that flu is high and still rising. The two prevalent strains are both covered in this year’s flu shot, H1N1 and H3A2. There has been only one variant case this year so far (an H1N2 from pig to human).
In fact, the links to CDC pages on influenza activity from the NY Health Department website return 404 errors. (I left a message on the NY page) The pages have moved but can be searched on the CDC site.www.cdc.gov/… The graph is insane.
So far only New York, Minnesota, California, and Oklahoma mandate subtyping of ALL flu A samples in hospitalized patients. As of Feb. 3, New York says any influenza A patient in the ICU should be treated as H5 until the test proves otherwise, and be in a negative-pressure room with all other measures in place. To date, this has not uncovered more human cases, thank goodness.
New York has shut down their live poultry markets for a week after some birds tested positive. Rules will be that all birds are tested, if any are infected the stock will be culled, if none are positive the stock must all be sold, cleaning and disinfection completed, and remain closed for five days. www.yahoo.com/…
The Nevada infections of dairy cows with the D1.1 strain are not on the CDC website. It has been detected in four dairy herds. www.thebullvine.com/... Preliminary reporting says that the cows are not any sicker with this strain than the B3.13 that all other dairy cows have had. No human infections from these cows have occurred yet.www.cbsnews.com/… That D1.1 strain has caused the more severe infections in humans, including the one US death so far.
While the nationwide mortality in cows has been about 2% according to the AVMA, www.avma.org/... the rate in California has been as high as 15-20%. California has been much more transparent about this disease from the start.
Infected herds in California are seeing mortality rates as high as 15% or 20%, compared to 2% in other states, said Keith Poulsen, a veterinarian and director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory who has researched bird flu.
But there’s actually a piece of good news. Trump has named a qualified person to lead the office of pandemic response. www.cidrap.umn.edu/…
(shock, I know)
