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Could an existing vaccine make COVID-19 less deadly? Mexico City study provides support

Could an existing vaccine make COVID-19 less deadly? Mexico City study provides support

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A prospective observational study testing the concept of trained immunity for protection from severe COVID-19 reported milder symptoms in COVID patients receiving MMR vaccination, as published in Allergy.

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Credit: Centro de Excelencia en Asma y Alergia

COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc globally, with over one million deaths to date. Yet what if an existing vaccine could make COVID-19 less deadly? A study just published put the theory to test, with promising results.

A research team led by Dr. Larenas-Linnemann working at Medica Sur, Mexico City, reported on their clinical observations in 255 subjects vaccinated with the mumps-measles-rubella (MMR) vaccine since the start of the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Many vaccinated patients were family members or caregivers of patients who already had contracted COVID-19, and thus at extremely high risk. Thirty-six of the patients have now contracted COVID-19, but all with a remarkably mild course, with less severe symptoms than would be expected given their health status and age. The paper, published in the September issue of Allergy, the European Journal of Allergy and Immunology, is now available for free download.

MMR vaccination in the context of COVID-19, taking advantage of a measles outbreak

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, observing the highly contagious and virulent nature of the virus and the lack of available preventive measures, the investigators searched for methods to enhance innate immunity — in effect, give the immune system a boost to prepare it for a variety of assaults. Since COVID-19 was new to humans, there was no existing treatment or vaccine to specifically fight it. But Dr. Larenas-Linnemann, being Dutch and having done her basic training in the Netherlands, had followed with admiration the work of a fellow countryman on a little-known concept called “trained immunity.” In technical terms, trained immunity refers to the enhanced immune response to a certain pathogen, after being exposed (by vaccination or natural illness) to another non-related pathogen; the immune reaction after a subsequent exposure to a non-related pathogen is faster in onset and accompanied by an increased production of certain cytokines. This means that, surprisingly, some vaccinations could not only prevent the target disease (such as measles), but also help people fight other diseases.

Trained immunity is a form of non-specific immunity. It was controversial at first, but after decades of pioneering fieldwork from a Danish team studying the tuberculosis vaccine and the live polio vaccine in both Northern Europe and Africa, followed by years of authoritative laboratory work from Dr. Larenas-Linnemann’s countryman Mihai Netea and others, it is now accepted that certain live-attenuated vaccines can make the body better prepared to fight off a range of pathogens.

Dr. Larenas-Linnemann’s team wondered: Could a live-attenuated vaccine be protective against this entirely new disease, COVID-19, for their patients? Taking advantage of the fact that the pandemic in Mexico coincided with a rise in measles cases, which had motivated the Ministry of Health to recommend measles re-vaccination, the team decided to put the concept of trained immunity to the test. As such, from March 2020 onward, the researchers recommended MMR vaccination to their patients, especially among family members of COVID-19 cases.

Observational trial of MMR for COVID-19 prevention

In a prospective observational trial in Hospital Médica Sur, ranked since 2011 as the best hospital of Mexico City, the team gave their patients boosters of a standard childhood vaccine, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), which is considered safe worldwide (a booster is even required in many places to start college or military service). The patients were followed closely to watch for COVID-19 infection. The patients were considered high risk for COVID infection because many were caring for ill family members and were vulnerable due to their age or other risk factors.

COVID-19 infection was considered confirmed with a positive result of a SARS-CoV-2 antigen test, the detection of specific antibodies, or the combined presence of a direct contact with a confirmed case plus anosmia/ageusia and at least two classic COVID-19 symptoms. Direct contact with a confirmed case, accompanied by classic symptoms, but without smell or taste changes were considered highly probable cases. The clinical severity of COVID-19 was graded on a simplified scale from zero for asymptomatic cases, through 1 for mild, 2 for moderate, 3 for lower respiratory symptoms without the need for oxygen, up to 6 for fatality. Also, home measurements of pulse oximetry and peak-expiratory-flow rate (PEFR) were used to determine severity.

Outcomes: none of the 36 cases needed supplementary oxygen

Among the 255 vaccinated subjects, there were 24 confirmed and 12 (highly) probable COVID-19 cases, thirteen with risk factors that can often make COVID-19 more serious (hypertension, diabetes, obesity, smoking, or uncontrolled asthma). In their publication, the authors detail the risk factors for each patient. All received general supportive measures; some received off-label high-dose ivermectin the first two days. In general, the cases were less severe than would be expected. All had minor respiratory symptoms at most. Only one patient, with uncontrolled asthma, had one day of mild low blood oxygen. No patients had respiratory insufficiency to the degree of needing oxygen.

“We were relieved that MMR, which is commonly thought of as a childhood vaccination, seemed to help our older adult patients weather the storm too,” said Dr. Larenas-Linnemann.

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“We would not be surprised if MMR could provide some protection against severe COVID-19,” said researcher Peter Aaby, of Bandim Health Project in Guinea-Bissau and Research Centre for Vitamins and Vaccines (CVIVA), Statens Serum Institut, a governmental public health and research institution under the Danish Ministry of Health in Copenhagen, Denmark and a pioneer in the field. “Together with my partner Dr. Christine Stabell Benn, we’ve been reporting on mortality reductions from live-attenuated vaccines such as polio, BCG and measles vaccine/MMR for multiple decades now, and arguing for optimized vaccine schedules. With the COVID-19 crisis adding urgency, it’s good to see the potential of non-specific immune effects being taken seriously.”

Global research applying trained immunity to COVID-19 prevention

Researchers around the world are studying the ability of existing live-attenuated vaccines to prevent severe complications of COVID-19.

Several clinical trials are now ongoing with tuberculosis (BCG) vaccination of SARS-CoV-2 exposed health-care workers to reduce the severity of an eventual infection. However, one of the effects described in experiments with BCG-trained-immunity was a rise in interleukin 6 cytokine (IL-6), which made the Médica Sur team reluctant to use this method due to immune over-activation linked to high IL-6 levels described in severe COVID-19 cases. In addition, BCG vaccine and live polio vaccine are not used in the United States of America or Canada, making work with the BCG and polio vaccines harder to apply widely across North America. Existing supplies of BCG are also critically needed to save infant lives around the globe. Dr. Larenas-Linnemann’s team instead chose the MMR vaccine for its safety profile, as well as for previous research describing trained immunity from MMR in newborns of hepatitis-infected mothers and retrospective studies showing 26-49% decreases in all-cause mortality rates after measles vaccination programs.

What’s next

These first observational data gathered by Dr. Larenas-Linnemann and her group in Mexico City, demonstrating a milder course of COVID-19 in recently MMR-vaccinated individuals, are promising. The investigators are continuing their strategy to recommend MMR vaccination to household contacts of COVID-19 patients and plan to keep collecting data on further clinical cases. They are also searching for cooperation with basic immunologists to study the immunologic background of their observations. Said Dr. Larenas-Linnemann, “We are grateful to be able to have been able to offer this to our patients and hope these first real-life data will spark interest in the approach.”

Conclusive evidence of the value of MMR vaccine to reduce COVID-19 complications requires a prospective, randomized trial. This is exactly what microbiologist Dr. Paul Fidel of Louisiana State University has recently launched. He has hypothesized that live attenuated vaccines induce myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSCs), another form of trained innate immunity, to suppress the fatal sepsis often seen in severe COVID-19 cases, as outlined in an opinion/hypothesis piece in mBio. With funding from the Parsemus Foundation and Fast Grants, the MMR randomized controlled trial is enrolling first responders and healthcare workers in the hard-hit New Orleans region. Dr. Fidel’s team is still seeking funding to test whether MMR can provide protection to nursing home residents, who are particularly vulnerable to this disease.

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About the Center of Excellence in Asthma and Allergy

Clinica en Alergia y Asma was accredited as a Center of Excellence by GA2LEN in May 2016. In March 2017, the clinic was renamed and officially established as the Centro de Excelencia en Asma y Alergia Larenas, and now both conducts research and provides advanced care to adults and children with allergic diseases, including asthma. The Center was recertified as a Center of Excellence in 2019 and is located within the office tower of the Hospital Medica Sur, in Mexico City.

About Medica Sur

Medica Sur is a highly specialized health institution made up of medical, diagnostic, research, teaching and social assistance units. Medica Sur brings together a select group of professionals from medicine, nursing, administration and hospital operations, who – guided by a strict code of ethics and backed by cutting-edge technologies – aim to offer its patients medical excellence with a human touch.

Medica Sur was the first hospital outside the United States to be part of the Mayo Clinic Care Network, thereby promoting collaboration between physicians to improve medical care for all their patients in Mexico.

It is certified by the General Health Council of Mexico (Consejo de Salubridad General), validating the quality and safety in the medical care of its patients and families. It has been certified by Trace International for ensuring that its background and policies meet the highest international ethical and anti-bribery standards. It also has the Accreditation of Joint Commission International (JCI), an international, external and independent body that evaluates the quality and safety of health services; Medica Sur has been accredited since 2014.

About Parsemus Foundation

Parsemus Foundation works to create meaningful improvements in human and animal health and welfare by advancing innovative and neglected medical research, with an emphasis on making sure advances change treatment practice rather than disappearing into the scientific literature. Many of the studies the foundation supports involve low-cost approaches that are not under patent. Focus areas include reproductive health, animal reproductive health, and COVID-19 prevention and treatment. More information on the Parsemus Foundation and its work can be found at http://www.parsemus.org.

Media Contact
Linda Brent
media@parsemusfoundation.org

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Trump “Clearly Hasn’t Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes”, RFK Jr. Says

Trump "Clearly Hasn’t Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes", RFK Jr. Says

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President…

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March 11, 2024

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Trump "Clearly Hasn't Learned From His COVID-Era Mistakes", RFK Jr. Says

Authored by Jeff Louderback via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

President Joe Biden claimed that COVID vaccines are now helping cancer patients during his State of the Union address on March 7, but it was a response on Truth Social from former President Donald Trump that drew the ire of independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. holds a voter rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 10, 2024. (Mitch Ranger for The Epoch Times)

During the address, President Biden said: “The pandemic no longer controls our lives. The vaccines that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer, turning setback into comeback. That’s what America does.”

President Trump wrote: “The Pandemic no longer controls our lives. The VACCINES that saved us from COVID are now being used to help beat cancer—turning setback into comeback. YOU’RE WELCOME JOE. NINE-MONTH APPROVAL TIME VS. 12 YEARS THAT IT WOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU.”

An outspoken critic of President Trump’s COVID response, and the Operation Warp Speed program that escalated the availability of COVID vaccines, Mr. Kennedy said on X, formerly known as Twitter, that “Donald Trump clearly hasn’t learned from his COVID-era mistakes.”

“He fails to recognize how ineffective his warp speed vaccine is as the ninth shot is being recommended to seniors. Even more troubling is the documented harm being caused by the shot to so many innocent children and adults who are suffering myocarditis, pericarditis, and brain inflammation,” Mr. Kennedy remarked.

“This has been confirmed by a CDC-funded study of 99 million people. Instead of bragging about its speedy approval, we should be honestly and transparently debating the abundant evidence that this vaccine may have caused more harm than good.

“I look forward to debating both Trump and Biden on Sept. 16 in San Marcos, Texas.”

Mr. Kennedy announced in April 2023 that he would challenge President Biden for the 2024 Democratic Party presidential nomination before declaring his run as an independent last October, claiming that the Democrat National Committee was “rigging the primary.”

Since the early stages of his campaign, Mr. Kennedy has generated more support than pundits expected from conservatives, moderates, and independents resulting in speculation that he could take votes away from President Trump.

Many Republicans continue to seek a reckoning over the government-imposed pandemic lockdowns and vaccine mandates.

President Trump’s defense of Operation Warp Speed, the program he rolled out in May 2020 to spur the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines amid the pandemic, remains a sticking point for some of his supporters.

Vice President Mike Pence (L) and President Donald Trump deliver an update on Operation Warp Speed in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington on Nov. 13, 2020. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

Operation Warp Speed featured a partnership between the government, the military, and the private sector, with the government paying for millions of vaccine doses to be produced.

President Trump released a statement in March 2021 saying: “I hope everyone remembers when they’re getting the COVID-19 Vaccine, that if I wasn’t President, you wouldn’t be getting that beautiful ‘shot’ for 5 years, at best, and probably wouldn’t be getting it at all. I hope everyone remembers!”

President Trump said about the COVID-19 vaccine in an interview on Fox News in March 2021: “It works incredibly well. Ninety-five percent, maybe even more than that. I would recommend it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people that don’t want to get it and a lot of those people voted for me, frankly.

“But again, we have our freedoms and we have to live by that and I agree with that also. But it’s a great vaccine, it’s a safe vaccine, and it’s something that works.”

On many occasions, President Trump has said that he is not in favor of vaccine mandates.

An environmental attorney, Mr. Kennedy founded Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that aims to end childhood health epidemics by promoting vaccine safeguards, among other initiatives.

Last year, Mr. Kennedy told podcaster Joe Rogan that ivermectin was suppressed by the FDA so that the COVID-19 vaccines could be granted emergency use authorization.

He has criticized Big Pharma, vaccine safety, and government mandates for years.

Since launching his presidential campaign, Mr. Kennedy has made his stances on the COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines in general, a frequent talking point.

“I would argue that the science is very clear right now that they [vaccines] caused a lot more problems than they averted,” Mr. Kennedy said on Piers Morgan Uncensored last April.

“And if you look at the countries that did not vaccinate, they had the lowest death rates, they had the lowest COVID and infection rates.”

Additional data show a “direct correlation” between excess deaths and high vaccination rates in developed countries, he said.

President Trump and Mr. Kennedy have similar views on topics like protecting the U.S.-Mexico border and ending the Russia-Ukraine war.

COVID-19 is the topic where Mr. Kennedy and President Trump seem to differ the most.

Former President Donald Trump intended to “drain the swamp” when he took office in 2017, but he was “intimidated by bureaucrats” at federal agencies and did not accomplish that objective, Mr. Kennedy said on Feb. 5.

Speaking at a voter rally in Tucson, where he collected signatures to get on the Arizona ballot, the independent presidential candidate said President Trump was “earnest” when he vowed to “drain the swamp,” but it was “business as usual” during his term.

John Bolton, who President Trump appointed as a national security adviser, is “the template for a swamp creature,” Mr. Kennedy said.

Scott Gottlieb, who President Trump named to run the FDA, “was Pfizer’s business partner” and eventually returned to Pfizer, Mr. Kennedy said.

Mr. Kennedy said that President Trump had more lobbyists running federal agencies than any president in U.S. history.

“You can’t reform them when you’ve got the swamp creatures running them, and I’m not going to do that. I’m going to do something different,” Mr. Kennedy said.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, President Trump “did not ask the questions that he should have,” he believes.

President Trump “knew that lockdowns were wrong” and then “agreed to lockdowns,” Mr. Kennedy said.

He also “knew that hydroxychloroquine worked, he said it,” Mr. Kennedy explained, adding that he was eventually “rolled over” by Dr. Anthony Fauci and his advisers.

President Donald Trump greets the crowd before he leaves at the Operation Warp Speed Vaccine Summit in Washington on Dec. 8, 2020. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

MaryJo Perry, a longtime advocate for vaccine choice and a Trump supporter, thinks votes will be at a premium come Election Day, particularly because the independent and third-party field is becoming more competitive.

Ms. Perry, president of Mississippi Parents for Vaccine Rights, believes advocates for medical freedom could determine who is ultimately president.

She believes that Mr. Kennedy is “pulling votes from Trump” because of the former president’s stance on the vaccines.

“People care about medical freedom. It’s an important issue here in Mississippi, and across the country,” Ms. Perry told The Epoch Times.

“Trump should admit he was wrong about Operation Warp Speed and that COVID vaccines have been dangerous. That would make a difference among people he has offended.”

President Trump won’t lose enough votes to Mr. Kennedy about Operation Warp Speed and COVID vaccines to have a significant impact on the election, Ohio Republican strategist Wes Farno told The Epoch Times.

President Trump won in Ohio by eight percentage points in both 2016 and 2020. The Ohio Republican Party endorsed President Trump for the nomination in 2024.

“The positives of a Trump presidency far outweigh the negatives,” Mr. Farno said. “People are more concerned about their wallet and the economy.

“They are asking themselves if they were better off during President Trump’s term compared to since President Biden took office. The answer to that question is obvious because many Americans are struggling to afford groceries, gas, mortgages, and rent payments.

“America needs President Trump.”

Multiple national polls back Mr. Farno’s view.

As of March 6, the RealClearPolitics average of polls indicates that President Trump has 41.8 percent support in a five-way race that includes President Biden (38.4 percent), Mr. Kennedy (12.7 percent), independent Cornel West (2.6 percent), and Green Party nominee Jill Stein (1.7 percent).

A Pew Research Center study conducted among 10,133 U.S. adults from Feb. 7 to Feb. 11 showed that Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents (42 percent) are more likely than Republicans and GOP-leaning independents (15 percent) to say they have received an updated COVID vaccine.

The poll also reported that just 28 percent of adults say they have received the updated COVID inoculation.

The peer-reviewed multinational study of more than 99 million vaccinated people that Mr. Kennedy referenced in his X post on March 7 was published in the Vaccine journal on Feb. 12.

It aimed to evaluate the risk of 13 adverse events of special interest (AESI) following COVID-19 vaccination. The AESIs spanned three categories—neurological, hematologic (blood), and cardiovascular.

The study reviewed data collected from more than 99 million vaccinated people from eight nations—Argentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, New Zealand, and Scotland—looking at risks up to 42 days after getting the shots.

Three vaccines—Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines as well as AstraZeneca’s viral vector jab—were examined in the study.

Researchers found higher-than-expected cases that they deemed met the threshold to be potential safety signals for multiple AESIs, including for Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS), cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), myocarditis, and pericarditis.

A safety signal refers to information that could suggest a potential risk or harm that may be associated with a medical product.

The study identified higher incidences of neurological, cardiovascular, and blood disorder complications than what the researchers expected.

President Trump’s role in Operation Warp Speed, and his continued praise of the COVID vaccine, remains a concern for some voters, including those who still support him.

Krista Cobb is a 40-year-old mother in western Ohio. She voted for President Trump in 2020 and said she would cast her vote for him this November, but she was stunned when she saw his response to President Biden about the COVID-19 vaccine during the State of the Union address.

“I love President Trump and support his policies, but at this point, he has to know they [advisers and health officials] lied about the shot,” Ms. Cobb told The Epoch Times.

“If he continues to promote it, especially after all of the hearings they’ve had about it in Congress, the side effects, and cover-ups on Capitol Hill, at what point does he become the same as the people who have lied?” Ms. Cobb added.

“I think he should distance himself from talk about Operation Warp Speed and even admit that he was wrong—that the vaccines have not had the impact he was told they would have. If he did that, people would respect him even more.”

Tyler Durden Mon, 03/11/2024 - 17:00

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There will soon be one million seats on this popular Amtrak route

“More people are taking the train than ever before,” says Amtrak’s Executive Vice President.

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5 hours ago

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March 11, 2024

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While the size of the United States makes it hard for it to compete with the inter-city train access available in places like Japan and many European countries, Amtrak trains are a very popular transportation option in certain pockets of the country — so much so that the country’s national railway company is expanding its Northeast Corridor by more than one million seats.

Related: This is what it's like to take a 19-hour train from New York to Chicago

Running from Boston all the way south to Washington, D.C., the route is one of the most popular as it passes through the most densely populated part of the country and serves as a commuter train for those who need to go between East Coast cities such as New York and Philadelphia for business.

Veronika Bondarenko captured this photo of New York’s Moynihan Train Hall. 

Veronika Bondarenko

Amtrak launches new routes, promises travelers ‘additional travel options’

Earlier this month, Amtrak announced that it was adding four additional Northeastern routes to its schedule — two more routes between New York’s Penn Station and Union Station in Washington, D.C. on the weekend, a new early-morning weekday route between New York and Philadelphia’s William H. Gray III 30th Street Station and a weekend route between Philadelphia and Boston’s South Station.

More Travel:

According to Amtrak, these additions will increase Northeast Corridor’s service by 20% on the weekdays and 10% on the weekends for a total of one million additional seats when counted by how many will ride the corridor over the year.

“More people are taking the train than ever before and we’re proud to offer our customers additional travel options when they ride with us on the Northeast Regional,” Amtrak Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer Eliot Hamlisch said in a statement on the new routes. “The Northeast Regional gets you where you want to go comfortably, conveniently and sustainably as you breeze past traffic on I-95 for a more enjoyable travel experience.”

Here are some of the other Amtrak changes you can expect to see

Amtrak also said that, in the 2023 financial year, the Northeast Corridor had nearly 9.2 million riders — 8% more than it had pre-pandemic and a 29% increase from 2022. The higher demand, particularly during both off-peak hours and the time when many business travelers use to get to work, is pushing Amtrak to invest into this corridor in particular.

To reach more customers, Amtrak has also made several changes to both its routes and pricing system. In the fall of 2023, it introduced a type of new “Night Owl Fare” — if traveling during very late or very early hours, one can go between cities like New York and Philadelphia or Philadelphia and Washington. D.C. for $5 to $15.

As travel on the same routes during peak hours can reach as much as $300, this was a deliberate move to reach those who have the flexibility of time and might have otherwise preferred more affordable methods of transportation such as the bus. After seeing strong uptake, Amtrak added this type of fare to more Boston routes.

The largest distances, such as the ones between Boston and New York or New York and Washington, are available at the lowest rate for $20.

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International

The next pandemic? It’s already here for Earth’s wildlife

Bird flu is decimating species already threatened by climate change and habitat loss.

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6 hours ago

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March 11, 2024

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I am a conservation biologist who studies emerging infectious diseases. When people ask me what I think the next pandemic will be I often say that we are in the midst of one – it’s just afflicting a great many species more than ours.

I am referring to the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1), otherwise known as bird flu, which has killed millions of birds and unknown numbers of mammals, particularly during the past three years.

This is the strain that emerged in domestic geese in China in 1997 and quickly jumped to humans in south-east Asia with a mortality rate of around 40-50%. My research group encountered the virus when it killed a mammal, an endangered Owston’s palm civet, in a captive breeding programme in Cuc Phuong National Park Vietnam in 2005.

How these animals caught bird flu was never confirmed. Their diet is mainly earthworms, so they had not been infected by eating diseased poultry like many captive tigers in the region.

This discovery prompted us to collate all confirmed reports of fatal infection with bird flu to assess just how broad a threat to wildlife this virus might pose.

This is how a newly discovered virus in Chinese poultry came to threaten so much of the world’s biodiversity.

H5N1 originated on a Chinese poultry farm in 1997. ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock

The first signs

Until December 2005, most confirmed infections had been found in a few zoos and rescue centres in Thailand and Cambodia. Our analysis in 2006 showed that nearly half (48%) of all the different groups of birds (known to taxonomists as “orders”) contained a species in which a fatal infection of bird flu had been reported. These 13 orders comprised 84% of all bird species.

We reasoned 20 years ago that the strains of H5N1 circulating were probably highly pathogenic to all bird orders. We also showed that the list of confirmed infected species included those that were globally threatened and that important habitats, such as Vietnam’s Mekong delta, lay close to reported poultry outbreaks.

Mammals known to be susceptible to bird flu during the early 2000s included primates, rodents, pigs and rabbits. Large carnivores such as Bengal tigers and clouded leopards were reported to have been killed, as well as domestic cats.

Our 2006 paper showed the ease with which this virus crossed species barriers and suggested it might one day produce a pandemic-scale threat to global biodiversity.

Unfortunately, our warnings were correct.

A roving sickness

Two decades on, bird flu is killing species from the high Arctic to mainland Antarctica.

In the past couple of years, bird flu has spread rapidly across Europe and infiltrated North and South America, killing millions of poultry and a variety of bird and mammal species. A recent paper found that 26 countries have reported at least 48 mammal species that have died from the virus since 2020, when the latest increase in reported infections started.

Not even the ocean is safe. Since 2020, 13 species of aquatic mammal have succumbed, including American sea lions, porpoises and dolphins, often dying in their thousands in South America. A wide range of scavenging and predatory mammals that live on land are now also confirmed to be susceptible, including mountain lions, lynx, brown, black and polar bears.

The UK alone has lost over 75% of its great skuas and seen a 25% decline in northern gannets. Recent declines in sandwich terns (35%) and common terns (42%) were also largely driven by the virus.

Scientists haven’t managed to completely sequence the virus in all affected species. Research and continuous surveillance could tell us how adaptable it ultimately becomes, and whether it can jump to even more species. We know it can already infect humans – one or more genetic mutations may make it more infectious.

At the crossroads

Between January 1 2003 and December 21 2023, 882 cases of human infection with the H5N1 virus were reported from 23 countries, of which 461 (52%) were fatal.

Of these fatal cases, more than half were in Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos. Poultry-to-human infections were first recorded in Cambodia in December 2003. Intermittent cases were reported until 2014, followed by a gap until 2023, yielding 41 deaths from 64 cases. The subtype of H5N1 virus responsible has been detected in poultry in Cambodia since 2014. In the early 2000s, the H5N1 virus circulating had a high human mortality rate, so it is worrying that we are now starting to see people dying after contact with poultry again.

It’s not just H5 subtypes of bird flu that concern humans. The H10N1 virus was originally isolated from wild birds in South Korea, but has also been reported in samples from China and Mongolia.

Recent research found that these particular virus subtypes may be able to jump to humans after they were found to be pathogenic in laboratory mice and ferrets. The first person who was confirmed to be infected with H10N5 died in China on January 27 2024, but this patient was also suffering from seasonal flu (H3N2). They had been exposed to live poultry which also tested positive for H10N5.

Species already threatened with extinction are among those which have died due to bird flu in the past three years. The first deaths from the virus in mainland Antarctica have just been confirmed in skuas, highlighting a looming threat to penguin colonies whose eggs and chicks skuas prey on. Humboldt penguins have already been killed by the virus in Chile.

A colony of king penguins.
Remote penguin colonies are already threatened by climate change. AndreAnita/Shutterstock

How can we stem this tsunami of H5N1 and other avian influenzas? Completely overhaul poultry production on a global scale. Make farms self-sufficient in rearing eggs and chicks instead of exporting them internationally. The trend towards megafarms containing over a million birds must be stopped in its tracks.

To prevent the worst outcomes for this virus, we must revisit its primary source: the incubator of intensive poultry farms.

Diana Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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