The chicken and egg problem of fighting another flu pandemic

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Arthur Allen | (TNS) KFF Health News

Even a peep of news about a new flu pandemic is enough to set scientists clucking about eggs.

They worried about them in 2005, and in 2009, and they’re worrying now. That’s because millions of fertilized hen eggs are still the main ingredient in making vaccines that, hopefully, will protect people against the outbreak of a new flu strain.

“It’s almost comical to be using a 1940s technology for a 21st-century pandemic,” said Rick Bright, who led the Health and Human Services Department’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) during the Trump administration.

It’s not so funny, he said, when the currently stockpiled formulation against the H5N1 bird flu virus requires two shots and a whopping 90 micrograms of antigen, yet provides just middling immunity. “For the U.S. alone, it would take hens laying 900,000 eggs every single day for nine months,” Bright said.

And that’s only if the chickens don’t get infected.

The spread of an avian flu virus has decimated flocks of birds (and killed barn cats and other mammals). Cattle in at least nine states and at least three people in the U.S. have been infected, enough to bring public health attention once again to the potential for a global pandemic.

As of May 30, the only confirmed human cases of infection were dairy workers in Texas and Michigan, who experienced eye irritation. Two quickly recovered, while the third developed respiratory symptoms and was being treated with an antiviral drug at home. The virus’s spread into multiple species over a vast geographic area, however, raises the threat that further mutations could create a virus that spreads from human to human through airborne transmission.

If they do, prevention starts with the egg.

To make raw material for an influenza vaccine, virus is grown in millions of fertilized eggs. Sometimes it doesn’t grow well, or it mutates to a degree that the vaccine product stimulates antibodies that don’t neutralize the virus — or the wild virus mutates to an extent that the vaccine doesn’t work against it. And there’s always the frightening prospect that wild birds could carry the virus into the henhouses needed in vaccine production.

“Once those roosters and hens go down, you have no vaccine,” Bright said.

Since 2009, when an H1N1 swine flu pandemic swept around the world before vaccine production could get off the ground, researchers and governments have been looking for alternatives. Billions of dollars have been invested into vaccines produced in mammalian and insect cell lines that don’t pose the same risks as egg-based shots.

“Everyone knows the cell-based vaccines are better, more immunogenic, and offer better production,” said Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security. “But they are handicapped because of the clout of egg-based manufacturing.”

The companies that make the cell-based influenza vaccines, CSL Seqirus and Sanofi, also have billions invested in egg-based production lines that they aren’t eager to replace. And it’s hard to blame them, said Nicole Lurie, HHS’ assistant secretary for preparedness and response under President Barack Obama who is now an executive director of CEPI, the global epidemic-fighting nonprofit.

“Most vaccine companies that responded to an epidemic — Ebola, Zika, covid — ended up losing a lot of money on it,” Lurie said.

Exceptions were the mRNA vaccines created for covid, although even Pfizer and Moderna have had to destroy hundreds of millions of doses of unwanted vaccine as public interest waned.

Pfizer and Moderna are testing seasonal influenza vaccines made with mRNA, and the government is soliciting bids for mRNA pandemic flu vaccines, said David Boucher, director of infectious disease preparedness at HHS’ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response.

Bright, whose agency invested a billion dollars in a cell-based flu vaccine factory in Holly Springs, North Carolina, said there’s “no way in hell we can fight an H5N1 pandemic with an egg-based vaccine.” But for now, there’s little choice.

BARDA has stockpiled hundreds of thousands of doses of an H5N1-strain vaccine that stimulates the creation of antibodies that appear to neutralize the virus now circulating. It could produce millions more doses of the vaccine within weeks and up to 100 million doses in five months, Boucher told KFF Health News.

But the vaccines currently in the national stockpile are not a perfect match for the strain in question. Even with two shots containing six times as much vaccine substance as typical flu shots, the stockpiled vaccines were only partly effective against strains of the virus that circulated when those vaccines were made, Adalja said.

However, BARDA is currently supporting two clinical trials with a candidate vaccine virus that “is a good match for what we’ve found in cows,” Boucher said.

Flu vaccine makers are just starting to prepare this fall’s shots but, eventually, the federal government could request production be switched to a pandemic-targeted strain.

“We don’t have the capacity to do both,” Adalja said.

For now, ASPR has a stockpile of bulk pandemic vaccine and has identified manufacturing sites where 4.8 million doses could be bottled and finished without stopping production of seasonal flu vaccine, ASPR chief Dawn O’Connell said on May 22. U.S. officials began trying to diversify away from egg-based vaccines in 2005, when avian flu first gripped the world, and with added vigor after the 2009 fiasco. But “with the resources we have available, we get the best bang for our buck and best value to U.S. taxpayers when we leverage the seasonal infrastructure, and that’s still mostly egg-based,” Boucher said.

Flu vaccine companies “have a system that works well right now to accomplish their objectives in manufacturing the seasonal vaccine,” he said. And without a financial incentive, “we are going to be here with eggs for a while, I think.”

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(KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs of KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling and journalism.)

©2024 KFF Health News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

YouTube toughens policy on gun videos and youth; critics say proof will be in enforcement

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By DAVID KLEPPER (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — YouTube is changing its policies about firearm videos in an effort to keep potentially dangerous content from reaching underage users.

The video sharing platform owned by Google said Wednesday it will prohibit any videos demonstrating how to remove firearm safety devices. In addition, videos showing homemade guns, automatic weapons and certain firearm accessories like silencers will be restricted to users 18 and older.

The changes take effect June 18 and come after gun safety advocates have repeatedly called on the platform to do more to ensure gun videos aren’t making their way to the site’s youngest users, potentially traumatizing children or sending them down dark paths of extremism and violence.

Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, said the change was welcome news and a step in the right direction. But she questioned why the platform took so long to issue a new policy, and said her group will look to see how effectively YouTube enforces its new rule.

“Firearms are the number one cause of death for children and teens in America,” said Paul, whose group has long sought stronger age controls on online gun videos. “As always with YouTube, the real proof of change is whether the company enforces the policies it has on the books. Until YouTube takes real action to prevent videos about guns and gun violence from reaching minors, its policies remain empty words.”

Last year, researchers at Paul’s group created YouTube accounts that mimicked the behavior of 9-year-old American boys with a stated interest in video games. The researchers found that YouTube’s recommendations system forwarded these accounts graphic videos of school shootings, tactical gun training videos and how-to instructions on making firearms fully automatic.

One video featured an elementary school-age girl wielding a handgun; another showed a shooter using a .50 caliber gun to fire on a dummy head filled with lifelike blood and brains. Many of the videos violated YouTube’s own policies against violent or gory content.

YouTube said the policy changes were designed as an update to reflect new developments, like 3D printed guns, which have become more available in recent years. YouTube requires users under 17 to get their parent’s permission before using their site; accounts for users younger than 13 are linked to the parental account.

“We regularly review our guidelines and consult with outside experts to make sure we are drawing the line at the right place,” said company spokesman Javier Hernandez.

Along with TikTok, YouTube is one of the most popular sites for children and teens. Both sites have been questioned in the past for hosting, and in some cases promoting, videos that encourage gun violence, eating disorders and self-harm.

Several perpetrators of recent mass shootings have usedsocial media and video streaming platforms to glorify violence, foreshadow or even livestream their attacks.

5 financial steps for new college grads in their first jobs

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By Amanda Barroso | NerdWallet

It’s college graduation season, a time to celebrate the years of hard work and effort you’ve invested in your education and career development. Hopefully, the future feels full of endless possibilities. But there’s also an undeniable reality: those possibilities cost money.

One antidote to the uncertainty you might feel about your financial future is to put together a plan. Here are five first steps you can take now.

1. Build a budget you can stick to

The best budgets account for your needs, wants and financial goals. A 50/30/20 budget might be a good place to start.

The idea is to spend 50% of your take-home income on needs including housing, utilities, groceries transportation and minimum monthly debt payments. The next 30% of your income goes toward wants, like travel, monthly subscriptions and entertainment. The last 20% should go toward savings goals and paying down debt.

While your circumstances — like living in a high-rent area — might require more flexibility, this is a good framework for managing your monthly income. The key is to find a budgeting approach that’s sustainable.

2. Stash some cash in an emergency fund

Now is the time to start setting aside some extra cash for the unexpected. If you were lucky enough to get money as a graduation gift, consider using it to start an emergency fund.

“It’s important just to start building up some cash,” says Jaime Eckels, a certified financial planner and wealth management partner with Plante Moran Financial Advisors in Michigan. “The very basics should be just having three to six months, at least, of living expenses on hand.”

This type of savings could take years to build, so starting with smaller goals can make it feel more attainable. Having $500 saved could be enough to avoid going into debt, but any amount will make a difference. Consider putting your emergency fund in a high-yield savings account, which can have annual percentage yields (APYs) of 5% or more and will grow your balance more quickly.

3. Be proactive about student loan repayment

The federal student loan landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and Biden administration policies. The key to making on-time payments and staying on top of debt is being a proactive manager of your student loans.

Because there’s a six-month grace period after you graduate, “it’s easy to get complacent,” says Winston Berkman-Breen, the legal director for the Student Borrower Protection Center. “But there are things you can do to make your month-to-month payments work for you.”

First, set up online accounts with your student loan servicer and studentaid.gov. You’re assigned a servicer when you take out your loans, and you’ll manage repayment through this servicer.

Activating your accounts can help you get a sense of your loans and ensure the servicer and federal government can contact you, says Berkman-Breen. You can find the name of your servicer and link to their website by logging into your studentaid.gov account and checking the upper right-hand side of the dashboard.

A common mistake graduates make, according to Berkman-Breen, is not knowing they have a choice when it comes to picking a repayment plan. “You can move pretty fluidly” between repayment plan options, says Berkman-Breen. Income-driven repayment plans, like SAVE, can lower your monthly payments and lead to eventual loan forgiveness. And generally, you can switch plans anytime.

To estimate what your payoff journey would look like on different repayment plans, use the Education Department’s loan simulator.

4. Enroll in a retirement plan and get the employer match — if you can

While retirement feels like a lifetime away, taking advantage of the retirement plan your employer offers at your first job will pay off big down the road.

You’ll likely be offered enrollment in a defined contribution plan like a 401(k) or 403(b). Eligible employees can contribute money toward retirement, typically through a payroll deduction. These are fairly easy to set up and can make saving for retirement something you don’t have to think about.

Do your best to take advantage of an employer or company match, where employers match employee contributions up to a certain percentage. If your employer offers a full match on contributions up to 5% of your salary, but you contribute 3%, you would lose out on the extra 2% of “free money” from your employer. This could make a meaningful difference in retirement, so if you can make it work in your budget, it’s worth it.

5. Check your credit score and review your credit report

Your credit score is the gateway to much of your financial life, and the first step to growing your score is knowing what it is. You can check your credit score for free with personal finance websites like NerdWallet, or find it on your bank’s app.

If you already have established credit, focus on making on-time payments each month, and use 30% or less of the total credit available to you. Set up alerts on your credit cards to know when you’re approaching that threshold.

If you’re new to credit, you have options. Find a trusted person with a strong credit history and become an authorized user on their account. You can benefit from their positive credit history without being responsible for payments. Also, consider enrolling in a rent-reporting service to get credit for on-time rental payments.

Next, use AnnualCreditReport.com to download a free copy of your credit report. Look for things you don’t recognize, like accounts or names. Set a calendar alert to check on your credit report quarterly so you can catch mistakes or dispute errors quickly before they damage your credit. Credit scores can feel mysterious, but you have what it takes to build a strong score.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

As you work through this financial checklist, remember that you don’t need to have it all figured out right away.

“Asking for help is very important, and if you can start off on a strong foot, the future is very bright,” says Eckels. You don’t always need to turn to a financial advisor, she says. Your parents, family and friends are also valuable resources.

Amanda Barroso writes for NerdWallet. Email: abarroso@nerdwallet.com.

Loons sign attacker Samuel Shashoua to contract through 2024 season

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Minnesota United has signed a potentially versatile depth piece with an impressive youth background to try to help the club during the second half of the 2024 season.

The Loons have inked 25-year-old attacker Samuel Shashoua to a contract through the end of the season, with club options for 2025 and 2026, the club announced Wednesday.

Shashoua was in Minnesota on Wednesday and can begin training with the Loons immediately, but he will not be eligible to play in MLS games until after the summer transfer window opens July 18.

Shashoua was out of contract in Spain, so MNUFC did not need to pay a fee to order to add him to the roster.

Shashoua was born in London to an American father and FIFA changed his affiliation to the U.S. from England in 2022, according to the Associated Press. He has a U.S. passport, so he will not occupy an international roster spot with MNUFC.

MNUFC likes the upside potential of the Shashoua, with one comparison being Ismael Tajouri-Shradi, whom the Loons added for the second half of last season and he contributed to three goals in 347 minutes.

Shashoua played for Albacete in the Spanish second division, La Liga 2, playing only 254 minutes and not contributing to a goal last season, according to fbref.com. Shashoua had three seasons with Tenerife in La Liga 2, where he had 15 goal contributions in 3,751 minutes, per fbref.com. The stats site had the right-footed player him down for playing multiple positions in 2024, and that potential versatility is valued and often utilized under head coach Eric Ramsay.

Shashoua represented England at the youth national team level, including the 2016 Under-17 European Championship, and was a member of the Tottenham youth system, playing for its Under-18, 19 and 21 teams.

“Samuel has experience having already competed at a high level at the early stages of his career and has intriguing attacking attributes,”  Chief Soccer Officer and Sporting Director Khaled El-Ahmad said in a statement. “We welcome Samuel and look forward to see his growth and contribution to the team this summer.”