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EXCLUSIVE: USAID Quietly Sent Thousands of Viruses to Chinese Military-Linked Biolab
The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) shipped thousands of viral samples to a lab in Wuhan over the course of a 10-year program even though it had no formal agreement with the lab in place, according to previously unreported documents.
The documents show that USAID funded the exportation of 11,000 samples from Yunnan Province, where some of the closest relatives of the COVID-19 virus circulate, to Wuhan, the epicenter of the pandemic, with no apparent plan for ensuring the samples were not misdirected to bioweapons and remained accessible to the U.S. government.
A $210 million USAID public health program called PREDICT, steered by the University of California-Davis, collected viral samples in countries throughout the globe but lacked long-term storage when funding dried up, according to rudimentary plans in 2019.
Judge Vacates Trump Administration’s Removal of Health Web Pages
A federal judge ruled that the swift takedown of health information across several government webpages earlier this year was illegal and vacated agencies’ directives to do so. The takedowns were carried out in late January to comply with an executive order from President Donald Trump redirecting the federal government’s stance on gender and sex policy.
They were restored in part when a plaintiff medical organization, Doctors for America, was granted a temporary restraining order after successfully arguing that the sudden removals impeded their ability to provide time-sensitive care and were likely unlawful.
That relief was limited to specific webpages outlined in their complaint — which were accompanied by a notice that the restored material “does not reflect biological reality and therefore the Administration and this Department rejects it” — and in February the temporary restraining order was allowed to expire as the case progressed and officials conducted a “rolling review” of the webpages’ content.
KFF Health News: Feds Investigate Hospitals Over Religious Exemptions From Gender-Affirming Care
The Trump administration has launched investigations into health care organizations in an effort to allow providers to refuse care for transgender patients on religious or moral grounds. One of the most recent actions by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), launched in mid-June, targets the University of Michigan Health system over a former employee’s claims that she was fired for requesting a religious exemption from providing gender-affirming care.
An administration release announcing the probe says the Michigan case is the third investigation in “a larger effort to strengthen enforcement of laws protecting conscience and religious exercise” for medical providers, citing federal laws known as the Church Amendments.
The probes are the first time HHS has explicitly claimed the amendments “allow providers to refuse gender-affirming care or to misgender patients,” said Elizabeth Sepper, a professor at the University of Texas who studies conscience laws. Those laws, Sepper said, primarily allow objections to performing abortions or sterilizations but “don’t apply to gender-affirming care, by their very own text.”
CDC Winds Down Emergency Response to Bird Flu
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has ended its emergency response to the H5N1 bird flu and said Monday it will streamline future updates on the virus with routine reports on seasonal influenza.
The big picture: A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said the response was “deactivated to transition back to regular program activity” last Wednesday due to animal infections with the H5N1 strain declining and no human cases being reported since February. CDC data shows 70 bird flu cases were reported in the U.S., but there are no known person-to-person exposures in the U.S. right now, eliminating the need for the virus’ emergency declaration.
The agency will continue to monitor the situation and report data on the number of people monitored and tested for bird flu monthly. Detections in animals will no longer be reported on the CDC’s website, but can be found on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s website.
HHS Is Quietly Looking for Two New Vaccines
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last month quietly announced its intention to fund the development of vaccines against two viruses it considers “material threats to national health security.”
It’s a sign that even as Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. fires the country’s top vaccine committee and backs cuts to infectious disease research, the department is still aware of the dangers a hobbled public health infrastructure would pose to U.S. biosecurity. The pre-solicitation notice for the two vaccines was posted to a government contracting website on June 27.
It came from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), an HHS center that partners with the biomedical industry to develop bioterrorism countermeasures. (BARDA is housed within the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, which Kennedy announced would be reshuffled into the Administration for a Healthy America, although the status of the secretary’s planned department reorganization is hazy.)
Health Leaders Consider Northeast Vaccine Group Amid CDC Changes
Health leaders in Maine and across the Northeast are weighing the idea of forming a regional vaccine advisory group, according to reporting by The Washington Post.
It comes after the U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed all members of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC’s) vaccine advisory committee, replacing them with his own appointees.
Some of these new members have expressed skepticism about vaccines, raising red flags among medical professionals and vaccine advocates. “Bad decisions have created chaos at the federal level,” Caitlin Gilmet, director of Maine Families for Vaccines, said. “That body has been what families and physicians have relied on to make sure we have access to the vaccines that we need.”
Though Kennedy has defended his move as a way to restore public confidence in vaccine policy, it has triggered uncertainty among some health departments.
A spokesperson for the Maine CDC did not confirm or deny whether the state is involved in efforts to create a regional advisory group.