This week’s Pandora Report covers the West Texas measles outbreak, cancellation of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee’s annual flu vaccine meeting, H5N1 updates, and more.
Biodefense MS Information Session
“Prospective students are invited to attend a information session to hear more about the Biodefense M.S. program offered at the Schar School. The online session will provide an overview of the program, as well as the application process, student experience and graduate outcomes. This session admissions will be led by the Graduate Admissions team.”
This sessions will take place at 12 pm EDT on March 27. Learn more and register here.
Texas Child Killed in Growing Measles Outbreak
An unvaccinated, school-age child has died from measles in Lubbock, Texas, amid the state’s worst outbreak of the disease in three decades. The child was hospitalized last week according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. This is the first known US measles fatality since 2015. At least 124 cases have been reported, though thousands have potentially been exposed. Measles was considered eliminated in the US by 2000, following the introduction of a vaccine for it in 1963.
Further Reading:
- “Measles are Coming for RFK Jr.,” Donald G. McNeil Jr., The Washington Post
Trump Administration Updates
FDA Abruptly Cancels Meeting to Select Strains for Next Season’s Flu Shots
A meeting of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee that was scheduled to meet in March to select which strains will be included in next season’s flu shot was abruptly cancelled this week. Members of the committee were notified of the cancellation via email, which did not offer any explanation for the cancellation, on Wednesday afternoon. This comes during a particularly challenging flu season for the US, with 86 kids and 19,000 adults having died from flu this season so far.
RFK Jr. Says Panel Will Examine Childhood Vaccine Schedule
Just weeks after promising Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana he would not change the nation’s current vaccine schedule, RFK Jr. vowed in his first speech to HHS employees that the department he now leads will be “investigating” the childhood vaccine schedule. He delivered these remarks during a welcome ceremony at the HHS headquarters in Washington, DC, held just after thousands of employees were fired over the weekend.
Firings, Disorder Across Federal Health Agencies Continues
Mass firings have continued on across federal health agencies in recent weeks, with several thousand probationary employees at HHS fired in the so-called “Valentine’s Day massacre.” Massive cuts were made at the NIH, including dismantling programs focused on climate change. The impact on NIH so far has been so devastating that research funding for diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease is lagging by around $1 billion compared to recent years. Furthermore, HHS officials have reportedly pressured NIH staff to ignore court orders to resume funding. Legislation has also been proposed that would break the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases into three separate research institutes led by directors appointed directly by the president.
Meanwhile, the CDC laid off large numbers of probationary employees. This was set to include all 50 first-years officers in the famous Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), in addition to some second-years, as bird flu fears continue to grow and a CDC flu vaccine campaign was pulled. Apparently the EIS was, for now, spared after all. CDC training programs like the Public Health Associate Program and the Laboratory Leadership Program are also at risk.
This has continued outside of HHS as well. For example, the National Science Foundation fired at least 10% of its workforce, and the dismantling of USAID has crippled the Demographic and Health Surveys. The National Nuclear Security Administration also reportedly scrambled to try and reverse firings of probationary employees last week, but struggled to do so as they did not have their new contact information.
Meanwhile, an attempt to purge anything containing language related to, or that could be interpreted as, containing “DEIA or gender ideology” led to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration trashing documents like “OSHA Best Practices for Protecting EMS Responders During Treatment and Transport of Victims of Hazardous Substance Release.” DEI is not discussed in the document. Rather, the term “diversity” is used in it in reference to varying kinds of state-specific certifications, regulations, and training, in addition to the diversity of roles within EMS.
US DOGE Service “Accidentally Canceled” USAID Ebola Program
On Wednesday, Elon Musk claimed that the US DOGE Service “accidentally cancelled” efforts by USAID to prevent the spread of Ebola, claiming that the initiative was quickly restored. Musk said in a cabinet meeting, “We will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect. But when we make a mistake, we’ll fix it very quickly…So we restored the Ebola prevention immediately. And there was no interruption.”
However, according to The Washington Post, “…current and former USAID officials said that Musk was wrong: USAID’s Ebola prevention efforts have been largely halted since Musk and his DOGE allies moved last month to gut the global-assistance agency and freeze its outgoing payments, they said. The teams and contractors that would be deployed to fight an Ebola outbreak have been dismantled, they added. While the Trump administration issued a waiver to allow USAID to respond to an Ebola outbreak in Uganda last month, partner organizations were not promptly paid for their work, and USAID’s own efforts were sharply curtailed compared to past efforts to fight Ebola outbreaks.”
Further Reading:
- “They Worked to Prevent Death. The Trump Administration Fired Them.” Annie Waldman and Duaa Eldeib, ProPublica
- “HHS’ National Health Security Division Must be Preserved,” W. Craig Vanderwagen and Jennifer B. Alton, STAT News
- “Musk’s Takeover of US Health Agencies Raises Pandemic Threat, Experts Warn,” Melody Schreiber, The Guardian
- “Dismantling US Global Health Aid,” Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman, and Sarah Wetter, Health Affairs
- “Trumps’ Dismantling of USAID Raises Risk of Mpox Global Emergency, Experts Warn,” Rosalind Adams, The Guardian
- “Harsh Findings on Trump’s Aid Freeze Kept Secret by USAID Watchdog,” Lisa Rein and John Hudson, The Washington Post
- “The Covid ‘Contrarians’ Are in Power. We Still Haven’t Hashed Out Whether They Were Right.” Arthur Allen, KFF Health News
- “Vaccine Skeptic RFK Jr. Is Now a Powerful Force in US Science: What Will He Do?” Amanda Heidt and Heidi Ledford, Nature
- “‘A Scary Time to Be a Scientists’: How Medical Research Cuts Will Hurt the Maternal Mortality Crisis,” Carter Sherman, The Guardian
- “It Takes Years to Build a Science Lab,” Alt NIH 4 Science
Munich Security Conference
On February 15, 2025 at the 61st Munich Security Conference, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI), in partnership with Foreign Policy, convened emerging biosecurity leaders from the Global South. Together with top-level decision-makers, they discussed concrete next steps to accelerate the 100 Days Mission to reduce threats posed by deliberate, accidental, and naturally occurring biological threats. Strengthening biosecurity and biosafety will unleash the benefits of new technologies by minimizing risks, which will enable progress towards achieving the 100 Days Mission safely, securely and equitably. The groups issued a Biosecurity Emerging Leaders Declaration embodying these commitments and objectives.
H5N1 Updates
By Meredith Fletcher, Pandora Report Associate Editor
Egg Prices Plan 02.27
According to the USDA, egg prices are expected to continue rising, possibly by as much as 41%. With the possibility of a poultry vaccine created by Zoetis, hope is on the horizon. The company was given the go-ahead for a conditional license on February 18 and has plans to continue working on a similar vaccine that was started in 2022. President Trump and his team have announced their plan for the cost of eggs and response to combat the bird fu, which involves outsourcing the country’s egg needs to other countries by purchasing millions of eggs, increasing biosurveillance capabilities, and removing “unnecessary regulatory burdens on the chicken and egg industry.” Brooke Rollins, the US Secretary of Agriculture, says the administration expects egg prices to return to normal by the summer.
02.20
As the bird flu continues to devastate the American poultry market, causing millions of chicken deaths across the country, hope for a vaccine arrives. On February 17, a company announced its “conditional license” approval from the USDA. This vaccine is meant to protect chicken from the H5N2 subtype of the avian flu. Zoetis, the company responsible for this vaccine, has been working on developing a bird flu vaccine since 2022. Canada announced February 19 its human vaccine against H5N1 to give to those most at risk. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) stated it has secured 500,000 doses and will be used as part of Canada’s contingency plan. Canada joins the US and European Union who have stockpiled the avian flu vaccine in humans and plans to follow Finland, who has already begun vaccinating high risk individuals.
“WHO Global Framework to Define and Guide Studies Into the Origins of Emerging and Re-Emerging Pathogens with Epidemic and Pandemic Potential”
From WHO: “The WHO global framework to define and guide studies into the origins of emerging and re-emerging pathogens with epidemic and pandemic potential, developed by the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO) has been designed as a resource for Member States. It provides, for the first time, comprehensive guidance on the studies that are needed to investigate the origins of emerging and reemerging pathogens.”
“Timely investigations into pathogens’ origins are critical for preventing and containing global health crises. Their findings provide the basis for stopping outbreaks before they begin, halting transmission chains and reducing the risk of pathogen spillover from animals to humans. They can also confirm or exclude the possibility of an unintentional breach in laboratory biosafety and biosecurity.”
“The framework also offers recommendations on the capacities needed to conduct these studies and the critical importance of sharing all findings as soon as possible to guide next steps.”
“Giant-Killers: 7 Historic Deaths and the Diseases That Did It”
Maya Prabhu for Gavi: “From Alexander the Great to Mozart, some of our mightiest historical figures were felled by the tiniest of microbes. But which diseases killed them and – more importantly – how can you avoid their fate?”
Read here.
“Piloting of the Global Guidance Framework for the Responsible Use of the Life Sciences”
From WHO: “The convergence of life sciences, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence presents a unique and powerful opportunity to address many of the world’s pressing health challenges. With rapid advancements in these fields, new possibilities emerge for disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment—offering immense potential to improve global health outcomes.”
“However, alongside these benefits comes a growing recognition of the inherent risks associated with dual-use research, where scientific innovations designed for good can also be misused for malicious purposes or inadvertently result in harmful biological events.”
Read the report here.
International Biological Security Education Network (IBSEN) 3rd Quarterly Newsletter
“This 3rd Quarterly Newsletter will address the achievements of the International Biological Security Education Network (IBSEN) during its first year and LMU BSRC’s current activities on strengthening global biosecurity education. The feature column within this Newsletter analyses the aim and structure of the Global guidance framework for the responsible use of the life sciences: Mitigating biorisks and governing dual-use research by the World Health Organisation (WHO). This review will focus on the biosecurity education elements of the report.”
“The Quarterly Newsletter also aims to share the recent activities of the International Biological Security Education Network and Biological Security Research Centre.”
Read the newsletter here.
“The Security Implications of Developments in Biotechnology”
From IISS: “This report analyses the security implications of the developments that have taken place in recent decades in the fields of genomics, genetic engineering and synthetic biology. The relevant international regulatory frameworks need to be enhanced to keep pace with biotechnological advances, while a whole-of-society approach appears to be the best way to deal with the pressing ethical issues that biotechnology raises.”
“WMD Nonproliferation Regimes: An Overlooked Casualty of Russia’s War on Ukraine”
Christina McAllister discusses how Russia’s war on Ukraine has been accompanied by an “assault on WMD nonproliferation regimes and nuclear security norms” in this commentary piece from the Stimson Center.
“The Biological Weapons Convention at Fifty: Codifying 100 Years of Efforts to Combat Biological Warfare”
“This publication has been developed by the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA), with the support of the European Union, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the entry into force of the Biological Weapons Convention.”
“By bringing together different stakeholders, including, among others, experts and practitioners from the diplomatic field, academia and civil society, the publication highlights the achievements and obstacles encountered over the past fifty years, current discussions related to the strengthening of the Convention as well as future opportunities and challenges.”
“522. Drones and Biotechnological Weaponry: Emerging Risks, Strategic Threats, and Viable Readiness”
From TRADOC’s Mad Scientist Laboratory blog: “Today’s submission — co-authored by frequent contributor and proclaimed Mad Scientist Dr. James Giordano and returning contributor Dr. Diane DiEuliis — addresses the “nexus of drones and bioweapons” in Twenty-first century conflict, exploring how “drone technology, synthetic biology, and gene-editing pose a formidable challenge to global security.” This convergent challenge demands we “invest in fostering interagency and international collaboration, advanced surveillance systems, and develop robust countermeasures to mitigate the risks associated with these technologies” — Read on!]”
Read here.
“Evo 2 Can Design Entire Genomes”
Eryney Marrogi and Niko McCarty for Asimov Press: “A new AI model for biology, released today by Arc Institute and NVIDIA, can predict which mutations within a gene are likely to be harmful and even design small, eukaryotic genomes.”
Read here.
“‘Turn it Off’: Grok Under Fire After Providing Assassination Advice, Chemical Weapons Recipes”
Katherine Huggins for Daily Dot: “Some tech influencers are sounding the alarm over Grok—the artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Elon Musk’s xAI—after social media users were easily able to gain potentially dangerous information about chemical weapons and more from the new edition of the AI model.”
Read here.
“More than 160 Gazan Medics Held in Israeli Prisons Amid Reports of Torture”
Annie Kelly for The Guardian: “At least 160 healthcare workers from Gaza, including more than 20 doctors, are believed to still be inside Israeli detention facilities as the World Health Organisation expressed deep concern about their wellbeing and safety…Healthcare Workers Watch (HWW), a Palestinian medical NGO, said it had confirmed that 162 medical staff remained in Israeli detention, including some of Gaza’s most senior physicians, and a further 24 were missing after being taken from hospitals during the conflict.”
What We’re Listening To 🎧
Osterholm Update Episode 177: We Cannot Give Up or Give In
“In “We Cannot Give Up or Give In” Dr. Osterholm and Chris Dall discuss the confirmation of RFK Jr. as HHS Secretary, recent layoffs at the CDC and NIH, and a new vaccine policy being adopted in Louisiana. They also discuss seasonal and H5N1 influenza activity and a measles outbreak in Texas.”
Listen here.
Unconfined Episode 16: Is Animal Agriculture Contributing to Bird Flu Spread?
From the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future: “In episode 16 of Unconfined, two leading experts, Meghan Davis and Erin Sorrell, discuss the current bird flu outbreak affecting poultry, dairy cattle, and farm workers—and unpack risks to food supply and public health.”
Listen here.
NEW: Blockchain for Monitoring and Tracking Chemicals (MATCH)
From the Stimson Center: “The future of chemical security may rely on blockchain technologies. Join the MATCH team and industry leaders to discuss how innovative Distributed Ledger Technology is revolutionizing the monitoring and reporting of dual-use chemicals.”
“Since its first kick-off meeting in September 2021, the Monitoring and Tracking Chemicals (MATCH) project has gone through several phases of research, scenario building and testing to understand the feasibility of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) as an innovation for streamlining and improving the accuracy of declarations on international transfers of dual-use chemicals. These “Scheduled Chemicals” covered by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) have many legitimate medical, commercial and industrial uses but also represent the small subset of the global chemical trade that also pose the highest risk of misuse for chemical weapons.”
“Join us for a discussion with the MATCH team and its stakeholders, including MATCH developers True North and DataTrails, along with Global Affairs Canada, and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) for insights on the successes achieved and lessons learned along the way.”
This event will take place on March 3 at 12:30 pm ET. Learn more and RSVP here.
NEW: Synthesis Screening Workshop 3, Securing Bioproduction Against an Evolving Threat Landscape
From AI for SynBio: “Advances in AI are changing the threat landscape in many fields, including in the field of biology. With AI assisted design tools, the complexity and obfuscation potential of the synthetic biological materials is expected to increase. Conversely, the same AI advances can be deployed to help screen DNA/RNA synthesis requests before they can be used for malicious purposes. This workshop seeks insight on current and future advances that will shape both the threat and countermeasure landscapes and prepare the community for the changing threat landscape. The workshop seeks perspectives from academia, industry, and government.”
This workshop will take place March 5-6 in Washington, DC. Learn more and register here.
NEW: 2025 Scowcroft Institute Pandemic Policy Summit
From the Scowcroft Institute: “The Scowcroft Institute of International Affairs at Texas A&M University invites you to attend the 2025 Scowcroft Institute Pandemic Policy Summit examining the ongoing H5N1 outbreak across the U.S. Dairy industry. This summit will bring together experts from government, academia, and industry to review the response efforts, discuss current challenges and opportunities, and identify options for moving forward. Listen to panels of subject matter experts, explore case studies from the field, and participate in networking opportunities.”
This event will take place on March 18 in Washington, DC. Learn more and RSVP here.
Sustainable Manufacturing: Building and Preserving a Resilient Medical Industrial Base
“Join industry and government partners for our second annual industry summit! During this event, leaders from IBMSC will share our strategic vision and organizational priorities. Speakers will also share potential opportunities for building and preserving the medical industrial base. This event will be in-person only and space is limited!”
This event will take place March 11-12 in Washington, DC. Learn more and register here.
Gaming Weapons of Mass Destruction Course – From Policy to Practice
From MORS: “Gaming Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD – defined as Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological agents) will be a three-day course focused on developing and executing games related to WMD in all its forms. While the basics of WMD capabilities and game design will be discussed, this will be a course focused on the intersection of WMD and gaming. It will not be either a WMD or gaming course; for those topics see other offerings.”
“No prior experience is required for this course, though a basic familiarity with various agents and their effects would be helpful, as would a basic understanding of professional gaming and how it is used. The instructors will adapt in real time to class requirements (e.g., if the class is interested in animal and plant targets, the instructors have extensive experience in designing games on those subjects as well).”
This course will take place March 18-20 on Zoom. Learn more and register here.
NEW: NASEM Has Questions
The National Academy of Science, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) is hosting a workshop on Navigating the Benefits and Risks of Publishing Studies of In Silico Modeling and Computational Approaches of Biological Agents and Organisms on April 3-4 in Washington, DC. In preparation for the workshop, NASEM is soliciting input on how publishing computational models can support biological research while minimizing potential DURC/PEPP risks. The purpose of the questionnaire is to ascertain if organizations that publish or disseminate scientific knowledge have considered or created guidelines or policies to review, host or interact with in silico and computational models and tools, studies, datasets, etc. research that constitutes dual use, dual use research of concern (DURC) or pathogens with enhanced pandemic potential (PEPP). Have answers? Then fill out the In Silico Research Publications Pre-event Questionnaire.
NOFO, Addressing Agricultural Biorisk Evidence Base Gaps with Applied Research
“There is a global recognition that the current evidence base to inform laboratory biological risk management has gaps, and that biosafety and biosecurity policies are not always based on evidence.1 This notice of funding will support the design and implementation of applied biorisk research to address evidence gaps in working with high-consequence veterinary and agricultural pathogens as identified during the RAV3N Biorisk and Biosafety Gap Assessment Workshop2 or similar gap analysis like the WOAH working group agent specific biorisk gap analysis.1 ERGP is seeking proposals that address one or more key focus area components listed below. Each proposal will go through an internal ERGP and external expert review. Successful proposals should address at least one of the three key focus areas and at least one component under that area.”
“This funding opportunity aims at the design and implementation of applied biorisk research to address evidence gaps in working with high-consequence veterinary and agricultural pathogens.”
“This work will contribute to recommended guidance on laboratory biosafety and agricultural biosecurity, using research techniques to evaluate the application and effectiveness in operational contexts. All proposals must make a clear experimental plan for how the applicant will test the application and outcomes of their focus area(s)/component(s) in their facility.”
Learn more and submit application by April 14 here.
The Pandora Report 