US - Remarks on H5N1 by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra at the Western Governors’ Association Annual Meeting - June 13, 2024 - Begging for cooperation

[sharon sanders]

From:
"HHS Office of Public Affairs" <HHSOPA@hhs.gov>
To: "FluTrackers" <flutrackers@earthlink.net>
Subject: Remarks on H5N1 by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra at the Western Governors’ Association Annual Meeting
Date: Jun 13, 2024 11:50 AM​
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[TD]News Release[/TD]
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[TD]U.S. Department of Health and Human Services[/TD]
[TD]202-690-6343
media@hhs.gov
www.hhs.gov/news
Twitter @HHSGov[/TD]
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[TD]FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, June 13, 2024[/TD]
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[TD]Remarks on H5N1 by HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra at the Western Governors’ Association Annual Meeting[/TD]
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[TD](As prepared for delivery)

On June 11, 2024, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra attended the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) Annual Meeting and delivered the following remarks about H5N1 Avian Flu:

There are many issues to address today, but I know H5N1 – the Avian Flu – is on a lot of your minds right now. And if it isn’t – please put it on your radar. We need to work together to protect the health of this country.

This Administration takes the health and safety of the American public very seriously. Along with USDA, we are doing everything in our power to keep communities healthy, safe, and informed; to ensure that our Nation’s food supply remains safe; and to safeguard American agriculture and the livelihood and well-being of American farmers and farmworkers.

Let me share the latest information we have and highlight some resources available to you.

• Based on everything we know from the ongoing monitoring and testing that we are doing, I can say with confidence: the commercial milk supply is safe, and currently, the risk to the general public remains low. However, we need all work together to ensure that this virus doesn’t spread, adapt, and become a significant threat to human health.
• It is true that we are seeing an extensive outbreak in dairy cattle – some 20% of retail milk showed old/dead pieces of virus. However, we have not yet seen human to human spread. The three cases identified to date have not been severe. None of the human cases has been fatal, and all three people have recovered or are recovering.
• Avian flu is not a new virus. We have worked on containing this virus with our poultry farmers for years. Of course, viruses change. We want to minimize the possibility that will happen, especially the possibility of the virus moving from cattle into pigs as this can pose a higher risk. But we must be ready for any possibility.
• So, I come here with a request: We need you and your teams to track this closely. That includes reaching out to dairy farmers in your states to confirm they are taking steps to protect workers - and encouraging those farms to test their cows or their milk so we know quickly if a herd is positive. For the impacted farms, make sure the workers are monitoring themselves for symptoms and getting tested if they have any concerning symptoms.
• We are here as a resource to you. We continue to provide guidance on how to keep workers – and constituents – safe. We have tests, treatment, vaccine candidates, the ability to see real-time data from 90% of emergency rooms, wastewater tracking, genomic sequencing capability, and we know what works to protect farm workers. Reach out. Take advantage of the money provided by USDA to support impacted farms. We will see our way through this by working together.

We are highly coordinated and acting as one government in response to H5N1 in partnership with USDA, as well as our HHS agencies including CDC, FDA, ASPR, and NIH. We hope you will do the same. Have your state agriculture teams and public health teams work together. Coordinate closely with USDA and HHS so we can provide support quickly and help solve any issues together. Please, please – personally engaged in this.

We need leadership to put the lessons learned from COVID around collaboration, transparency, and rapid response to work.

Thank you.[/TD]
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[sharon sanders]

FluTrackers.com
@FluTrackers


US - Federal officials begging states to cooperate in #H5N1
monitoring, reporting, investigations, etc. - "..please put it on
your radar. We need to work together to protect the health of
this country."
https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/national-international-government-ngo-preparation-response/hhs/991996-us-remarks-on-h5n1-by-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-at-the-western-governors%E2%80%99-association-annual-meeting-june-13-2024…
1:00 PM · Jun 13, 2024
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