The US Is Loading Up on Bird Flu Vaccine

Amid a US outbreak of avian influenza in poultry flocks and dairy cattle, the federal government on Friday announced $72 million in funding to three vaccine manufacturers to expand the production of bird flu vaccines for humans, in the event that they are needed. “We do expect that we will have a total of just over 10 million doses filled and finished by the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2025,” said David Boucher, director of infectious disease preparedness and response at the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, in a press briefing on Friday. Moderna, Pfizer, and GSK are also working on mRNA vaccines for bird flu, but those need to go through human testing and be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration before they could be used. The individuals are farm workers who had contact with infected dairy cows at two facilities in the Central Valley, the epicenter of the state’s cattle outbreak.