David Kessler: I Ran Operation Warp Speed & I’m Concerned About Bird Flu

David A. Kessler in the New York Times:

As Donald Trump gets ready to return to the White House on Jan. 20, he must be prepared to tackle one issue immediately: the possibility that the spreading avian flu might mutate to enable human-to-human transmission.

I was the Biden administration’s chief science officer during Covid-19. I was a co-leader of Operation Warp Speed, which began in Mr. Trump’s first term to accelerate the development of Covid-19 vaccines. I worked on the purchase and rollout of hundreds of millions of doses and on developing antiviral treatments. One of my jobs was to assess the trajectory of the virus.

Now I am back at my job teaching at the medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. I have been monitoring the spread of bird flu, also known as H5N1, and discussing the situation with colleagues around the country. My concern is growing.

More here.

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