Bird flu vaccine faces hurdles without better data, critics say

The EU has secured up to 665,000 doses of CSL Seqirus’ vaccine that matches the current strain

Moderna and Pfizer have been in discussions with the US government about developing mRNA-based bird flu vaccines. Picture: Shannon VanRaes/Bloomberg

US scientists haven’t gotten a handle on how to effectively track bird flu, three months after a Texas dairy worker was diagnosed with the virus. That is impeding the ability to create a vaccine to protect against the spread among people.

Bird flu’s health risk to the general public remains low, according to US officials. But if the virus becomes more dangerous, it’s unclear we’ll have a shot that works, according to Kate Broderick, a vaccine developer at Maravai LifeSciences, who has helped develop shots against Ebola and Zika.