As we approach this year's respiratory season it's important to recognize the importance of vaccination and how vaccines help reduce the risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death. 

The virus responsible for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) undergoes constant genetic changes as it mutates over time. This is normal and what most viruses do. Because of this, we do anticipate the continual emergence of new SARS-CoV-2 variants. While some of these variants might appear and then fade away - think of the Delta variant which became the dominate variant in the late summer and fall of 2021 in the U.S. - others could increase, potentially taking the place of older variants.

Belfer Fellow Syra Madad Commends Department of Defense for Inaugural 2023 Biodefense Posture Review.

On September 20, 2022, the Uganda declared an outbreak of Sudan ebolavirus in the Mubende District. It was the country’s first Sudan ebolavirus outbreak in a decade, and its fifth of this kind of Ebola. In total during this outbreak, there were 164 cases (142 confirmed and 22 probable), 55 confirmed deaths and 87 recovered patients. Due to the Ugandan Government’s successful containment of the outbreak including with support from the World Health Organization and other public health partners, there were no documented cases of international transmission of the Sudan Ebolavirus. The outbreak was declared over on January 11, 2023, nearly 17 weeks after its detection.

Syra Madad writes that it's impossible to know what impact the COVID-19 virus will have next, but with signs of increased flu activity ahead of the holiday season, coupled with the increasing burden of RSV, healthcare systems should be bracing for more impact to come. She urges everyone to do their part and help reduce the spread of RSV, get vaccinated against seasonal flu and stay up-to-date with their Covid-19 vaccination.

Syra Madad issued a statement on two Biden Administration biodefense plans: National Biodefense Strategy and Implementation Planand the National Security Memorandum on Countering Biological Threats, Enhancing Pandemic Preparedness, and Achieving Global Health Security.

Polio is a highly contagious virus that spreads through person-to-person contact (most commonly through contact with an infected person's poop). While most people who get infected do not experience any symptoms, about 1 in 4 people develop flu-like symptoms and a much smaller fraction of people (less than one in 100) develop more serious symptoms including paresthesia (feelings of pin and needles in legs), meningitis (infection of the covering of the spinal cord and/or brain) and paralysis. Among those paralyzed, 5% to 10% die when the virus affects their breathing muscles.

Monkeypox is a viral disease that is transmitted person to person through direct contact with the infectious rash, scabs or bodily fluids including respiratory secretions. Research is ongoing on the potential for sexual transmission through semen or vaginal fluids. Indirect transmission can occur through touching contaminated objects, like towels, bedsheets or sex toys. Most people with monkeypox recover on their own without requiring treatment, beyond supportive care or hospitalization. Due the similarity between monkeypox and smallpox, and because this virus has been found in humans for decades, FDA approved monkeypox tests, treatments (TPOXX), and vaccines exist, but their use has so far been very limited.

With community transmission of monkeypox taking a foothold in the U.S., public health agencies must do more to stamp out the virus, effectively communicate the increasing risk to the MSM community, and better inform the public.

Ask yourself, what would you say to someone if they told you in just over two years, a virus too small to see with the naked eye but brutal enough to kill a population the size of Delaware would sweep through the nation?

As leaders in one of the largest healthcare systems in the United States, we would say: this would be a travesty of epic proportions.