A look ahead at the key events leading the news agenda next week, from the team at Foresight News.
Leading the week
Instead of basking in the glow of a generational election victory, Labour approaches conference season facing up to the reality that governing is much less fun than being in opposition. Embroiled in a series of rows over its pensioner-bashing economic policies, gloomy messaging and – with a little nod to previous administrations – political donations that benefit the prime minister’s spouse, the party will arrive in Liverpool this weekend knowing that the honeymoon period is now well and truly over: so what can we expect from Keir Starmer’s top team over the next few days?
Given the party’s desire to keep blaming the Conservatives for the dire state of the economy and public services, expectation management may be the watchword for ministers’ speeches next week. Deputy leader Angela Rayner delivers the first big speech of the event on Sunday (September 22), and she may need to resort to some cheerleading as the warm-up act for Starmer and Rachel Reeves; she can at least point to the introduction of the renters’ reform bill as proof that she’s getting down to business in her housing brief.
This time last year Reeves was vowing to be an ‘iron chancellor’, and we may get a taste of how she intends to live up to that promise when she steps up to the ACC stage on Monday (September 23). Despite the purse strings being loosened in recent weeks to deliver union-friendly public sector pay increases, it’s unlikely the chancellor will be announcing any member-pleasing spending commitments or shiny new projects ahead of the Budget, though she may be in a position to drop some hints about whether there is, in fact, any fiscal headroom to take advantage of October 30.
Keir Starmer may not arrive at conference on a jet ski, but he could be forgiven for looking for a way to distract from his recent woes. With his favourability rating falling steadily, headlines about his wife’s wardrobe and his chief of staff’s salary are the last things Starmer wants to be focusing on in the lead up to his conference speech on Tuesday (September 24). The prime minister now faces the tough task of shifting the narrative away from sideline rows and back onto his missions for government and delivering the positive change that was promised during July’s election campaign. It is, as they say in football, too early to talk of crisis, but Starmer definitely needs a big performance in front of his home crowd next week.
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Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace is up in front of the Independent Inquiry relating to Afghanistan on Monday (September 23) after hearings back in February raised questions about his handling of allegations that British special forces units, particularly in Helmand province, killed unarmed boys and men detained during night raids between 2010 and 2013. Wallace commissioned the inquiry in December 2022 after a BBC Panorama investigation claimed dozens of detainees may have been executed by the SAS.
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Former Veterans Minister Johnny Mercer, who lost his seat at the general election, previously criticised Wallace after Mercer gave statements to the Commons that claims of ‘death squads’ were untrue, only for emails to emerge in The Sunday Timesin 2020 that showed that UK special forces officers knew that serious concerns had been raised about 33 deaths in 2011. Mercer also accused Wallace and special forces director general Roly Walker of failing to investigate the allegations of war crimes properly. The inquiry used a court injunction to force Mercer to provide ‘further information’ on the source of the allegations that unarmed Afghan men had been shot by SAS troops, though Mercer insists he did not name those who confided in him. Following Wallace’s testimony, the inquiry is set to hear evidence in ‘restricted closed hearings’ which involve ‘grave allegations of war crimes’.
Looking abroad
World leaders descend on New York next week for the UN General Assembly’s high-level week, sometimes referred to as the Super Bowl of diplomacy. While the conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan loom large over this year’s gathering, a host of other issues of global concern are also set to be discussed.
The centrepiece as ever is the General Debate, which opens on Tuesday (September 24), when world leaders and ministers deliver what are supposed to be 15-minute interventions, though they frequently overrun. In keeping with tradition, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres delivers the first address, followed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and US President Joe Biden, in what will be his final address before the November election. Other speakers on Tuesday include Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Argentina’s Javier Milei and, in what is likely to be another closely-watched address, Iran’s new president Masoud Pezeshkian.
On Wednesday (September 25) all eyes will be on Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is likely to once again make the case that his country’s fight against Russia is central to upholding the rules-based international order. Then on Thursday (September 26) we’ll get Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech, his first since the Hamas attack last October that sparked the ongoing war that threatens to engulf the region. Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes his first big international address on Friday (September 27), looking to make his mark after his predecessor Rishi Sunak last year became the first UK premier in a decade to skip the gathering. Neither Chinese President Xi Jinping nor Russian President Vladimir Putin are attending, but their representatives will speak on the Saturday (September 28).
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Beyond the General Debate, the UN Security Council meets on Tuesday (September 24) for a high-level briefing on Ukraine, followed by an open debate on ‘leadership for peace’ on Wednesday (September 25), chaired by Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob and likely to feature interventions from a variety of world leaders. On Thursday (September 26), the Council holds an informal session on the threat of regional escalation in the Middle East that is likely to garner attention after Israel’s interventions in Lebanon this week.
Other highlights to look out for – notwithstanding last-minute bilateral and multilateral encounters – include the second day of the UN Summit of the Future on Monday,when both Zelenskyy and Pezeshkian are due to speak, a summit Biden’s hosting on synthetic drug threats, and a leaders’ event on defending democracy hosted by Lula, both on Tuesday. On Wednesday, G20 foreign ministers hold their first-ever meeting on the margins of UNGA, and the US, EU and Saudi Arabia co-host a high-level ministerial meeting on the humanitarian crisis in Sudan. And as things begin to wind down in New York, Biden will host Zelenskyy at the White House on Thursday. Watch out, too, for celebrities – Prince Harry, Matt Damon and Meryl Streep are among those in town to support the charities and NGOs they work with.
Also look out for…
September 23
Phil Shiner’s legal aid fraud trial begins
Inquest into Bournemouth beach deaths
Prince Harry speaks at Concordia Summit in New York
Joe Biden hosts UAE President at the White House
Donald Trump rally in Pennsylvania
Hearing for Trump assassination attempt suspect Ryan Routh
Commonwealth foreign ministers hold pre-CHOGM meeting
September 24
Zombie-style knives ban takes effect
Sentencing for ex Spandau Ballet singer charged with rape
England v Australia 3rd ODI
Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit
September 25
Sadiq Khan speaks at the Concordia Summit
Trial begins for police officer charged with multiple sex offences
International Distribution Services AGM votes on proposed Royal Mail takeover
Mark Zuckerberg speaks at Meta Connect
OECD Interim Economic Outlook
US Senate hearing on FAA oversight of Boeing
UNGA high-level meeting on sea level rise
Launch of NASA SpaceX Crew-9 mission
September 26
Chris Whitty appears at Covid-19 Inquiry Module 3 hearing
Sentencing for two 12-year-olds found guilty of murder
Graham Brady’s memoir Kingmakeris released
Oral arguments in Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud case appeal
House task force on Trump assassination attempt holds first hearing
UNGA high-level meetings on antimicrobial resistance and nuclear weapons
Vladimir Putin expected to address Russian Energy week
Pope Francis visits Luxembourg
September 27
New Scottish Conservative Party leader announced
Further bids due in the sale of The Telegraph
Sentencing for trans woman guilty of rape
Sentencing for JSO activists who threw soup at Van Gogh work
New US tariffs on Chinese EVs come into effect
Japan’s LDP chooses new leader to replace Fumio Kishida as PM
Pope Francis visits Belgium
Francis Ford Coppola’s new film Megalopolisis released
September 28
Expected closure of second blast furnace at Port Talbot steelworks
National Rejoin March III
Planned ‘Unite the Kingdom’ far-right protest and counter-protest
Ulster Unionist Party Conference
September 29
Conservative Party Conference opens
Parliamentary elections in Austria
Pope Francis concludes Belgium visit
England v Australia 5th ODI
Statistics, results and reports
September 23
UK flash PMI
CBI industrial trends survey
China loan prime rate announcement
September 24
Planning applications in England
Cancer waiting times in Scotland
NRS release on life expectancy in Scotland 2021-2023
NCHS report on prevalence of obesity in the United States
Global Financial Centres Index
ILO World Social Protection Report 2024-26
Results from: Smiths Group
September 25
PAMCo figures on audience measurement for publishers
September 26
Hospital accident and emergency activity (2023/24)
Annual stats on the nature of violent crime in England and Wales
Road casualties in Great Britain (2023)
Key rail safety figures (2022/23)
Quarterly court statistics
Quarterly NEET statistics
Energy trends and prices
Bank of England capital issuance
SMMT car production figures
US and Australia Q2 GDP
NCHS report on suicide mortality rates in the US
EBRD growth forecasts for emerging economies
Results from: Costco, H&M
September 27
Workless households by region in the UK (2023)
Property transactions in the UK
CBI survey of distributive trades
Italy economic and financial update due
Anniversaries and awareness days:
September 23
Two years ago: Kwasi Kwarteng’s ‘mini-budget’
Bi Visibility Day
Saudi Arabia National Day
National Inclusion Week (to September 29)
Organ Donation Week (to September 29)
National Eye Health Week (to September 29)
World Reflexology Week (to September 29)
September 24
Familial Hypercholesterolemia Awareness Day
National Punctuation Day
September 25
International Ataxia Awareness Day
September 26
Two years ago: Nord Stream pipelines sabotaged
International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
World Contraception Day
European Day of Languages
World Maritime Day
September 27
World Tourism Day
World’s Biggest Coffee Morning
National Doodle Day
September 28
10 years ago: mass protests in Hong Kong began
100 years ago: first aerial circumnavigation of the globe
International Safe Abortion Day
Visit My Mosque Day
World Rabies Day
September 29
National Police Memorial Day
World Day of Migrants and Refugees
Back to Church Sunday
International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste
World Heart Day
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our “Letters Page” blog
Ukraine has banned the use of the Telegram messaging platform on official devices issued to government and military personnel, as well as defence sector and critical infrastructure employees.
The country’s powerful National Security and Defence Council (Rnbo) said this was done to “minimise” threats posed by Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Telegram is actively used by the enemy for cyber-attacks, the distribution of phishing and malicious software, user geolocation and missile strike correction,” the Rnbo said on Friday.
Telegram is widely used by the government and the military in both Ukraine and Russia.
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In a statement, the Rnbo said the ban was agreed at a meeting of Ukraine’s top information security officials, the military as well as lawmakers.
It said military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov had presented credible evidence of Russian special services’ ability to access personal correspondence of Telegram users, even their deleted messages.
“I have always supported and continue to support freedom of speech, but the issue of Telegram is not a matter of freedom of speech, it is a matter of national security,” Budanov was quoted as saying.
The Rnbo said that those officials for whom the use of Telegram was part of their work duties would be exempt from the ban.
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Separately, Andriy Kovalenko, head of the Rnbo’s centre on countering disinformation, stressed the ban only applied to official devices – not personal smartphones.
He added that government officials and military personnel would be able to continue to maintain and update their official Telegram pages.
Last year, a USAID-Internews survey found that Telegram was the top social platform in Ukraine for news consumption, with 72% of Ukrainians using it.
What is the projected GDP growth for the US in 2024 and 2025, according to the survey?
How is the unemployment rate expected to change by the end of this year, and how does it compare to the current rate?
What does a ‘soft landing’ in an economy refer to, and how does this article suggest the US is achieving it?
What actions is the Federal Reserve expected to take next, and why is this important for the economy?
How do the economic platforms — potential future fiscal policies and trade policies — of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris differ, according to the article?
What are the risks of relying on the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies to achieve a “soft landing,” considering that economies are always moving?
Why might some economists argue that attempting to “control” the economy through interest rate adjustments is like trying to land a plane in turbulent conditions?
Given the complexity of global factors like energy prices and consumer behaviour, how much influence do policymakers have in ensuring a stable economic outcome?
How might the analogy of an aeroplane “landing” overlook the reality that economic conditions, like inflation and unemployment, are always subject to change and can’t be perfectly controlled?
Conclusion
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In light of the discussion around soft landings, market dynamics and the role of policy, do you think long-term economic stability is better achieved through government intervention, like the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies, or by allowing market forces and individual decisions to guide the economy? Why?
UNDER-pressure Secret Service recruiters are facing a battle to woo Gen Z and Millennial agents who don’t have the mentality to serve, a former high-ranking agent has warned.
Cheryl Tyler, a retired Secret Service agent and training instructor in the agency’s Protection Section, warned that many younger would-be recruits don’t have the mindset for the work, and don’t want to do the strenuous hours required.
Speaking to The U.S. Sun, Tyler, who was also the first female African American Secret Service agent, said that this critical lack of suitable candidates was coming as the agency was desperate for more bodies as it faced “challenging and hostile” conditions.
Eerie footage showed Mar-a-Lago on lockdown following the incident at the weekend.
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On Friday, acting Secret Service chief Ronald Rowe admitted at a press conference that “complacency” had led to the security failures that culminated in the attempt on Trump’s life two months ago.
READ MORE ON U.S. POLITICS
He repeated calls he made earlier this week for a “paradigm shift” in the agency, including more agents and resources to deal with the increasing challenges it faces.
But Tyler, who spent 15 years at the Secret Service defending presidents, world leaders, and celebrities, warned that recruiting more agents was easier said than done.
“It’s not like all of a sudden they’ll have 500 new agents and they’re there and ready to go,” she said. “It’s going to take time.”
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She went on: “It takes a while to go through that training, and then, once you get through the training, it’s still another period of time before you understand what you really are doing and get a grasp of it.”
Tyler added that there were many preconceptions about the Secret Service.
Some agents on protection details can spend up to 200 nights a year away from home.
“That’s a young person’s job,” Tyler added.
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But she expressed fears many Millenials and Gen Zers lack sufficient stamina to do the job.
“I think that’s the bigger challenge, not only for the Secret Service but for law enforcement in general,” she said.
“It is tough. It’s a new generation, and they like their privacy and they like to work nine to five, and these kinds of jobs don’t allow that.”
She added: “There’s a different type of mindset for this job.”
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Tyler blamed Covid for changing “work ethics for every genre there is in every industry.”
“The challenge is on top of needing more people, but the challenges of hiring more people and getting them to stay is even tougher,” she added.
Tyler warned that this crisis in finding suitable candidates was coming at the worst possible time for America.
“The Secret Service is at the present time in the crosshairs of society,” she said.
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“We’re living in very challenging and unfortunately hostile environments right now and hopefully, that will soon dissipate, but in the meantime, in order for the agency and the agents to do their jobs successfully, there are going to need to be additional changes in how they approach different scenarios.”
Three questions facing Secret Service after Ryan Routh’s assassination attempt on Trump from drones to shock intel
NEW TECH, NEW THREATS
Tyler explained how she believed that cultural shift began during Barack Obama’s presidency, when “subtle” changes to the threats faced by the agency changed.
“Social media technology has put everybody on 24-hour availability,” she said. “Technology has been our friend and our foe.”
One big change brought by technology, Tyler said, is the ease with which it has enabled people to make anonymous threats to prominent individuals.
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This, she argued, has left the Secret Service and other government agencies around the world facing a major challenge in “trying to keep up with the pace of technology and drawing the line in the sand without people feeling that they’ve been muzzled and can’t speak their freedoms.”
It’s a new generation, and they like their privacy and they like to work nine to five, and these kinds of jobs don’t allow that
Cheryl TylerFormer Secret Service agent
Earlier this week, new white tents and extra guards appeared outside of Trump Tower in Manhattan – just some of the added security measures being brought in to protect the former president.
Bulletproof glass is now in place at all of Trump’s rallies in the wake of Butler.
Similarly, beefed-up security presences were seen around Melania Trump.
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But Tyler said many of the biggest changes in security were taking place in ways not visible to the average American.
“There are a lot of things that don’t need to be shared with the public, and people get upset, but that’s okay,” she said.
“The United States is a very unique and different place. We live in our own bubble. We live with a comfort of feeling protected and safe all the time, and not all countries are like that.
“Sometimes we have to seep back and realize that we are unique,” she added.
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“We are special. It’s not complacency. It’s the fact that there are people that do jobs for a living for a reason to keep us all safe, and to keep those who are running to be leader of the free world safe.”
Tyler said that the job of a Secret Service agent is “to ensure the safety of that person who is the leader of the free world, and sometimes we don’t need to all know what’s going on in order to do that.”
And while technology could provide support to the work of the agency, Tyler reiterated that “the one thing they do need is more people; technology is not the solution solely by itself to operate this agency.”
She referred to reports that the Secret Service is considering bringing former agents out of retirement to help with the added pressure.
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“You need somebody who has the stamina and the energy, and can work those long hours and shift changes and demands that come with it, and being on call all the time,” she said. “A campaign year is a tough year.”
SECRET SERVICE UNDER FIRE
THE Secret Service has faced a number of challenges this year that have resulted in its director stepping down and calls for a “paradigm shift
July 13: Donald Trump is shot at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The Secret Service is slammed for failing to take out gunman Thomas Crooks.
July 15: Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle does her first network interview since the shooting, telling ABC News it was “unacceptable,” but refuses to resign, blaming local police for refusing to secure the building from where the gunman launched his attack.
July 20: A week on, Pennsylvania Congressman Brendan Boyle calls on Cheatle to resign, making himself the first congressional Democrat to do so. That same day, House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell both called on Cheatle to step aside.
July 22: Cheatle testifies before Congress and acknowledges “significant operational failure” in Butler, but refuses to resign.
July 23: Director Cheatle resigns. Her deputy, Ronald Rowe, takes over as acting director.
July 30: Rowe tells Congress the attempted assassination on Trump was a “failure on multiple levels.”
August: It is later revealed the White House asked for extra funding for the Secret Service in the run-up to November’s election, warning of “insufficient resources.”
September 15: A gunman is arrested after being spotted with a rifle on Trump’s West Palm Beach golf course. Secret Service agents say it was a credible plot on the former president’s life.
September 16: Ronald Rowe makes astonishing admission that the Secret Service needs a total overhaul in the wake of both attempts on former President Trump’s life, and calls for a “paradigm shift.”
September 20: Rowe takes “full responsibility” for events at Butler, and repeats calls for “paradigm shift” in the Secret Service.
DESPERATE FOR AGENTS
Even before last weekend’s events in West Palm Beach, lawmakers and pundits have expressed fears that the Secret Service is struggling to deal with its increased challenges.
The arm of the agency that provides direct protection to presidents, vice presidents, and their families has shrunk by 10% in the past year.
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The number of agents who guard senior officials, known as protective operations agents, is down from 4,027 in 2014 to 3,671 this year, according to the latest congressional budget figures.
In July, an NBC report claimed the Secret Service faced chronic understaffing for high-profile roles, as well as competition from private sector security, where many agents often go to find higher-paying and less grueling jobs.
This is despite warnings from Congress that more agents are needed to avoid compromising the agency’s mission.
Ronald Rowe, who took over from former director Kimberly Cheatle in the wake of the Butler shooting and subsequent inquiry, warned on Friday of existential issues facing the agency.
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In the wake of the shooting carried out by Thomas Crooks, a new video showed how the would-be assassin was able to calmly approach the rally and get in position with his rifle.
“It is important that we hold ourselves accountable for the failures of July 13, and that we use the lessons learned to make sure that we do not have another failure like this again,” he said.
But he described Sunday’s events, which resulted in the arrest of potential would-be assassin Ryan Wesley Routh, as a success, saying that the agent who spotted him “identified a threat” before taking “swift action to be able to mitigate that.”
The House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill ensuring the Secret Service will provide the same levels of protection to presidential and vice presidential candidates as it does to the sitting president and VP.
Last month, a former Secret Service agent warned there would be another attempt on Trump’s life before the election, speaking weeks before events in West Palm Beach.
Now the Enhanced Presidential Security Act will head to the Senate.
“While July 13 is a failure, we’re not proud of it, but we certainly have been rising to this moment,” Rowe said, adding that his agents “are working tirelessly to make sure that the people we protect are safe.”
Henry Mance’s article (“The Lunch Bunch”, Life & Arts, September 14) analysing 30 years of “Lunch with the FT” missed one important aspect of these articles — the light shed on the character of the interviewers.
More subtle and indirect than revelations about the interviewees, this is a major reason why these lunch reports are so enjoyable.
Some interviewers give themselves a central role, making their own opinions clear. Some allude to their own histories, while others are more reticent. Some are clearly greedier than others going for all three courses despite the more puritanical tastes of the interviewees. And some have a great eye for detail, with graphic descriptions of the setting, the food, the clothes worn by those interviewed and the behaviour and attitudes of the waiters and waitresses, while others concentrate more single-mindedly on the conversation.
The interviewers are generally familiar to us regular readers of the FT. But these additional perspectives can throw a welcome new light on their regular columns.
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Frances Stewart Emeritus Professor of Development Economics, University of Oxford London NW3
A third close contact of a patient in Missouri who was hospitalized with H5N1 bird flu has reported that they also experienced symptoms, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday.
The person, a health care worker, was not tested because their symptoms resolved before the investigation into the illnesses began, according to the CDC.
This is the second health care worker to report that they developed symptoms after being in contact with the patient. The first was tested for flu, and the results were negative, the CDC said.
The agency says the risk of H5N1 to the general population remains low.
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Normally, health care workers are of high interest to disease detectives because they are often among the first to fall ill in outbreaks.
But this is far from a cut-and-dried case. The patient had underlying medical conditions that compromised their lung function, and when tested, the concentration of virus in a sample taken from them was low, which would normally suggest a mild or perhaps waning infection.
“At this point, my index of concern is still low,” said Dr. Michael Osterholm, who directs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. He is not involved in the Missouri investigation.
He notes that there are plenty of other infections going around that might cause respiratory symptoms.
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“At the same time, we’ve had tremendous activity with Covid at that very time, as well as RSV, and so you would expect to see potentially several percent of the population having respiratory symptoms not due to influenza,” Osterholm added. In a hospital setting, workers would be even more likely to encounter those bugs.
Still, the discovery of additional suspect cases this late into the investigation raises questions.
“It’s unclear why this wasn’t reported with the other cases, and moves to identify influenza cases early are needed,” said Dr. Seema Lakdawala, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Emory University School of Medicine.
“We need more details of whether this is influenza infection or another respiratory virus. Serology will be useful in all these cases, as well as other contacts that may not have had symptoms,” said Lakdawala, who studies transmission of the H5N1 virus but also is not involved in the Missouri investigation.
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“It is imperative that we identify any and all cattle herds that may have H5 in all states,” she said. “It is ridiculous that this information is still not known this many months after the first cattle cases were identified.”
Since the first bird flu cases in dairy cattle were detected in March, 213 herds have tested positive in 14 states. No positive herds have been reported in Missouri.
How the Missouri patient caught H5N1 is still a mystery. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services has interviewed the person as well as a household contact who got sick the same day but was not tested. They have reported no exposures to sick cows, birds or other animals, and no exposure to raw milk.
Both people have recovered from their illnesses. Investigators collected blood samples from them this week. The samples have been sent to the CDC for testing for antibodies to the virus that causes bird flu, which would indicate a previous infection.
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