The virulent bird flu virus H5N1 might be on the verge of triggering a devastating pandemic, like it did in 1997. The canarys in the coalmine are actually minks, in Spain, which succombed to H5N1 last October. USDA recorded 110 outbreaks in other mammals in 2022-2023. Will it reach pandemic status in either poultry or people? At this point, nobody knowns for sure, but it may be wise to prepare for the worst.
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“Tracking the bird flu, experts see a familiar threat — and a virus whose course is hard to predict,” Helen Branswell, STAT
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Tags: air travel, avian flu, bird flu, epidemiology, H5N1, Healthcare, public health, virology
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