My Friends — I think we need to prepare ourselves and those we care about, just in case. Some things we can do now: shore up our immune strength by helping our gut with the fiber, and help protect against viruses with the zeolites.
From the NY Times:
“……in recent weeks, as researchers have registered one after another mammalian outbreak of the avian influenza H5N1, or bird flu, another possibility has loomed into view: back-to-back pandemics — a new one potentially driven by a disease that over the past several decades has killed about half the humans with known infections.”
“We also don’t know exactly how rapidly such a disease would be transmitted among humans, though we have seen some eye-popping mammalian outbreaks over the past year: in minks, most notably, at a Spanish farm; but also in bears, seals, raccoons and foxes, to name just a few of the populations recently infected in the United States. In Peru, roughly 600 sea lions died.”
“Since 2020, there has been no meaningful nationwide disease-surveillance network erected or even planned. (Our patchwork surveillance of avian flu has given us only a crude sense of where it is spreading now among animals.)”
In the News
How the Messy Process of Milking Cows Can Spread Bird Flu
On America’s large dairy farms, milking is a vast operation, and the potential for disease transmission is worrying, health experts say.
Bird Flu, Explained
We explore whether you should be worried.
A Bird Flu Pandemic Would Be One of the Most Foreseeable Catastrophes in History
I Ran Operation Warp Speed. I’m Concerned About Bird Flu
The World Is Watching the U.S. Deal With Bird Flu, and It’s Scary
As Bird Flu Spreads, Two New Cases Diagnosed in California
Both patients were dairy workers whose illnesses were mild. Investigators are continuing to evaluate the contacts of a Missouri patient who had no exposure to animals.
Possible Cluster of Human Bird-Flu Infections Expands in Missouri
Seven people in contact with a patient hospitalized with bird flu also developed symptoms, the C.D.C. reported. Some are undergoing further tests.
How U.S. Farms Could Start a Bird Flu Pandemic
The virus is poised to become a permanent presence in cattle, raising the odds of an eventual outbreak among people.
Colorado Reports Three More Presumed Cases of Bird Flu
The cases, which have yet to be confirmed, were identified in farmworkers culling infected birds. The risk to the public remains low, health officials said.
How Does Bird Flu Spread in Cows? Experiment Yields Some ‘Good News.’
Scientists say that findings from a small experiment lend hope the outbreak among dairy cattle can potentially be contained.
How Scared Should You Be of Bird Flu?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has described the current H5N1 risk to the general public as low. The risk that the virus poses is tempered by the fact that it doesn’t spread easily among people — yet.
The Bird Flu Virus Adapted to Sea Mammals. It May Not Be Done Yet.
Huge die-offs of elephant seals occurred after the virus gained nearly 20 troublesome new mutations, scientists found.
Why the New Human Case of Bird Flu Is So Alarming
The third human case of H5N1, reported on Thursday in a farmworker in Michigan who was experiencing respiratory symptoms, tells us that the current bird flu situation is at a dangerous inflection point. The virus is adapting in predictable ways that increase its risk to humans, reflecting our failure to contain it early on. The solutions to this brewing crisis — such as comprehensive testing — have been there all along, and they’re becoming only more important. If we keep ignoring the warning signs we have only ourselves to blame.
The Disease Detectives Trying to Keep the World Safe From Bird Flu
Bird Flu Sample from Chilean Man Showed Some Signs of Adaptation to Mammals
These changes were unlikely to be enough to allow the virus to spread easily among humans, and the health risk to the public remains low, experts said.
As Bird Flu Looms, the Lessons of Past Pandemics Take On New Urgency
Who Could Catch Bird Flu First? These Experts Have an Idea, and a Way to Help
H5N1 is in a better position than ever to move between species and spill over aggressively into humans: This bird flu virus is now thought to have been spreading among dairy cows for many months, and federal regulators have found viral fragments circulating widely in the commercial milk supply chain across the United States (though live virus has not been found).
Scientists Investigate a Bird Flu Outbreak in Seals
Wild birds passed the virus to seals in New England at least twice last summer, a new study suggests.
One in Five Milk Samples Nationwide Shows Genetic Traces of Bird Flu
Cambodia Investigates After Father and Daughter Infected With Bird Flu
Two family members were infected with H5N1; the daughter died. Eleven contacts, some with symptoms, have tested negative, according to the W.H.O.