A new report from PBS warns about the potential risk of bird flu turning into a pandemic in the United States.
Experts interviewed by PBS believe the U.S. has been slow in addressing the threat. For example, the United States Department of Agriculture only recently began nationwide testing of milk for bird flu contamination... Continue reading here ▶
“It’s frustrating to see the same mistakes we saw during the COVID-19 crisis happening again,” said Tom Bollyky, director of the Global Health Program at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Angela Rasmussen, a virologist from the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, also criticized the slow response.
“We’re in a bad situation that’s only getting worse,” she said. “I don’t know if bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we’re in serious trouble.”
Tom Peacock, a bird flu researcher at the Pirbright Institute in the UK, highlighted the risk of the virus mutating to spread more easily among humans.
“Even if there’s only a 5% chance of a bird flu pandemic, it could be as bad as 2020 or worse,” he said. “The U.S. knows the risk but hasn’t taken enough action to prevent it.”
