A former key health official under former President Donald Trump said this week that the United States should prepare for a potential bird flu pandemic. The comments came as other health officials observed potentially dangerous transmission of bird flu.
Former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Robert Redfield said that the odds of a bird flu pandemic was significantly. He said that the disease has a mortality rate likely between 25% and 50%.
He said that when the disease enters humans it “has a significant mortality.” The high rate of death will cause things to “get quite complicated,” he said.
“I really do think it’s very likely that we will, at some time, it’s not a question of if, it’s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic,” said Redfield.
“Once the virus gains the ability to attach to the human receptor and then go human to human, that’s when you’re going to have the pandemic. And as I said, I think it’s just a matter of time,” he added.
The former CDC official also said that there has been an increase in rates of avian flu affecting birds since 2017.
In April, Cal-Maine Foods, Inc., the largest fresh egg facility in the country had to shut down its production at a Texas plant after detecting the disease. The company destroyed 1.6 million hens and 337,000 pullets due to infection.
In Australia, egg purchases are being limited after hundreds of thousands of chickens were culled due to bird flu. This is coming to the rest of the Western world soon. If you want to continue eating eggs, find a reliable local supplier or get chickens of your own. pic.twitter.com/LDXUjo9Dix
— RAW EGG NATIONALIST (@Babygravy9) June 14, 2024
The bird flu has also affected mammals, with some cattle developing the disease. Some of the humans tending to the cattle have also been infected.
There has been at least one death caused by the avian flu, a 59-year-old man from Mexico. The man was not believed to have contact with poultry or other animals but did suffer from several underlying conditions.
Health officials have feared the jump of animal diseases to humans. This, of course, includes concerns over the 2020 coronavirus pandemic, which was originally believed to be a jump from bats to humans. However, more recent research revealed that it was likely a leak from the Wuhan, China infectious diseases laboratory.
