Bird flu isn’t part of the “quad-demic” of viruses circulating through the country this winter—COVID, seasonal flu, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and norovirus—and its risk to public health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), remains low. But that doesn’t mean an H5N1 avian influenza pandemic isn’t possible or even probable.
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), of which the CDC is part, believes the current bird flu outbreak has pandemic potential. Though person-to-person spread hasn’t yet been detected, H5N1 has infected 67 people in 10 states, including a death in Louisiana. That’s in addition to infection in more than 136 million poultry, nearly 11,000 wild birds, and over 900 dairy cattle as of mid-January. To that end, HHS has granted Moderna $590 million to help accelerate the development of a bird flu vaccine.
