When trained actors walked into emergency departments, hospital outpatient clinics, and urgent care centers with pink eye, a reported fever, and a cough, staff doing the initial screening asked about contact with sick or dead birds, livestock, or other mammals in only 7 of 73 drills, or 9.6%. The finding comes from a CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published October 1, 2026.
No real patients were involved. Every "patient" was a professional actor, and every visit was an unannounced drill testing whether facilities could recognize a possible avian influenza A(H5) infection and keep it from spreading in a waiting room.
