The COVID pandemic might finally be over, according to Dr. Fauci, so the last thing I’m interested in hearing about this week is another public health crisis that could throw a wrench in my Booty Thumping Boi summer. That’s why news of a Colorado man who caught a strain of the bird flu last week definitely shook me a little.
The incarcerated man who got infected was taking part in a pre-release employment program. Last week, he had been working in a commercial farm where several chickens were infected with the highly contagious H5 bird flu, reported CNN. He is currently the first human to test positive for H5 in the U.S. and the second in the world after a U.K. resident tested positive last December. What’s particularly spooky about the bird flu compared to other viruses is that when it does make its way into the human population — which, by the way, happens pretty rarely and is usually containable — the death rate can be up to 60%, per the National Institutes of Health.
