Bird Flu: The Next Pandemic?

Science Vs

Spotify Studios

Education, Science, Health & Fitness

4.4 • 11.7K Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bird flu has been in the headlines for ages, with scientists warning that we could be headed for a pandemic. But we’ve been hearing about this H5N1 virus for so long that it’s kind of starting to feel like the boy who cried wolf. So — what’s really going on with H5N1 bird flu? How scary is it, and how likely is it that we’re going to end up in a bird flu pandemic? We talk to virologists Dr. Seema Lakdawala and Dr. Richard Webby. Find our transcript here: https://bit.ly/ScienceVsBirdFlu (00:00) Tons of people are freaked out about H5N1 bird flu (03:38) Why H5N1 bird flu is scary (05:01) Birds are falling out of the sky dead (07:32) Things get weird when bird flu gets into mammals (18:34) What happens when humans start getting this bird flu (23:26) Is bird flu mutating? (29:11) Should I worry about bird flu? (30:50) Do we have anything to fight bird flu? (32:14) We have had some silent cases of bird flu already This episode was produced by Blythe Terrell, with help from Wendy Zukerman, Michelle Dang, Rose Rimler, Meryl Horn and Ekedi Fausther-Keeys. We’re edited by Blythe Terrell with help from Wendy Zukerman. Mix and sound design by Bobby Lord and Sam Bair. Fact checking by Erica Akiko Howard. Music written by Bumi Hidaka, Peter Leonard, Emma Munger, So Wylie, and Bobby Lord. Thanks so much to all the researchers we spoke to for this episode, including Dr. Louise Moncla, Dr. Ted Elsasser, Dr. John Korslund, Victoria Rosado and Lindsey Adams. Thanks to Jeff DelViscio. Science Vs is a Spotify Studios Original. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us and tap the bell for episode notifications. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Wendy Zuckerman and you're listening to Science Verses.
0:05.1	Today on the show, we are pitting facts against bird flu.
0:14.1	And to tell us all about it is editor of Science Verses Blythe Chorrell.
0:18.4	Hey, Blythe.
0:19.4	Yeah, hey, Wendy.
0:20.4	So you've spent the last few months, I feel like coming into meetings and saying,
0:25.3	oh my God, I just learned something crazy about bird flu.
0:28.3	Oh, my God, Wendy.
0:29.1	And I have kept telling you to wait for this conversation right here.
0:35.4	So...
0:36.1	The day has finally come when I get to talk to you about
0:38.9	bird flu. The day has come. Tell me this crazy stuff you're hearing about bird flu. Yes, I will. I will.
0:44.1	And actually, Wendy, I will say it's been years that we've been talking about bird flu, not,
0:47.7	not mere months. It's true. It's true. I mean, when I think about it, the alarm bells about
0:52.9	bird flu, just in general,
0:55.1	becoming a global pandemic, I feel like they've been going on and off and on again for like
1:03.9	20 years. I mean, to be honest, it is feeling a little boy who cried wolf at this point.
1:09.7	I mean, has something changed?
1:11.7	Yeah, right.
1:12.6	Yeah, what's different?
1:13.4	What's different?
1:14.0	That is an extremely fair question.
	...

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