First U.S. Bird Flu Death Raises Concerns About Preparedness

Science Friday

Science Friday and WNYC Studios

Life Sciences, Wnyc, Science, Earth Sciences, Natural Sciences, Friday

4.5 • 5.5K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2025

⏱️ 20 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, the U.S. reported its first human death from bird flu amid a rise in cases globally.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Listener supported WNYC Studios.
0:11.2	This is Science Friday.
0:13.5	I'm Ira Flato.
0:14.7	And I'm Flora Lichten.
0:16.4	Today in the podcast, should we be preparing for a bird flu pandemic?
0:20.8	What I have been trying to focus on is to get us to where we're not at March 2020 situation.
0:27.0	You know what I'm saying?
0:28.0	Thank you.
0:28.7	Yes.
0:29.1	Yeah, I have young kids.
0:30.5	I don't want to be in a lockdown again.
0:32.1	Like, nobody does.
0:34.9	This month, the U.S. reported its first death from bird flu, a patient in Louisiana.
0:40.8	Back in November, a teenager in Canada was hospitalized and in intensive care with the virus.
0:46.6	And last year, more than 60 people were diagnosed with the virus in the U.S., according to the CDC.
0:51.8	That's up from just one case in 2022. Now, just to add a little context,
0:57.1	H5N1 avian influenza has been circulating globally in birds and even some mammals for many years.
1:03.9	But alarm bells went off when the virus turned up in dairy cattle last year. And since then,
1:09.1	over 900 herds have been affected, according to the CDC.
1:12.6	So I'm sure many of us are having COVID flashbacks. I know I am. But is that the right way to
1:19.6	think about this? How alarmed should we be? What steps should we be taking? Here to tell us more,
1:26.1	our two influenza experts who have been following
	...

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