How to Fight Bird Flu If It Becomes the Next Human Pandemic (Part 3)

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 27 June 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Creating a bird flu vaccine requires several layers of bioprotective clothing and typically a whole lot of eggs. H5N1 avian influenza infections have gone from flocks of chickens to herds of cattle and humans. Scientists at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute are taking their best guess at the strains of the virus that could spread and are creating critical vaccine candidates. Multimedia journalist and Scientific American multimedia intern Naeem Amarsy suited up and went to San Antonio, Tex., to visit a “biosafety level three” (BSL-3) lab at the institute. This is the third and final episode of our series about bird flu. You can listen to episode one: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/how-h5n1-went-from-an-illness-in-wild-birds-to-a-global-pandemic-threat/ And episode two: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/how-bird-flu-went-from-devastating-poultry-farms-to-infecting-dairy-herds/ And read more of our health coverage: https://www.scientificamerican.com/health/ E-mail us at sciencequickly@sciam.com if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American and sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter. Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted and reported by Naeem Amarsy. This series was reported and produced by Lauren Young, Meghan Bartels, Fonda Mwangi and Jeff DelViscio. Special thanks to Laura Petersen and Catie Corcoran at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute, Jane Deng and Elizabeth Dowling at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and Kimberly Lau, Dean Visser and Jeanna Bryner at Scientific American. Our show is edited by Alex Sugiura with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:27.8	slash UK slash AI for people.
0:33.8	For Scientific American Science Quickly, I'm Rachel Seltman.
0:58.6	This is the final episode of our three-part series on bird flu.
1:04.0	On Wednesday, we met scientists who are getting their hands dirty with dairy cows and poultry to better understand how H5N1 bird flu is spreading.
1:07.9	Today we'll take a look at efforts to create vaccines for H5N1, and learn why eggs are
1:13.2	so critical to the vaccine-making process. Our host today is Naima Marcy, a multimedia journalist
1:19.5	based in New York City. Here's Naim now. It's barely 10 a.m. in San Antonio, Texas, and it's nearly 90 degrees in the middle of May.
1:32.9	While the rest of the city steps out in sandals and shorts, I'm watching a team of scientists
1:37.7	at Texas Biomedical Research Institute.
1:40.7	They're rummaging through metallic shelves to find the extra layers of protective gear they need to start their day.
1:46.4	Scrubs, gowns, gloves, shoe covers, hairnets, and long white coveralls.
1:54.0	So we need to change all our clothes and that's what we have these cabinets there.
2:03.6	That's virologist Luis Martinez Sobrido. He observes with a keen eye as two members of his lab
2:06.6	dressed up for the next shift.
	...

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