It's the Brian Laire Show on WNC.

Good morning again everyone.

We'll talk now about bird flu, very few human cases,

but could it become a serious epidemic?

And we'll talk about COVID with the biggest summer spike in years taking place right now.

Since March, bird flu has been causing outbreaks in dairy and poultry farms across the country

with several recent human cases in farm workers.

There have been 13 human cases of bird flu documented in the US this year.

All were from exposure to sick dairy cows or virus infected poultry.

The CDC says the current public health risk is low,

but some health officials are beginning to think

about what another pandemic could look like. Joining us and what to do about bird flu also known as H5N1 and also what to know and what to do about the latest COVID wave is Amy Maxman a PhD PhD and Public Health Correspondent and Editor at KFF Health News.

Hi Amy, welcome to WNYC.

Hi Brian, it's a pleasure to be here.

And listeners, we can open up the phones right away. How concerned are you about

bird flu or about COVID or the upcoming flu season this fall for that matter or if you have any

questions for our guests to one two four three WNY c two one two four three three

nine six nine two call or text

so what more can you tell us about how widespread bird flu is and why some

scientists are wondering if it could become much more widespread than people in

direct contact with exposure to indirect, sorry, with direct

exposure to sick dairy cows or virus infected poultry.

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