What to know about the new bird flu outbreak
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 29 April 2024
⏱️ 28 minutes
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Summary
For the first time, a virulent strain of bird flu has been detected in U.S. dairy cows. Fragments of the virus have also been found in commercial milk. Today, health reporter Lena Sun shares the latest on the outbreak and why the risk to humans remains low.
In recent years, H5N1 bird flu has become widespread among wild birds around the world and has spread to mammals like seals and squirrels. It can be fatal and has resulted in the deaths or cullings of tens of millions of chickens in the United States alone.
Then in March, another concerning development caught the attention of scientists around the world: H5N1 was found in a herd of dairy cows for the first time in the United States. The virus has since been identified in cows in at least nine states, and preliminary testing of the virus fragments in commercial milk indicate the outbreak may be more widespread than previously thought.
While the cases in cows appear to be mild so far, a dairy worker also became sick last month with mild symptoms, marking the second known U.S. case of this type of bird flu in a human.
Today, national health reporter Lena Sun joins “Post Reports” to share the latest on what is known and not known about the growing outbreak, and the precautions people can take to stay healthy.
Read more:
As bird flu spreads in cows, fractured U.S. response has echoes of early covid
Bird flu explained: How it spreads, milk and egg safety and more
How prepared the U.S. is for a bird flu pandemic
Today’s show was produced by Elana Gordon. It was edited by Lucy Perkins and mixed by Sean Carter. Thanks to Rachel Roubein and Tracy Jan.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today Rachel and I have been going back and forth getting our questions ready to send to FDA and I cannot believe that we are still asking the same questions after nearly a week hit send. |
| 0:28.4 | I sent an email to FDA with more questions. |
| 0:31.8 | It looks like I got a bounce pot, so I am just going to kind |
| 0:36.8 | of share all these questions really widely and let me know the status of that. |
| 0:47.0 | Oh, great. Lena's son and Rachel Rubine are health reporters for the post. |
| 0:52.0 | And for weeks, they've been sending questions to |
| 0:53.9 | agencies like the Food and Drug Administration because there is a new outbreak of |
| 0:59.6 | bird flu. We're trying to figure out what we know and what we don't know and try to answer the really, really |
| 1:07.0 | basic question in this novel outbreak. |
| 1:10.3 | A few weeks ago, a vet in Texas discovered the first ever case of bird flu in a cow. |
| 1:16.5 | And then, scientists identified the first human case from a cow. |
| 1:21.8 | So Lena and Rachel teamed up to investigate. They've been |
| 1:25.3 | regularly meeting in a pretty visible spot in the newsroom. And we're just |
| 1:30.0 | sitting in a kind of glass huddle office room that has a whiteboard. |
| 1:35.4 | Lena has kindly drawn this big diagram. |
| 1:39.8 | They've been taking notes on the new bird flu outbreak on a whiteboard that to me sort of looks like the board from the movie A Beautiful Mind except for the bird flu. |
| 1:50.0 | It's I looked at a picture of a cow like, oh, I need to put the black spots on. |
| 2:04.0 | Then Lena realized she used permanent marker. |
| 2:07.6 | Now you understand why I did not go into painting as a profession. |
| 2:11.3 | Meanwhile. profession. |
| 2:18.0 | Meanwhile, their colleagues like me have been poking their heads into this room, asking Lena and Rachel, |
| 2:21.0 | um, how worried should I be about the bird flu? Is it okay to drink milk? |
... |
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