Hey everybody, there is a lot happening in the world right now, so I hope you're checking in on each other and taking good care of each other.

No matter what is dominating the headlines, we always want to pay attention on this podcast to the possibility of a viral

outbreak and what that means for public health and our overall well-being.

That is after all how this podcast got started in the first place. back in those early days when COVID was

first spreading and we had a lot more questions than answers. Well lately we have

been paying attention to a very different virus, one that is primarily affecting animals

around the world.

I'm talking about bird flu, which is caused by the H5N1 virus.

Livestock and multiple states have tested positive for bird flu in recent days.

Now, first US case of a person suspected of catching this version of bird flu from a cow has

been reported in Texas.

The FDA says it's gotten positive tests for remnants of bird flu in

pasteurized milk and grocery stores.

Now I want to be clear on something.

The federal agencies that are monitoring the situation say that this version of H5N1 does not appear to be a threat to humans at this moment.

There's only one confirmed case so far, and it's a person in Texas who had direct exposure to dairy

cattle. The person's symptoms are considered pretty mild. Basically it was conjunctivitis or

pink eye. And that person is only the second case to ever be reported in the

United States. But I still got a lot of questions such as how did this virus

that primarily affects birds after all it's called bird flu,

how did it start infecting cows and other animals, and could it spread more widely in humans?

If that happens, how would we protect ourselves? Just like we did during the COVID-19

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