Only About 60 People Have Been Tested For Bird Flu In Current US Outbreak

The New York Times (7/17, Mandavilli) reports “the bird flu outbreak plaguing the nation’s dairy farms is spreading virtually unobserved.” As of Monday, bird flu “had infected 157 herds in 13 states.” Although “officials have tested thousands of cows and are monitoring hundreds of farmworkers, only about 60 people have been tested for bird flu.” According to the Times, “officials do not have the authority to compel workers to get tested, and there is no way for workers to test themselves.” Failures during the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2022 mpox outbreak “prompted federal agencies to move toward policies that would allow rapid scaling of testing during an outbreak.” However, “progress has been sluggish, interviews with more than a dozen academic and government experts suggest.”