Recent Developments Indicate Possibility Of Bird Flu Pandemic Impacting Humans Is No Longer Remote, Experts Say

The New York Times (1/27, Mandavilli) reports bird flu “has infected more than 900 herds and dozens of people, killing one, and the outbreak shows no signs of abating.” According to over a dozen experts, “a human pandemic is not inevitable, even now.” However, “a series of developments over the past few weeks indicates that the possibility is no longer remote.” According to the experts, “toothless guidelines, inadequate testing and long delays in releasing data...have squandered opportunities for containing the outbreak.” Reinfections suggest that the virus “could circulate on farms indefinitely, finding opportunities to evolve into a more dangerous form – a ‘high-risk’ scenario, said Louise Moncla, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Pennsylvania.”