Experts Tracking Changes That Could Make Bird Flu Virus Airborne

The New York Times (2/3, Zimmer) reports, “It took more than two years for the World Health Organization to officially acknowledge that Covid spread through the air.” Now, “scientists are paying more attention to how other diseases may also spread through the air,” and “at the top of their list is the bird flu.” If “bird flu gains the ability to spread from person to person, it could produce the next pandemic.” So, a number of “flu experts are anxiously tracking changes that could make the virus airborne, drifting in tiny droplets through hospitals, restaurants and other shared spaces, where its next victims could inhale it.” According to the Times, “some influenza experts are concerned that H5N1 is gaining some of the mutations required to go airborne.”