💥 My 2024 Mile Marker: The inside scoop on how America lost control of the Bird Flu, opening the door for another pandemic.
"We're in a terrible situation" said @angierasmussen.bsky.social
🧵Here's how we got here & how to get out @kffhealthnews.bsky.social https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/bird-flu-spread-cattle-poultry-pandemic-cdc/
"We're in a terrible situation" said @angierasmussen.bsky.social
🧵Here's how we got here & how to get out @kffhealthnews.bsky.social https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/bird-flu-spread-cattle-poultry-pandemic-cdc/
Comments
Veterinarians told me what this looks like on farms:
"It was like watching a field hospital on an active battlefront treating 100s of soldiers"
"If 3 months from now we are at the start of a pandemic, it's nobody's surprise" said @marionkoopmans.bsky.social https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/bird-flu-spread-cattle-poultry-pandemic-cdc/
Plus, it matters how a person is infected & who they are. A patient in Louisiana w/H5N1 is in critical condition. https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/bird-flu-spread-cattle-poultry-pandemic-cdc/
But if it gains that ability we may miss the first cases -- and therefore our chance to snuff it out early before it's a pandemic. Surveillance has been really patchy, as this email shows. https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/bird-flu-spread-cattle-poultry-pandemic-cdc/
Even now, the outreach budget is tiny compared to $2.1b for H5N1 response on farms & $292m for H5N1 vaccines.
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/bird-flu-spread-cattle-poultry-pandemic-cdc/
As impt: Many farmers now recognize how damaging H5N1 is to them & that it's not just going away. https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/bird-flu-spread-cattle-poultry-pandemic-cdc/