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In 2024, Robert Redfield, a former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), warned that it is “not a question of if, it’s more a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic.” Now, doctors, veterinarians and scientists are worried that it may be coming soon.
Veterinarian Dr. Kay Russo told 60 Minutes on Sunday, “At present, we’re given a stick, and they put a blindfold on us, and we’re sent into a gunfight and we’re losing. We are losing.”
Dr. Russo explains that cattle becoming sick in multiple states, combined with birds on farms dying, cats demonstrating neurologic symptoms, and farm workers complaining of flu-like symptoms sent alarm bells ringing.
“If you look at cases worldwide of H5 influenza, the mortality rate’s fifty per cent,” she said. “And so we’re all kind of you know, talking to each other. What does this mean? And that was a scary space to be in.”
She says there aren’t enough government workers collecting information about how bird flu is spreading. There is the thought that the virus is lingering on the auto-milkers, being spread from cow to cow, and in some cases to the workers doing the milking.
“I think it’s a numbers game, and the more we let it move unchecked, the more likely we’re gonna have even a bigger mess on our hands,” she said.
Dr. Kamran Khan is an infectious disease physician in Toronto and his company, BlueDot, was among the first to flag the virus in China that became the COVID pandemic. He thinks bird flu is becoming just as problematic.
“What’s happening here is wild birds have infected cows, who have then infected other cows, who have then infected humans,” he told 60 Minutes. “And so there’s this complex web of all of these different animal species now passing the virus in different directions. … The world has never seen this kind of situation and it’s showing us that the virus is capable of adaption. If you allow it, it will just get better and better at infecting other mammals, including potentially humans.”
Virologist Dr. Angela Rasmussen told 60 Minutes, “Many of the people who were working on this, at least at CDC, have been fired from the federal government. So the influenza division at CDC has been decimated, and in fact, there is a communications ban that has been put on these federal workers. … I think it’s insane, actually, that I have to have conversations on encrypted messaging apps with my colleagues, who I would normally just send emails to.”
“We are really at risk of this virus evolving into one that has pandemic potential,” Dr. Khan warned. “And the reality is none of us know whether this is next week, or next year, or never. I don’t think it’s never. But it may be here far sooner than any of us would like.”