Why Public Health Officials are Not Panicked About Bird Flu

A new strain of bird flu that transmits easily among wild birds has triggered an explosive spread into new corners of the globe. But the very changes that have allowed the virus to infect wild birds so efficiently likely made it harder to infect human cells. Their views underpin global health officials' assessments that the current outbreak of H5N1 poses low risk to people. The new strain, called H5N1 clade 2.3.4.4b, emerged in 2020 and has spread to many parts of Africa, Asia and Europe as well as North and South America. This subtype of H5N1 is not causing significant disease in people. So far, only about a half dozen cases have been reported to the World Health Organization in people who had close contact with infected birds, and most of those have been mild. Read more from Reuters here.