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by NoNotTheDuo 750 days ago
Likely because it’s very deadly, spreads rapidly, and now that the virus has transferred from birds -> cows -> humans, it could start to mutate into something that spreads human to human.

> Human infections with HPAI A(H5N1) virus have been reported in 23 countries since 1997, resulting in severe pneumonia and death in about 50% of cases.

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/influenza-a-virus-subtypes....

1 comments

> it could start to mutate into something that spreads human to human.

The number of things that could mutate into a human pandemic is quite large. I'm still not worried. The current hype is over dairy farm workers being exposed to it, but as someone who used to work in a large poultry operation (100K birds at a time), I can assure you that the viral load (and thus mutation possibilities) of bird flu is far higher in an infected poultry operation than any dairy farmer will ever experience.

Just like taking medical advice from a janitor because they work in a hospital, eh?