Forbes There’s a saying that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Will that be the case with the H5N1 avian influenza virus that’s been spreading among birds for years, jumped to dairy cattle earlier this year and appeared in a pig a month ago? Is hindsight not 2020? Are we seeing the same mistakes made with the H5N1 bird flu that we did during the COVID-19 pandemic? Or is this H5N1 virus situation right now different enough from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 pandemic that we don’t have to worry about the “p” word this time? Well, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently lists the public health risk of bird flu as low. But there’s no guarantee that it will stay that way forever. Here’s what we know at the moment about H5N1:
The H5N1 Bird Flu Has Been A Problem Among Birds for Years
It’s been called the bird flu because it is a type of influenza virus first noticed as spreading among birds. While I’ve been covering its progression through different bird populations around the world since 2021, the H5N1 virus has been around for much longer than that.