“Dr. Leana Wen says for bird flu, “we should have learned our lesson from COVID” in testing”

By Patrick Maguire

“Dr. Leana Wen said Sunday that the lack of testing for bird flu doesn’t mean that the virus isn’t alive in humans, and that she feels the federal government “should have learned our lesson from COVID” and should be proactive in making tests available for Americans — and not wait for labs to characterize the cases and their severity.”
“”We should be having rapid tests, home tests, available to all farm workers, to their families, for the clinicians taking care of them, so that we aren’t waiting for public labs and CDC labs to tell us what’s bird flu or not,” she added.”

to read the full article go to
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/leana-wen-bird-flu-testing-h5n1-virus-face-the-nation/

“Bird Flu Samples From Very Ill Patient Had ‘Concerning’ Mutations”
By Benjamin Mueller

“After someone in southwest Louisiana was hospitalized with a severe case of bird flu, the first such illness reported in the United States, health workers swabbed the person’s nose and throat, looking for genetic clues about the virus.
On Thursday, federal health officials reported some unsettling results. Some of the genetic samples contained mutations that in theory might help the bird flu virus, H5N1, infect people more easily.”

to read the full article go to
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/27/health/bird-flu-mutations-louisiana.html

“How America lost control of the bird flu and raised the risk of another pandemic”
By Amy Maxmen

“To understand how the bird flu got out of hand, KFF Health News interviewed nearly 70 government officials, farmers and farmworkers, and researchers with expertise in virology, pandemics, veterinary medicine, and more.
Together with emails obtained from local health departments through public records requests, this investigation revealed key problems, including deference to the farm industry, eroded public health budgets, neglect for the safety of agriculture workers, and the sluggish pace of federal interventions.”
““We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “I don’t know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.””
to read the full article go to
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/how-america-lost-control-of-the-bird-flu-and-raised-the-risk-of-another-pandemic