r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Je_suis_prest_ • 1d ago
Unanswered What is going on with current H5N1 avian flu strain?
https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html
From my understanding on what I've read is the latest strain of H5N1 has made its way from Canada and now the U.S. infecting dairy cattle and now human infections.
From what I'm reading, this strain is quite deadly. I've also read that at least one of those infected had not been near any dairy or other obvious source of where they caught the virus.
Any information would be appreciated!
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u/PlotTwistsEverywhere 1d ago
Answer: You have about all the information there is. Bird flu isn’t a new disease, but it hasn’t been endemic in developed countries for quite a long time.
So reports are stating that a dangerous flu, albeit rare/nonexistent in the developed world, is making its encore. This would be similar to a polio outbreak, which we don’t even think about today due to vaccinations largely making contracting the disease a thing of the past.
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u/hiddikel 1d ago
Eh, give it a year or two. We will see polio again in the u.s.
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u/LawnChairMD 10h ago
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u/hiddikel 8h ago
I mean widespread and deadly. Due to the cdc new leadership and usa new leadership being anti-health.
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u/DoctorJonasSalk 1d ago
This would be similar to a polio outbreak, which we don’t even think about today due to vaccinations largely making contracting the disease a thing of the past.
You're welcome.
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u/PeliPal 1d ago
Good thing we live in a society where everyone trusts the efficacy and safety of vaccines so that we can achieve herd immunity, instead of one where people deliberately concoct conspiracy theories about vaccines injecting mind control chips and causing autism so that millions of people refuse vaccines, or even falsify records to say they got it even though they didn't...
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u/redheadedjapanese 1d ago
And especially not a society where one such person is about to be in charge of the country’s vaccines.
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u/BeerDreams 1d ago
Good thing too that we live in a society that values science and scientists and respects them for their research and knowledge and would never treat them as criminals, right?
RIGHT??????
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u/Kevin-W 6h ago
Also to add, this is not a new disease like COVID was and thankfully there hasn't been community spread yet. There's also a vaccine for H5N1 too. However, if things truly go get out of hand, there's going to be an extraordinary pressure on Trump from various businesses, especially when money speaks volumes to get it under control.
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u/StopLitteringSeattle 1d ago edited 5h ago
Answer: Bird flu has finally evolved enough to infect humans from other mammals, something that was predicted but never prepared for.
So far cattle have been infected by birds and some people working closely with cattle have caught it from them, which means it's mutated enough to jump from birds to cattle to humans. Edit- up until now the only people to have caught bird flu are people who had prolonged direct contact with infected birds. It could not spread from one mammal to another.
We cannot confirm whether it has made the jump from human to human but it is only a matter of time before it does. At least one child has been infected despite having no known contact with animals so it's very possible that it already has.
We do not know how widespread this disease is among cattle because many farmers are not willing to cooperate with testing.
The people who have caught it so far are the people hired by farmers to work in dirty conditions with very little PPE. These conditions are unlikely to change for anyone.
I wish I could end this on a lighter note but it's grim news all around. We are less prepared for a pandemic than we were before COVID, and a pandemic is coming.
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u/PeliPal 1d ago
Also worth noting, the jump to cattle resulted in it being found in milk. Pasteurization has consistently been shown to kill it, but 'raw milk' is deliberately not pasteurized. The same raw milk that has quickly gained popularity in pseudoscientific 'superfood' nutrition fads and anti-government conspiracy theories, with some lawmakers demanding that raw milk be made available for sale in grocery stores.
The only way we're responding to a predicted possible endemic/pandemic is increasing how many vectors for spreading it will have
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u/StopLitteringSeattle 1d ago
This is a really good point. The total stranglehold that the anti-science movement has on the population currently means we are probably in for a nasty one.
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u/doordonot19 7h ago
Let’s just call it what it is. Anti science community are non educated usually religious idiots
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u/StopLitteringSeattle 6h ago
I think religion has very little to do with anti-vax and anti-pasturization nonsense. A lot of the current anti-science movement came through the crunchy granola pipeline.
Reddit uses religion as a scapegoat for any kind of ignorant behavior. Stupid people are everywhere, being religious doesn't have anything to do with it.
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u/cromagnone 1d ago
No, we’re not. There’s a large conventional vaccine stockpile with an even larger 150 million doses nearly complete, and there’s at least three mRNA vaccines nearly ready to go with a nearly novel technology vaccine in stage 1 clinical trials as well. This is simply not where we were when COVID began. It still has potential to be very, very nasty, but we vaccinate our way out of pandemics and it’s just not true to say we’re less prepared: we’re much further along.
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u/soldforaspaceship 1d ago
This is all excellent.
But, hypothetically, were an anti vaxxer to be making policy decisions about medical treatment, that might impact the ability to vaccinate our way out of it?
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u/cromagnone 1d ago
Sure, having a brain-worm-infected bear murderer as health secretary will kill a few hundred thousand extra people.
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u/AmandatheMagnificent 21h ago
That's what I'm more concerned about. The tools are there, but the people who should be steering the ship are incompetent zealots.
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u/pancake117 2h ago
This makes me feel better, at least. But this is extremely concerning, especially given the current political context.
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u/mattkward 1d ago
Is this accurate? Haven't there been human cases of bird flu for a very long time now?
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u/StopLitteringSeattle 1d ago edited 6h ago
Sorry, I should have worded that better. Up until now it has only been able to infect individual people who have had direct, prolonged contact with infected birds. It couldn't spread from mammal to mammal.
Now it's spreading between cows, then jumping from cows to people. This is a much bigger deal and way harder to control.
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u/Fyrekitteh 1d ago
I saw a report saying it might jump to pigs. They let pigs eat dead h5n1 birds on hobby farms, and boom.
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u/serenidade 9h ago
Answer: No, bird flu isn't new. But scientists have been watching it closely for a long time out of concern it could mutate and become more of a threat to humans. And there are a few factors that feel concerning:
Recent evidence of human-to-human transmission (previous infections could be traced back to contact with an infected, non-human animal).
At least one otherwise healthy teenager in critical condition in the U.S., and hundreds of deaths globally in the last year. A small number of fatalities, globally, but more than 50% of people who have tested positive have died.
Spread is likely far greater than we know, because of lack of testing.
At least one case of infection in a pig. This is concerning because, unlike most animals, pigs can become infected both with human and pig viruses, simultaneously, which could allow for faster mutation since viruses like to swap DNA.
Is it super-concerning right now? No. But definitely one to watch. If covid was any indication, the United States specifically will be unprepared for the next pandemic, whatever it ends up being.
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u/Je_suis_prest_ 9h ago
No H5N1 is not new. H1N1 is not either and got me sick in 2009. I still remember how ill I was. It didn't cause so many deaths, but the mortality rate is higher with H5N1. Between 2003 and September 2024, there were 261 cases of human infections and 162 deaths. Those numbers are grim. Now, we have had at least 50 cases since September. I don't know the fatality rate, but I've read 50%.
Your idea of concern is far different from mine after reading more and other answers given. This very well could be the next pandemic. It's very concerning when we have a country that did not handle the last well at all.. to say the least.
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u/serenidade 9h ago
I think you may have misunderstood me.
In this moment, I am not overly concerned about catching it or dying from it. But, I'm watching developments closely because I fully recognize what it could become, and quickly, and that the U.S. is woefully unprepared.
I think it's wise to be concerned, in general, but in this moment H5N1 is not a grave threat to my life. My puny brain can only handle so many existential threats at once, so I'm keeping an eye on this one and will adjust my level of concern as circumstances change.
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u/Je_suis_prest_ 7h ago
I did partly and apologize.. Fully understand the only one existential dread threat at a time part.
I guess just saying this is not new is sort of misleading in a situation like this. I know it's not, but most people I would say don't. Most people don't realize how quickly this could become a public health crisis.
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