Why? On the list of things to worry about, it would seem to me that there are things far more likely to kill you than a disease that a sum total of 3 people have contracted, all with mild symptoms.
Because it’s a disease of unknown severity, and possibly highly contagious.
You need to start worrying about it when 3 people have caught it, because if you wait until a “significant “ number of people have caught it, it’s too late to stop another pandemic.
If COVID taught us anything (spoiler: it didn't) you need to start worrying about it even before people catch it. Have a pandemic playbook and follow it, for one.
It's like 2020 is on replay, with the exact same downplaying, nearly word for word.
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.
> 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.
> So far, there is only one confirmed human case. Rick Bright, an expert on the H5N1 virus who served on President Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, told me this is the crucial moment. “There’s a fine line between one person and 10 people with H5N1,” he said. “By the time we’ve detected 10, it’s probably too late” to contain.
I took it to mean they're not worried about themselves catching it, but more about the implications if this disease were to spread more. How bad could it be if it started infecting more than just the eyes? How fast could it spread between people before we have a vaccine ready?
