The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert Redfield, has said that the next pandemic could be from bird flu.<\/p>\n
The World Health Organization recently announced the first human death from bird flu in Mexico, and the virus has been found in cattle across the US.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really do think it\u2019s very likely that we will, at some time, it\u2019s not a question of if, it\u2019s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic,\u201d Redfield told NewsNation on Friday.<\/p>\n
He added that the mortality rate is likely to be much higher from bird flu compared to Covid-19.<\/p>\n
While the mortality rate was 0.6 per cent for Covid-19, Redfield said the mortality for the bird flu would probably be \u201csomewhere between 25 and 50 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n
In late May, the CDC found the third case of a person diagnosed with bird flu since March, The Hill<\/em> reported. The three cases were found in farmworkers but were unrelated, with symptoms including a cough and pink eye.<\/p>\n There\u2019s nothing to suggest that the virus is spreading between humans.<\/p>\n Researchers have found that five amino acids have to change their key receptor in order for bird flu to have the disposition to connect to a human receptor. It would subsequently be able to spread between humans like Covid-19.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce the virus gains the ability to attach to the human receptor and then go human to human, that\u2019s when you\u2019re going to have the pandemic,\u201d Redfield told NewsNation.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s just a matter of time,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Robert Redfield, has said that the next pandemic could be from bird flu.<\/p>\n The World Health Organization recently announced the first human death from bird flu in Mexico, and the virus has been found in cattle across the US.<\/p>\n \u201cI really do think it\u2019s very likely that we will, at some time, it\u2019s not a question of if, it\u2019s more of a question of when we will have a bird flu pandemic,\u201d Redfield told NewsNation on Friday.<\/p>\n He added that the mortality rate is likely to be much higher from bird flu compared to Covid-19.<\/p>\n While the mortality rate was 0.6 per cent for Covid-19, Redfield said the mortality for the bird flu would probably be \u201csomewhere between 25 and 50 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n