Nobody responded to me 😢

Does that mean there is no real threat of a full blown pandemic?

#BirdFlu #h5n1

I'm not an expert in the sense of working in virology, but I'm following H5N1 pretty closely.

It's hard to give an answer to your question because no one knows for sure what H5N1 is going to do. At the moment, the vast majority of human cases are in people who work with cows or birds, and the risk to other people is believed to be low. However, if H5N1 mutates, it might achieve efficient human-to-human transmission, and then things could get very, very bad. We cannot predict if/when a deadly mutation will take place. It could happen tomorrow. It could happen next year. It could have happened a week ago. We simply don't know.

A further complication is that the Trump administration has prevented the CDC from sharing crucial research into such matters as transmission of H5N1 between humans and the cats who live with them. If/when things get really bad, we might not know right away if the CDC isn't allowed to report on it.

If you can view videos, you might want to check out the American Medical Association's videos on H5N1 developments. I don't know how good they are, because my data plan doesn't allow me to watch videos, but I'm assuming that a reputable organization like the AMA is providing good information. If you prefer to get updates from Mastodon, I recommend following @ducky and reading their updates. The most update is at https://mstdn.ca/@ducky/113967151307653409 (You'll find only the general update useful, not the one that is specific to British Columbia.) Although Ducky is in Canada, they follow the US news closely.

I'm deeply concerned about H5N1, and am afraid that we are sleepwalking into another pandemic. I'm trying to stay as prepared as possible, and encourage you to do the same. Good luck to you!

I concur with what @Lkdc said. I believe that H5N1 is not a serious threat to the vast, vast, vast majority of people right now. Even if you are a dairy worker in the USA, your risk of a serious illness is pretty low.

However, if H5N1 mutates to the form where it is easily transmissible between humans, then it could get nasty.

1/2

That isn't what the WHO thinks. They are already calling it a global threat.

I had visions last night about having to give up going to the beaches and paddleboarding due to this flu. I hope not.

Of course it's a *threat*, but it's not clear and present danger. (If I say "it's threatening to snow", it's not snowing right now.)

WHO absolutely needs to take this seriously and get other people to take it seriously! There are things we humans could be doing to reduce the threat *and* WHO needs to do a lot more than a random person. We just need to stay home and/or wear a mask, they need to work to get vaccines qualified/produced/distributed, etc.

Oh, also, bird flu is NOT new. People have been dying of bird flu for yeeeears. (A man in Cambodia died of bird flu yesterday, in fact. https://menafn.com/1109077136/Cambodia-Records-First-Death-From-H5N1-In-2025)

But those deaths are rare and almost always involve people in close contact with birds.

Don't handle wild birds (especially dead ones!) and don't smear yourself in idk bread crumbs, and the chances of you having a problem are less than 1000 out of 8 billion.

Oh! I forgot. I think bird flu is moving towards the clear and present danger region for housecats. There have been a handful of housecats who have died from H5N1 who did not have raw milk/pet food; they presumably ate infected birds.

Cats also seem to be highly susceptible.

Again, the number of cats that have gotten sick is really really small, so it's not THAT big a risk -- but I think the risk is higher for cats than for people.

I think we can all agree that the risk is low for most people at this moment, but that things could get much, much worse with little notice.

The big question is what we should do with that awareness. Remember March 2020? Stores quickly sold out of N95 masks, hand sanitizer, and other supplies, and it took months for them to be restocked. That could happen again. So, I recommend stockpiling essential supplies, including MERV-13 filters for making Corsi-Rosenthal boxes. Some people are talking about medical goggles being useful against H5N1, and perhaps we should buy those, too, although I find the information on goggles very confusing.

Another thing I recommend is being proactive in taking care of any routine medical needs, in case H5N1 (or anything else) causes a shutdown. Now is the time to get caught up on colonoscopies, routine vaccinations, dental care, etc.

Are there other preparations we should be making?

Taking care of medical needs, getting supplies for mitigation measures, those are both good. I suppose if you are really dedicated, you might want to get some powdered eggs and UHF milk. Maaaaybe toilet paper, just because everyone else will panic. (I think the supply chain issue with toilet paper is a solved problem, so I don't expect it to be a problem unless everybody panics.)

What did you personally have trouble getting last time? Get that.

LOL one of the biggest disruptions was in automobiles: because of supply chain issues, car companies couldn't get the chips they needed, so new cars were expensive, so used cars were expensive.

So maybe you should stock up on used cars.

Honestly, I think there are going to be bigger disruptions from trade wars between the USA and everybody else.

Oh! One thing you could do is find yourself a good elastomeric mask, like the FloMask. Those are going to be more available now than if we have another pandemic..

Getting a FloMask is an excellent idea. I'll try to do that soon.

I keep hearing that with H5N1, infection via the eyes is a concern. There are various recommendations for medical goggles. I'm unsure whether goggles need to be airtight (to keep out aerosols) or whether it would be sufficient to wear wraparound sunglasses (which would presumably be enough to keep out droplets). I would be interested in any research on this subject.

I don't think I've ever seen any research on goggles, but I'll keep my eyes open.

Readimask makes a version of their stick-on mask with a built-in face shield that they say is good enough to even walk through tear gas. I got three. For just in case.

If I ever have to worry about eye penetration for the longer term (like, more than three days), my go-to will be my swim goggles: small, light, and airtight.

Swim goggles sound like a great option, as long as you can see well through them.

I've seen several people recommend Stoggles https://stoggles.com/ for medical eye protection. They don't look airtight, so I'm assuming that they're for protection against big droplets and splashing fluids. My wraparound sunglasses provide similar protection, so I'm hoping that the sunglasses are good enough.