Though the bird flu has spread across multiple states in cattle and other birds, infections in mammals remain low, according to the CDC.

With reports of the first human death from bird flu in the US, some Americans are feeling an uncomfortable flashback to the early days of Covid-19, when infectious disease experts were talking about a new virus that was sending people to the hospital with respiratory infections.

The experiment of whether H5 can ever be successful in human populations is happening before our eyes,” Seema Lakdawala, a flu virologist at Emory University, told me. “And we are doing nothing to stop it.

Medical experts advise that people should get a vaccine for the bird flu when it becomes commercially available. One doctor said the most at-risk patients should be first.

The bird flu virus circulating among cows, poultry and wild birds isn't yet a threat to the general public, but experts say if and when that will change is impossible to predict — and that if things do get bad,

With more than 130 million birds and nearly 1,000 dairy herds affected by bird flu, you may be wondering if eating poultry, dairy and eggs is safe.