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,

Five years on from the start of the covid pandemic, are we ready for a potential avian influenza outbreak? This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter.

Any time a person catches H5N1, or bird flu, their infection is a chance for the virus to mutate in the wrong direction. When someone dies from the bird flu—as an elderly Louisiana man did on Jan. 6,

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 CDC says the risk of bird flu to the general public is low, but public health experts say they are worried the virus could mutate and become more transmissible.

Read more Bird flu has been spreading into Texas, and Texas Parks and Wildlife Division (TPWD) said it recently found cases in Travis, Wharton, Galveston, El Paso, Potter and Harris counties.