{"id":6917,"date":"2024-06-26T08:47:15","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T13:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=6917"},"modified":"2024-06-26T08:47:18","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T13:47:18","slug":"heres-why-covid-measures-like-masking-and-new-ones-like-safety-goggles-could-return-if-a-bird-flu-pandemic-is-declared","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2024\/06\/26\/heres-why-covid-measures-like-masking-and-new-ones-like-safety-goggles-could-return-if-a-bird-flu-pandemic-is-declared\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s Why COVID Measures Like Masking And New Ones Like Safety Goggles Could Return If A Bird Flu Pandemic Is Declared"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/ariannajohnson\/2024\/06\/24\/heres-why-covid-measures-like-masking-and-new-ones-like-safety-goggles-could-return-if-a-bird-flu-pandemic-is-declared\/\">Forbes<\/a> An ongoing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/ariannajohnson\/2024\/06\/12\/bird-flu-h5n1-explained-bird-flu-h5n1-explained-toddler-infected-with-another-strain-second-human-case-in-india\/\">bird flu<\/a>\u00a0outbreak among U.S. dairy cows has led to three confirmed human cases in dairy workers, and although there aren\u2019t any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission, experts warn safety measures like masks, vaccines and safety goggles will be needed if a pandemic is declared due to the virus\u2019s deadly nature. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Forbes it\u2019s monitoring human and animal exposure to H5N1 bird flu and watching the situation carefully, though \u201cthe current public health risk is low.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Although rare, bird flu typically affects humans who\u2019ve&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/flu\/avianflu\/h5n1-human-infections.htm\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">come in contact<\/a>&nbsp;with infected birds, and there aren\u2019t any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The virus may spread from animals to humans through airborne transmission and through contact with infected surfaces, Dr. Jessica Justman, an infectious disease specialist and epidemiologist at Columbia University, told Forbes, though the exact transmission process isn\u2019t fully understood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Former CDC director Robert Redfield\u2014who helped oversee the agency during the COVID-19 pandemic\u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=QGsM9IgVAJo\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told<\/a>&nbsp;NewsNation earlier this month a bird flu pandemic is inevitable, so \u201cit\u2019s not a question of if, it\u2019s a question of when.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Redfield brought up bird flu\u2019s high death rate as a cause for concern if a pandemic were to be declared: Of the 889 confirmed human cases between 2003 and May, 52% resulted in death, according to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.who.int\/media\/docs\/default-source\/wpro---documents\/emergency\/surveillance\/avian-influenza\/ai_20240621.pdf?sfvrsn=78c8c282_5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">data<\/a>\u00a0from the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/ariannajohnson\/2024\/06\/24\/heres-why-covid-measures-like-masking-and-new-ones-like-safety-goggles-could-return-if-a-bird-flu-pandemic-is-declared\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forbes An ongoing\u00a0bird flu\u00a0outbreak among U.S. dairy cows has led to three confirmed human cases in dairy workers, and although there aren\u2019t any confirmed cases of human-to-human transmission, experts warn safety measures like masks, vaccines and safety goggles will be needed if a pandemic is declared due to the virus\u2019s deadly nature. The Centers for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured-headlines"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6917"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6918,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6917\/revisions\/6918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}