{"id":8857,"date":"2025-03-04T19:14:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T01:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/?p=8857"},"modified":"2025-03-04T19:14:28","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T01:14:28","slug":"to-the-pandemic-czar-are-we-prepared-to-talk-about-bird-flu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/2025\/03\/04\/to-the-pandemic-czar-are-we-prepared-to-talk-about-bird-flu\/","title":{"rendered":"To the Pandemic Czar: Are We Prepared to Talk About Bird Flu?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"panel body-content\"><div class=\"panel__container\">\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.medpagetoday.com\/opinion\/second-opinions\/114445?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2025-03-02&amp;mh=07f73d99b2b546c079b0b5a2312d87b1&amp;zdee=gAAAAABm4uVVa0noffRIJqPd2rsKKgBm5ZURWXfuJljHxkA5SxaiDrFhpdNSLVuatrcndghIUJbdB8i3tZ00Sf5MYAfngC1RuyQP-n6FrYFzvROxn-4_blA%3D&amp;utm_source=Sailthru&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_campaign=Daily%20Headlines%20Evening%20-%20Randomized%202025-03-02&amp;utm_term=NL_Daily_DHE_dual-gmail-definition\">MedPage Today<\/a> Effective communication across all levels of government is as important as a vaccine. The threat of a widespread human outbreak of bird flu is on the horizon. And, with it, the potential for a pandemic. The next pandemic &#8212; whether from the H5N1 strain circulating since 2022 or something else &#8212; may not be preventable, but its worst impacts are avoidable. Minimizing harm depends not just on pharmaceutical innovations like rapid testing and vaccines, but also on having a public willing to deem these innovations as &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.medpagetoday.com\/opinion\/second-opinions\/113983\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">worth it.<\/a>&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rather than just passively\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/opinions\/2024\/11\/05\/bird-flu-human-cases-cdc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">watching and worrying<\/a>, we need to be ready now with trustworthy communication. H5N1 is already affecting Americans,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/shots-health-news\/2025\/02\/02\/nx-s1-5282389\/avian-bird-flu-eggs-prices-cull-usda-michigan-poultry-influenza-farmer-vaccination-h5n1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">from farm workers<\/a>\u00a0directly exposed to the virus to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/egg-shortage-expensive-prices-explainer-empty-shelves-stores-2027419\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">consumers facing higher prices<\/a>\u00a0at the grocery store. When Waffle House added a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/waffle-house-eggs-bird-flu-89025262684f051bdf8f7350dcf1613a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">50-cent-per-egg surcharge<\/a>, it brought the economic reality of bird flu home to millions. As the virus continues to mutate, governments and scientists are rightly racing\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/7203820\/h5n1-new-bird-flu-vaccine-update\/?utm_source=chatgpt.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">to develop vaccines<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!-- <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"\/secure-location.php\" title=\"  WIuoisBX\">  WIuoisBX<\/a> --><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MedPage Today Effective communication across all levels of government is as important as a vaccine. The threat of a widespread human outbreak of bird flu is on the horizon. And, with it, the potential for a pandemic. The next pandemic &#8212; whether from the H5N1 strain circulating since 2022 or something else &#8212; may not [&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":[37,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-avian-influenza","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\/8857","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=8857"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8858,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857\/revisions\/8858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/healthsecurity\/transmission\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}