Experts raised concerns over the potential rapid spread of the bird flu pandemic, which may lead to an exceptionally high fatality rate and can be “100 times worse than the Covid pandemic”, reported the Daily Mail, a UK-based tabloid.
During the briefing, Dr Suresh Kuchipudi, a prominent bird flu researcher in Pittsburgh, warned that H5N1 flu can cause a pandemic as it can infect a wide range of mammals, including humans. “We are getting dangerously close to this virus potentially causing a pandemic,” he said.
Last month, as per a statement by Federation University Australia, a scientific expedition discovered at least 532 dead penguins, with thousands more believed to have perished due to bird flu.
Another expert, a pharmaceutical company consultant,, John Fulton, emphasized that the potential H5N1 pandemic could be extremely severe, making it far deadlier than the Covid-19 pandemic.
World Health Organization (WHO) data shows that 52 out of every 100 patients infected with the H5N1 virus have died since 2003, making its fatality rate over 50 percent. Meanwhile, the current Covid fatality rate is 0.1 percent, dropping down from 20 percent at the start of the pandemic.
Out of the 887 reported cases of the bird flu virus, 462 deaths were recorded, according to WHO data.
The Daily Mail report came soon after avian flu outbreaks were reported in a poultry facility in Michigan and an egg producer in Texas. Reports have also surfaced of dairy cows contracting bird flu and the first documented case of a human getting the virus from a mammal.
