Bird flu has been circling the globe for decades. So the discovery in 2024 that the deadly pathogen had jumped from a wild bird to a cow came as a shock to virus watchers. Now, in just over a year, the virus has ripped through America’s dairy herds and poultry flocks. It has jumped to other mammals – including humans. Seventy Americans have caught the virus, one has died. Long feared as a possible pandemic, doctors and veterinarians fighting the virus told us Biden’s government was slow to act; while the Trump administration has now laid off more than a hundred key scientists – all as the virus keeps spreading.
Dr. Kay Russo: At present, we’re given a stick, and they put a blindfold on us, and we’re sent into a gunfight and we’re losing. We are losing.
Veterinarian Dr. Kay Russo told us we are running out of time to stop bird flu. She was called in when the virus H5N1 hit this dairy herd in Colorado last summer. It cost the farm about $400,000 to treat its sick cattle – most recovered. But as an added precaution, we suited up to ensure we didn’t bring anything onto the farm ourselves.
Read the rest of the story at CBS News.