BIRD FLU: Some authorities claim an outbreak will be 100 times worse than Covid. Should we be concerned?

By Christof Plothe DO, WCH Health & Science Lead

You’ve got a dangerous vaccine for a non-threatening disease … It’s supposedly for a life-threatening illness. Of course, conjunctivitis is not life-threatening! The whole purpose of the bird flu scare is to make you think that pandemics are always lurking, they’re coming for you all the time, and you need [the health bureaucracy] to save you. Dr Meryl Nass, Internist and Epidemiologist

Largest ever bird flu outbreak

The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that, since January 2022, the largest outbreak of avian influenza (bird flu) in recorded history has occurred worldwide (CDC, 2024). Referred to as H5N1, by 7 May 2024 what has been identified as a subtype of avian influenza had apparently been detected in over 9,000 wild birds and affected more than 90 million poultry in the United States alone. Bird flu outbreaks have affected regions such as Asia, Africa, Europe, the Pacific, and the Near East (CDC, 2024), wreaking havoc on the poultry industry, and impacting farmers' livelihoods and international trade.

In 2022, an independent journalist reported that former CDC Director, Robert Redfield, had predicted that bird flu would jump to humans and prove highly lethal, triggering a ‘Great Pandemic’, which would make Covid-19 seem like a mere warm-up (Westbrook 2022). In 2005, then-President George Bush spent over $7 billion on preparations for bird flu, warning that it could kill more than two million Americans (Bush, 2005). Despite this, naturally occurring avian influenza (H5N1) has never posed a threat to humans.

Humans at low risk from H5N1

The CDC maintains that H5N1 poses a low risk to humans and that there is currently no known mechanism for human-to-human transmission. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), bird flu has been responsible for only 463 deaths worldwide over the past 20 years, but they do not mention if the deceased died from bird flu or with it.