CDC’s top flu scientist says the risk to the public from H5N1 is low, but she isn’t sleeping well. Here’s why

STAT May 3, 2024
Helen Branswell

Vivien Dugan isn’t getting much sleep these days.

The director of the influenza division at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dugan is leading the team of CDC scientists that is working with partners — in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, and state and local health departments — to respond to the H5N1 bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle.

The response has been pedal to the metal since the USDA announced on March 25 that a strange illness that had been affecting milk production in some herds since early this year was caused by bird flu. Since then, 36 herds in nine states have tested positive for the virus.

Assessing the risk from the...

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