#CDC #BIRDFLU #H5N1
Shaw, Bill ‘CDC Video Downplays Danger of H5N1 Bird Flu’ WSWS, 11 Nov 2024"The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a video the day after the presidential election in which CDC epidemiologist Dr. Denisse Vega Ocasio informs her audience about the symptoms of H5N1 avian influenza."

"The brief statement, no more than a public service announcement, described symptoms identical to those of seasonal influenza and raised no alarm about the public health threat if direct human-to-human transmission of H5N1 should take place."

"Tweets from health care providers and scientific observers have attacked the video as a deliberate effort to mislead the public and downplay the dangers."

"Sara Ann Willette, a frequent commentator on CDC policies, noted: 'This PSA is because either H5 is already spreading  or the CDC expects it will.'" ...

"M. Elisabeth, a pediatric intensive care unit and emergency department nurse at Boston Children’s and who has been active in reporting on the COVID pandemic, posted on X: 'I think it’s legitimate to ask the @CDCFlu @CDCDirector why this was posted without any context and to ask whether there has been human to human transmission. The general public shouldn’t need to get this message if transmission has been restricted to farm workers.'"

"Surely they would not have released such a video if they believed the likelihood of additional human H5N1 cases was low. The implication is clearly that they have resigned themselves to the inevitability of human H5N1 transmission, a situation made much more likely by their lack of action." ...
#CDC #BIRDFLU #H5N1