The United States has been dealing with its worst-ever bird flu outbreak in humans for almost eight months now. You wouldn’t know it from talking to members of Congress.
“Is there a big one?” Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan asked NOTUS. “I didn’t know anything about that.”
The CDC said last week that it had confirmed 55 human infections of bird flu since April across seven states, and more than half of the infections have been in California. Two cases in California and Missouri have unknown sources, while the other 53 were from exposure to animals. So far, confirmed cases in the U.S. have been mild, and the virus has not evolved to transmit between people, with the CDC saying the virus remains a “low” risk to public health.