Deborah Birx, a doctor who served as former President Trump’s coronavirus response coordinator, warned that the United States is making the “same mistakes” with bird flu as it did with COVID-19.
“That’s why I’m really worried, because today we’re making the same mistakes we made with COVID. “, Birx said CNN’s Karen Hunt on Tuesday.
Birx served as coronavirus response coordinator in the Trump administration and has since sounded the alarm about how the U.S. is not doing enough to prevent another pandemic.
A third human case of bird flu was identified in Michigan last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Like other previous cases identified since March, the person is a dairy farm worker who had exposure to infected cows.
The CDC said the current public health risk from avian flu is low, but it will continue to monitor the situation.
Birx said all cows should be tested weekly for bird flu, adding that there are likely some undetected cases in humans.
“We have the technology. The great thing about the United States is that we are incredibly innovative and we have the ability to make these breakthroughs,” she said.
“We could be testing every dairy worker. I believe there are undetected cases in humans, because once again we are only tracking people with symptoms. When we did that with COVID, the virus spread across the Northeast undetected, because it took a long time to reach vulnerable individuals,” he added.
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