Despite the COVID-19 pandemic still affecting the world almost two years later, experts are now preparing for another pandemic to hit in 2022.
The Israel National Security Council has experienced a "massive" bird flu outbreak in the Galilee, causing scientists to say this could be another "mass disaster" for humans.
One of Israel's most prominent ornithologists, Yossi Leshem, told The Daily Beast in an interview that this virus is a major threat because of its ability to mutate.
“There could be a mutation that also infects people and turns into a mass disaster,” Leshem said.
Israeli authorities are worried about a potential global pandemic, after at least 5,400 wild cranes died because of the new H5N1 avian flu.
17% of the 30,000 Eurasian cranes traveling this winter at the Hula National Reserve, one of the world's premier bird sanctuaries, are dead. Scientists fear that number could increase with at least 10,000 cranes already suffering from the disease.
Tel Aviv University Professor of Zoology Noga Kronfeld Shor said in an interview with Reshet Bet Radio that the death of thousands of wild birds at the Hula National Reserve “is an extraordinary event with global ramifications."
Yoav Motro, a specialist in vertebrates and locusts at Israel’s Ministry of Agriculture, said that H5N1 is “like the opposite of COVID. Compared to COVID, the chances of [humans] catching this are very, very slight—but unlike COVID, the risks of dying from it if you do catch it are very high.”
No Israeli has been infected with H5N1 yet, but those exposed to wild birds are taking the antiviral Tamiflu.
Related
Related
Over half a billion migrating birds pass through the Galilee region every year, creating a real threat of spreading the virus to different parts of the world, experts say.
As for the bird flu virus deadliness, The World Health Organization confirmed more than half of the 863 cases it has tracked among people resulted in death.