Just when you thought that everything was over with COVID-19 now you have a new thing to be concerned about: the Bird Flu. Apparently, there is a man in Eastern China who has been confirmed as the first human case of the H10N3 Bird Flu, as reported by China’s National Health Commission last Tuesday.
The 41-year-old was a resident of the area of Zhenjiang, and he had visited a local hospital on April 28th, according to the NBC report, a Reuters reporter said. “The risk of large-scale transmission is low,” the reporter noted.
“This infection is classified as an accidental cross-species contamination,” the NHC statement said, according to ABC News. “There have been no significant numbers of humans infected with the Bird Flu since the last stain killed about 300 people in 2016-2017,” the Reuters report noted. CBS news noted that “Following recent Avian flu outbreaks in Eurasia and Africa, the head of the Chinese Center For Disease Control and Prevention has just urged a strict surveillance policy regarding poultry farms, wild birds, and various other markets.”
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told Jeanine Pirro on Fox News on Saturday that he continued to be concerned about the U.S. government’s developing policy where they were still funding Chinese research that could eventually be used to fund biological weapons.
“I’m very worried about the fact that this stuff continues to be going on and I’m concerned about the fact that the U.S. government continues to fund it,” he said. “We seem to be creating Frankenstein super viruses that will potentially leak out of the lab, and if that is the case they could devastate the whole entire world. This SARS virus can be 15 times more deadly,” he continued. “If that one gets out and someone enhances the ability for it to be transmitted, it could lead to a condition that could easily kill 50 million, 100 million people. That is why this shouldn’t be a partisan issue. This is something that should be debated.”
Texas GOP member Rep. Mike McCaul is the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and after appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, he expressed his concern over the fact that COVID possibly emerged from a lab instead of developing within animals.
“You know, I do believe that it’s more likely than not that it came out of a lab,” he said. “I do feel like it was probably an accidental deal, not an intentional one. I believe this for several reasons,” McCaul told CNN host Jake Tapper. “But first of all, Jake, I probably should say that I think that this is the worst cover-up in the history of humanity that I have ever seen, resulting in 3.5 million deaths and creating economic devastation throughout the world,” he continued.
Indeed, the COVID-19 virus is something that has led to many different lawmakers holding additional concerns over such things as biological pathogens and being more aware of viruses from China.
Either way, what do you think about this new strain that has reportedly jumped from animals to humans? Comments are always appreciated.