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Antoine Flahault: “Dreading an H5N1 pandemic is probably not the best strategy to adopt”

Published on April 25, 2024 at 3:48 p.m. / Modified on April 25, 2024 at 3:49 p.m.

Birds, squirrels, skunks, dolphins, sea lions, polar bears and even, more recently, dairy cows in the States. Usually selective on the hosts it contaminates, the H5N1 virus tends to set its sights on an ever-increasing number of species.

“The more species of mammals the virus infects, the more opportunities it has to mutate into a strain dangerous for humans,” declared Daniel Goldhill, of the Royal Veterinary College in Hatfield, in the columns of the newspaper Nature, on April 8. Should we therefore fear human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus and thus a possible pandemic? Are we prepared for such an eventuality? Answers from Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva:

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