How poor avian flu monitoring puts dairy workers at risk
Even as it has become increasingly clear that the avian flu outbreak on domestic farms began months earlier — and is likely much more widespread — than previously thought, federal authorities have stressed that the virus poses little risk to humans. humans.Yet there is a group of people at high risk of infection: the approximately 100,000 men and women who work on those farms. There has been no widespread testing to see how many might be infected. No one has been vaccinated against avian influenza.This leaves workers and their families vulnerable to a poorly monitored pathogen. And it poses broader public health risks. If the virus were to spread into the broader population, experts say, dairy workers would be a likely route.“We have no idea whether this virus will evolve into a pandem...