Despite having 1 million bird flu tests available, experts are raising concerns that the U.S. may be repeating the same mistakes made during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly three months into the bird flu outbreak, only about 45 people across the country have been tested for the virus, which the World Health Organization considers a potential pandemic threat.
Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health, warns, “We’re flying blind.”
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According to CBS News, she and other experts argue that the lack of widespread testing means the country could miss early signs of the virus spreading between humans, a critical step towards another pandemic.
While the CDC has distributed these tests to about 100 public health labs in states, researchers, including former CDC director Tom Frieden and Dr. Anthony Fauci, cite testing failures as a key reason the U.S. fared poorly with COVID-19.
They argue that had COVID tests been widely available earlier, the U.S. could have detected many cases before they turned into outbreaks.
In a CBS report, Nuzzo and colleagues highlighted that the issue wasn’t a lack of testing capability but a failure to deploy that capability swiftly. They emphasize the need for a proactive approach to testing, rather than waiting for outbreaks to occur.
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Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the CDC, acknowledges the need for more testing but assures the public that the agency has roughly a million tests available now and expects 1.2 million more in the next two months. He also highlights the CDC’s efforts to distribute tests to state labs.
The CDC’s bird flu test is currently the only one authorized by the FDA for use. While experts acknowledge the challenges of developing and deploying tests quickly, they stress the importance of learning from past mistakes and taking a proactive approach to prevent another pandemic.
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