This story was updated on June 6 at 12:15 p.m. PT
The World Health Organization (WHO) issued a warning after a new strain of bird flu, H5N2, allegedly jumped to humans.
A June 5 update to the WHO’s Disease Outbreak News reads, “On 23 May 2024, the Mexico International Health Regulations (IHR) National Focal Point (NFP) reported to PAHO/WHO a confirmed fatal case of human infection with avian influenza A(H5N2) virus detected in a resident of the State of Mexico who was hospitalized in Mexico City.”
The individual who became infected with bird flu was 59 years old.
The press release read that the incident is the “first laboratory-confirmed human case of infection with an influenza A(H5N2) virus reported globally and the first avian H5 virus infection in a person reported in Mexico.”
While the source of the infection remains unknown, a human infection caused by a “novel influenza A virus subtype” has the “potential for high public health impact,” the WHO wrote.
The health entity admitted that the individual who died “had no history of exposure to poultry or other animals” and had “multiple underlying medical conditions.”
Many believe bird flu fears will persist through the 2024 Presidential Election.
Political commentator Rogan O’Handley wrote on X, “Looks like bird flu learned how to kill humans just in time for election season”
Update on June 6 at 12:15 p.m. PT
Conservative figure and filmmaker Robby Starbuck similarly wrote, “It’s ‘the election strain’ and it’s arrived just on time for mass mail in ballots and rules to limit who can watch the votes being counted.”
“We will not comply. We will resist at every turn. We will not let them steal our country, our kid’s futures, our freedom or our dignity,” he added.
Vaccine developers Moderna and Pfizer are likely creating an avian flu vaccine, American Faith reported.
Moderna is also to receive federal funding for the development through the government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or Barda.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Assistant Secretary of Preparedness and Response, Dawn O’Connell, told Barron’s that the agency is in the middle of “active conversations with both manufacturers, and the negotiations are ongoing.”
O’Connell added that HHS “had begun the process of converting 4.8 million doses of avian influenza vaccine from bulk product in the government’s stockpile to finished doses ready to be administered,” Barron’s noted.
