Pandemic fears plague bird flu

Surging cases of bird flu among mammals, including US cattle, offer a stark warning that the world is not ready to fend off future pandemics, a report said yesterday, urging leaders to act quickly.

More than four years since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, politicians are said to be "gambling through neglect" by not putting enough money or effort into avoiding a repeat of the disaster.

H5N1 has been increasingly jumping over to mammals, including cattle in farms across the United States as well as a few humans, prompting fears the virus could spark a pandemic.

"If H5N1 began to spread from person to person, the world would likely again be overwhelmed," report coauthor and former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark said.

It could even be "more disastrous, potentially, than Covid," she said.