We will not comply: 'This could be 100 times worse than Covid': Bird flu warning from scientists who say HALF of infections with H5N1 in people are fatal - as White House says it's "monitoring" the situation --Experts warn there is a higher risk of bird flu starting to spread between humans | 4 April 2024 | A bird flu pandemic could be "100 times worse than Covid" and kill up to half of everyone it infects, experts have warned -- as the White House says it is "monitoring" the situation. Speaking at a briefing, virus researchers said the H5N1 strain of bird flu may now be getting "dangerously close" to triggering a pandemic. Multiple cases of the infection in a variety of mammals, including cows, cats and, more recently, humans, are all raising the risk of the virus mutating to become more transmissible, they said... The panel was quickly convened on the heels of news that a dairy farm worker in Texas tested positive for the virus, alongside 12 herds of cows in six states and three cats also in Texas that subsequently died. Testing done on the worker showed the patient's virus had already mutated to spread more easily -- although the CDC said this mutation had been recorded before, that the risk was low and that there was no sign of human-to-human transmission.