Even as the world fixates on hMPV, a genuine pandemic threat is emerging in the form of H5N1 bird flu. The virus has jumped to cows and spread across the country through dairy herds, poultry farms and even zoos, infecting millions of animals and dozens of people, the vast majority of them farm workers.

Five years on from the first news of COVID, recent reports of an obscure respiratory virus in China may understandably raise concerns.

We’re now deep into flu season here in the U.S., and word of respiratory infection cases increasing in China might bring people memories of early 2020. However, public health officials say there isn’t a reason to panic.