The Unnatural History of Bird Flu

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The Unnatural History of Bird Flu

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, few scientific questions have received as much public attention as the origin of the deadly virus: people or nature.  It was the subject of journalists’ investigations and government hearings and academic recrimination; it became part of the culture war. It is perhaps strange, then, that little attention is paid to the role people have played in another potential pandemic virus: H5N1 avian influenza, a creation of mo…