Dr. Richard Bartlett, an emergency room director and former Texas Department of Health and Human Services advisory council member, joined “The Defender In-Depth” this week to discuss gain-of-function research on bird flu, bird flu vaccines and why the U.S. government set aside $1 billion for a zoonotic infection and flu pandemic.

Dr. Richard Bartlett, an emergency room director and former Texas Department of Health and Human Services advisory council member, joined “The Defender In-Depth” this week to discuss the latest media and government reports about bird flu, following the detection of the H5N1 avian influenza virus — also known as “highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A.”

H5N1 and related strains have been identified in birds, poultry, cattle, mammals including cats and dolphins, and humans in Texas and Vietnam.

The New York Times reported there is a risk the virus could mutate and become transmissible between humans, and the Daily Mail claimed a new bird flu outbreak could be “100 times worse than Covid.”