Bird flu has always been able to jump from birds to humans but not from any other livestock because it wasn’t able to jump from mammal to mammal (that’s why it’s called bird flu instead of something else) that’s also why people are concerned because in less than 2 years it went from being a disease only birds could spread to multiple mammal species suddenly being fully susceptible to it.
I wonder if there's an overlap with COVID affected species. Is it possible for COVID to have made mammalian species more susceptible to illness?
It's absolutely possible and there are several studies on the subject going back to 2020. Probably a part of why people are getting sick with things like RSV more regularly too.
Bird flu has always been able to jump from birds to humans but not from any other livestock because it wasn’t able to jump from mammal to mammal (that’s why it’s called bird flu instead of something else) that’s also why people are concerned because in less than 2 years it went from being a disease only birds could spread to multiple mammal species suddenly being fully susceptible to it.
I wonder if there's an overlap with COVID affected species. Is it possible for COVID to have made mammalian species more susceptible to illness?
It's absolutely possible and there are several studies on the subject going back to 2020. Probably a part of why people are getting sick with things like RSV more regularly too.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-72718-9
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41590-021-01113-x
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-47720-8 (this one's a study about LC patients immune dysfunction improving over 8 months)