In the USA, a fourth bird flu infection has been recorded in humans after contact with cows . A worker at a dairy farm in the US state of Colorado was affected. The affected person was treated and has now recovered, it is said. The cows were probably infected by wild birds. The H5N1 bird flu virus has been circulating in the USA for months. The danger for humans is still considered low, unless they have close contact with animals. However, health experts warn of the danger that the virus adapts to humans and can then be transmitted from person to person. And one of these experts is now in my studio. I now welcome virologists, Professor Klaus Stöhr, former WHO pandemic commissioner. Professor, it's nice that you're here. Good afternoon Mr. Siemon. Let's talk about this bird flu again . What does this mean for the animals on the one hand, and for people on the other, as the virus has already spread to cows in their surroundings? Yes, this is the last message. For about 20 years, this H5N1 virus has been gradually spreading from Asia to Europe via wild birds. And now, after 20 years, it has also arrived in North America, also in South America. And there are these severe cases in wild birds. However, the virus continues to spread even within healthy animals and from time to time it is also transmitted to domestic poultry. These are very bad outbreaks in which 60, 70, 80% of the animals can actually die and even more rarely people become infected and then severe cases can also occur. But if it is, then there have apparently been four cases. How dangerous is the virus for the human organism? What does the pathogen do in the body? And is our immune system strong enough to defend itself against it? Yes, for us in Germany and Europe it is basically almost irrelevant. Why? Because there are only some wild birds that die from it. And if you don't have close contact with the wild birds, if you don't really interact intensively with them, it's almost impossible to become infected. But don't forget that in Asia the contact with wild birds is of course much closer and also with domestic poultry. There are already around 800 people worldwide who have knowingly become infected. A lot of them died too. Many people also became infected and didn't know it. For us that means if someone gets infected from the cows and the virus gets into the eye. An eye inflammation that then disappears after a few days, which can be severe. It is relatively unlikely that we will now get the virus from the cows to Europe . Cattle are not exported at all, but because wild birds are there, this H5N1 virus is rarely transmitted. Domestic poultry serious disease. But when it gets to humans, which is still extremely rare, severe cases can also occur. When inhaled. These laws in the hypothetical case that a person becomes infected with bird flu because they work in agriculture, for example. And this person is currently suffering from a flu-like infection, could this lead to some kind of super virus? How should you assess that then? Exactly. If you were to ask me now, without us having the 1918 pandemic, which was 100 years ago, a virus like this has already spread to people. If we didn't have that precedent , I would have said my God, the H5N1 virus has been circulating in Asia for 40 years, and now worldwide. Many people have already been infected. Nothing happened, but we have this precedent. And we actually have to fear that if this virus jumps to humans, it will at some point adapt to humans. The one person-to-person transmission that doesn't exist now will happen and then there could be a new pandemic with similar consequences to those now with Corona, right? Just so I can sort of classify how it happened, well, Corona was mild in comparison, if you compare it with this hardened pandemic between 40 and 60 million people died, the world was like that But population still 1.5 billion. So the effects could be dramatic, but you shouldn't forget that you can prepare for it now. Fortunately, there are pre-pandemic vaccines. I was involved in the development. You could make them now. There is also a pandemic, there are already vaccines, you can't put them down, you don't have to produce them now. But the clinical trials should now begin and the dossiers should be submitted to the regulatory authorities. And then, if it actually happens that the virus adapts to humans, then you have vaccines ready to be produced. Now that we have that in mind, we have another issue: that the federal government is now pushing billions in risks because they bought too many masks in 2020. You already know what's coming next. Some of them now have to be destroyed. Wouldn't it be better if these masks were kept as a precaution? Or does that not help at all in such a case? Yes, just in case another pandemic comes along. Of course this makes sense on the surface, but the masks expire. Their effectiveness also decreases. So they can only be stored for a certain time. What I hope, Mr. Siemon, is that in the next pandemic such orders will be made more sensibly and that the right people will wear the masks and, if I can still say that, with the right size, also the right size and that people will not expect the vaccine , which will then certainly help prevent the infection, it does not prevent excretion. Hopefully we will know all this better than during the last pandemic. This was already known beforehand and you have to prepare for it. Professor Klaus Stöhr, thank you very much for the interview. Thank you very much. Very much.