Maricopa County public health officials say they’ve detected “an influenza subtype associated with avian flu in local wastewater” in Phoenix, Surprise, and Tempe, Arizona.
Officials say the risk to the general population remains low.
The Gateway Pundit has reported on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) fear-mongering about a new potential pandemic of avian flu as if the public hasn’t been subjected to enough panic and virus hoaxes in recent years.
In a move reminiscent of his overreaching COVID-19 policies, California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency in California this month in response to the first human case of bird flu, which was in Louisiana.
As The Gateway Pundit reported, Dr. Leana Wen, the Communist doctor who demanded Americans lose all their rights during the Covid pandemic, appeared on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday to discuss the Bird Flu outbreak. She called for the Biden Regime to get millions of doses of vaccines to the American people as soon as possible, claiming that Trump may “hold up vaccine authorization” and “withhold testing.” She added, “We should’ve learned our lesson from COVID” to justify even stricter measures.
Maricopa County is the fourth largest county in the United States, according to 2024 census data. This news of a potential outbreak discovered in wastewater comes at a suspicious time as President Trump is about to take office next month, and leftists are pushing fear porn and calling for lockdowns and potential mandates, as we saw with COVID.
If we learned anything from COVID, it’s that you can’t always trust the “science.”
The Maricopa County Department of Public Health issued the following news release:
As part of routine wastewater surveillance in Maricopa County, Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) is reporting the detection of an influenza subtype associated with avian flu in local wastewater. No human cases of avian flu have been detected in Maricopa County, and the risk to the general population remains low.
Wastewater monitoring is a tool used to detect genetic material from microbes, like influenza A and its subtypes, in untreated wastewater, helping inform public health and partners on changing disease activity. The influenza A(H5) subtype, which can include H5N1 that is associated with avian influenza (also known as bird flu), was detected by all three cities within Maricopa County that conduct wastewater monitoring—Phoenix, Surprise, and Tempe—but it is not currently possible to confirm a precise source location of the viral detection.
Avian influenza has been detected in Arizona, including a commercial poultry farm in Pinal County, and a backyard flock and animals at a zoo in Maricopa County. The H5N1 detections in Pinal and Maricopa counties where further genomic testing was done are the same strain of H5N1 that is occurring in wild birds. Tests with other samples are pending. The same strain-specific testing in wastewater samples is not available so this link cannot be confirmed. There have been no detections of H5N1 in dairy cattle in Arizona.
“Wastewater monitoring is one of multiple tools we have to proactively monitor for avian flu in our community,” said Dr. Nick Staab, assistant medical director at MCDPH. “Given that no human cases have been identified in Maricopa County through our other disease detection methods and there is no recent documented spread of H5N1 influenza from human to human, the overall risk of avian flu to people remains low.”
Avian flu is most often seen in wild and domestic birds; human cases have been rare and primarily in people with close, unprotected contact with sick or dead animals, their bedding, or their droppings. While wastewater monitoring may provide limited details, it provides important information about the presence of the H5 subtype, so that people can take appropriate precautions. This includes avoiding contact with sick or dead birds and wearing appropriate protective gear when handling sick or dead animals, their droppings, or their bedding. It is also advised to avoid consuming unpasteurized (raw) dairy products. Pasteurization kills viruses, including H5 influenza strains, that could come from infected dairy cows.
There is currently an increase in seasonal respiratory viruses, such as COVID-19 and seasonal flu strains, making it more likely that people in the community will come into contact with those viruses than avian flu. “To prevent illness, we want residents and visitors to focus on taking general respiratory virus prevention measures,” said Dr. Staab.
This comes after poultry in a backyard flock tested positive for avian flu last month, and animals at the Wildlife World Zoo west of Phoenix in Litchfield Park “were likely ill from H5N1 avian flu” earlier this month, according to Maricopa County. Additionally, the Arizona Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory says it detected avian influenza in a free-ranging domestic goose and a Canada goose in Scottsdale, Arizona.
This is a developing story.
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