Any time a person catches H5N1, or bird flu, their infection is a chance for the virus to mutate in the wrong direction. When someone dies from the bird flu—as an elderly Louisiana man did on Jan. 6,

With reports of the first human death from bird flu in the US, some Americans are feeling an uncomfortable flashback to the early days of Covid-19, when infectious disease experts were talking about a new virus that was sending people to the hospital with respiratory infections.

Authorities say they’ve identified the cause of a carbon monoxide leak in New Hampshire that killed a Newton family on Christmas Day. Five Massachusetts college students appeared in court Thursday, accused of plotting to lure a man to their campus through a dating app and then seizing him as part of a “Catch a Predator” trend on TikTok.

A recent bird flu death has sparked fears that a "brand-new virus" could potentially mutate under the right conditions and lead to a "global pandemic"

Samples taken from the first patient who died from bird flu show that a strain of the virus has “mutated” to infect humans more effectively. A patient - hospitalised last month in Louisiana - died after the H5N1 strain of avian influenza infected the individual.