‘Classic Hysteria’ – H5 Bird Flu Fears Challenged

In a recent interview with Reality Check Radio’s Paul Brennan, former World Health Organisation (WHO) scientist Dr. David Bell described concern around the H5 bird flu is “classic hysteria”, arguing that the virus does not pose a threat to humans.

Bell disputed claims that the H5 bird flu has a human mortality rate of around 50 per cent, describing that figure as misleading.

“In the last 25 years of all the H5… there’s about… WHO says about 500 deaths in the whole world over 25 years,” he said.

He added that there is “no sustained human transmission anywhere” and “no evidence that it will cause any significant harm to humans at all”.

According to Bell, the commonly cited mortality figure is based on a small group of severely ill patients who sought hospital treatment and were tested for the virus, rather than reflecting the fatality rate across all infections. He also referred to the United States, saying there have been around 77 confirmed human cases there over the previous two to three years, with only two deaths, both involving older people.

The latest figures from the WHO show there were 993 laboratory-confirmed human cases worldwide and 477 deaths between 2003 and 2025. More recent surveillance indicates sporadic human infections have continued into 2026, almost always among people with close exposure to infected birds or other infected animals.

The official health advice from the WHO and Australian public health authorities is that H5 bird flu rarely infects humans. When it does, the illness can range from mild to life-threatening. Most human infections have occurred after close, unprotected contact with infected birds or other infected animals, rather than through person-to-person spread.

TMAG pauses dead bird drop-offs

On Wednesday, 15 July, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) issued a statement asking members of the community to no longer donate dead birds or mammals to the State Collection due to the detection of virus on the mainland.

This is a precautionary measure, and TMAG will keep it in place until further notice.

“A key part of TMAG’s role is receiving animal specimens for identification, research, and long-term preservation, but we don’t want anyone putting themselves at unnecessary risk,” TMAG director Mary Mulcahy said in a media release on 15 July.

“While well-meaning members of the community often bring us dead animals they have come across, the safety of TMAG staff, volunteers, and visitors to our research facilities remains our highest priority.”

TMAG is continuously reviewing and strengthening safety measures for staff who work with bird and mammal specimens.

Members of the community can report sick or dead animal and bird discoveries to the Tasmanian Emergency Animal Disease hotline on 1800 675 888 or through the online reporting form. For more information, click here.

References & bibliography

• Avian influenza A(H5N1) virus (World Health Organisation)
• ‘Can I get sick from bird flu? What are the symptoms, and are chicken and eggs safe to eat?’ (The Guardian)
• ‘Australia confirms first H5N1 bird flu case in local seabird’ (Reuters)
• ‘Dead giant petrel found in Western Australia becomes state’s eighth H5 bird flu case’ (news.com.au)
• ‘Different transmission patterns in the early stages of the influenza A(H1N1)v pandemic: A comparative analysis of 12 European countries’ (Epidemics, volume 3, issue 2, June 2011, pages 125-133)
• ‘Pandemic H1N1 virus transmission and shedding dynamics in index case households of a prospective Vietnamese cohort’ (Journal of Infection, volume 68, issue 6, June 2014, pages 581-590)
• ‘Transmission Characteristics of Different Students during a School Outbreak of (H1N1) pdm09 Influenza in China, 2009’ (Scientific Reports, 7 August 2014)
• ‘Effectiveness of the pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccines against laboratory-confirmed H1N1 infections: Population-based case–control study’ (Vaccine, volume 29, issue 45, 19 October 2011, pages 7975-7981)
• ‘Effectiveness of the pandemic H1N1 influenza vaccines against laboratory-confirmed H1N1 infections: Population-based case–control study’ (BMJ, 25 January 2012)

Callum J. Jones studied English, History, and Journalism at the University of Tasmania and lived in Western Sydney from 2022 to 2024 while working as a journalist for Professional Planner, a leading online publication for financial planners. He has written for Tasmanian Times since 2018 and has also been published in a range of other outlets, including Quadrant and the BAD Western Sydney anthologies.

If you’re interested in this article, please join our mailing list. It’s all free … and we won’t share your information with anyone!

If you have any comments you’d like to add to this article, please contribute via this form. We’re trialling this while we work through replacing our comments section.

Truly independent media is a cornerstone of democracy.

Remember: once they gain power the first action of every despot in modern history is to take control of the media, so please consider supporting us.

Your kids will thank you and so will your Granny, but the aspiring despots won’t…