Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Stopping the next flu pandemic

Avian influenza is devastating poultry operations, spreading in dairy cattle and infecting farm workers. Why isn’t the United States doing more to stop it?
By
  1. Cassandra Willyard

    1. Cassandra Willyard is a journalist who covers health and science with a focus on infectious disease, public health and drug development. Her work has appeared in the Atlantic, Nature and the New York Times.

A conceptual illustration of an urban village at night, a moon-like flu virus is rising in the horizon.

Credit: Sam Falconer

In spring, consumers in the United States found themselves having to hunt for something that had previously been exceedingly easy to find: eggs. Some supermarkets limited customers to a single carton per visit, but still ran out. Shoppers who did manage to find eggs in stock paid dearly — a dozen could sell for more than US$11. For many people, it was the first indication that the country was in the midst of a devastating bird-flu outbreak.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-025-03613-4

This article is part of Nature Spotlight: Influenza, an editorially independent supplement. Advertisers have no influence over the content.

Updates & Corrections

  • Update 19 December 2025: This story has been modified to remove the out-of-date reference to Thanksgiving.

References

  1. Nguyen, T.-Q. et al. Science 388, eadq0900 (2025).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Campbell, A. J. et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.07.31.666798 (2025).

  3. Mellis, A. M. et al. MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly Rep. 73, 1004–1009 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Leonard, J. et al. MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly Rep. 74, 50–52 (2025).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Marshall, K. E. et al. MMWR Morb. Mortal. Wkly Rep. 73, 999–1003 (2024).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links