Over the past two decades, at least 500 people worldwide have died from bird flu known as H5N1. However, the U.S. just experienced its very first bird flu fatality in Louisiana. As The New York Times reported, a senior with underlying medical conditions was hospitalized and died from bird flu around the start of the new year.

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.

Bird flu is suspected to have caused the death of multiple wild birds recovered across the state last week, New Jersey Fish and Wildlife announced. At least seven snow geese, two Canada geese, and two hawks have yielded presumptive positive results so far for avian influenza,

The death comes as multiple infectious diseases are surging throughout the US, including the 10th wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and major spikes in seasonal influenza, norovirus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV),

A researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital said the bird flu virus needs to be taken seriously so it doesn’t become the next pandemic.