Listen:

H5N1, Avian FLU

Minerva Garcia, Microbiologist

Minerva A. Garcia, MLS, MT (ASCP), MS

H5N1, a crisis not yet, February 23, 2025?
You be, that of a higher judge!
With prices escalating, while you take the escalator and/or
The elevator to be met by an
An avian FLU, a bird FLU! It is zoonotic
… Animal to humans, humans to animals
human -to-humans?

What disrupts lives an unknown, a force of
A meteorite, an unsinkable ship like the Titanic
Hurricanes, earthquakes, tsunami caused by
Earthquakes and underwater landslides,
Plate tectonics by seduction, rogue waves,

Storm surges, volcanoe eruptions …
A microbe approaching without sounds
Gone un-noticed
You got zero chance
As no warnings your ways

World’s pandemics:
Arises of zoonotic in nature
Animals -to- humans transmission …
Animals to human’s transmission
14th century plague, Europe in 1346- to 1353

As Black Death came with bubonic plague
As bacterium Yersenia pestis came crushing in
As spread thru rat fleas … 50 million people
Taken too early to their graves
All in all, dying without hopes

Whom may you ask, they sought help?
Perhaps saint Grace!
Whom never heard their cries
Was anyone named Grace?
As babes, mothers and all souls
… All unheard, as no medical soldiers came

20th century …
Spanish FLU in 1918
As pneumonic plague crept in, as H1N1
A virus contains genes from a bird
This pandemic Mid Sept to December
Yes, bird FLU virus
Influenza type 1
As 50-100 million lives gone
Real numbers, don’t lie!
Perhaps not, this time!

How you compared to Ebola
To SARS-COV-2?
Ebola genus ebolaviruses
Family filo-viri-dae
Single stranded negative sensed-RNA

80-90% mortality rate!
Treatments: … Inmazeb & Ebanga
Transmitted skin and bodily fluids
… and infected corpses

How about MPox? There’s vaccine
That’s hope caused by the monkeypox virus
Symptoms rash, can be confused chicken pox
With flu-like, running nose, body aches, chills
With family as Variola, smallpox, Two types: clade I and II

How spread?
Infected monkeys, rodents, person-to-person
How about SARS?
We know about …
SARS-CoV-2 or Covid-19

An aerosol-RNA-based
Zoonotic origin, bats in Wuhan, China
Know 2024 has killed many
66, 305 million, worldwide …
As February 9, 2025

What have we learned?
If anything at all!
That, an outbreak are inevitable?
Yes, that an outbreak are inevitable!
It comes like thief in the night with no signs

… We ignored
Enters speedy
Like that of a train,
Jetliner, torpedo or all on its own
Like an unknown

How you built preparedness?
How you save lives? We know, what we know!
Let’s not ignore facts, statistics not death maps
Or death traps by not being prepared
When you prepared, you not scared!

History tells us facts … this way
To curb out more facts
…in 1918, Spanish FLU
Caused by H1N1
Influenza Type A virus

A Bird FLU
Spanish FLU by an air bug
… COVID-19 was not
But, aerosols, air droplets
Trapping your breaths

H5N1 2025
An avian flu … bird flu
Found in poultry to dairy farms
From wild birds
To mammals to cows & humans

All close vicinity
… and human contacts
All in one
We become one with the other
Perhaps all infected? Hope not!

A new threat …
An emerging disease
If cows, gets contaminated
With H5N1 …
Milk will cease, their milk stops permanently!

Poultry virus spreads by droplets
As you cough, speak, sneeze and/or laugh
Poultry business
A diary enterprise
All could be at risk

Bakeries, restaurants
… and moms
As virus mutates
Are the many …
Risks at stake

What can our government do?
Stop the bureaucracy and hypocrisy!
Wake up and save the human race before too late
Increase research, stand for climate change
Change your views, to reverse the clock

Climate change is real!
Emerging diseases are here to stay!
It’s a fact!
It has been here, without anyone knowing!
Of course, we knew, we just ignored it …!

We know, what we know, today!
We knew as shown with in 14th century
1346, Black Death
We knew … As respiratory bubonic
…. plague science, darkest moments

We see, repeat of history
Still, til this date of 2025
Mr. Trump wake up, give science survival tools!
To fight, the man of science with microscopes
Not politicians with microphones …

What does our does our next health hazard
Look like, would be? Climate change, next change?
Bioterrorism, nuclear threat, war, famine, cancer,
Heart, cancer again, and more cancer,
Global diseases, natural disasters, Chernobyl disaster again,

Atomic bomb
Another one
What next …
More …
Emergent diseases?

I forgot, we already we already had them…
Next multi-drug resistant organisms (MDRO’s)
Is that, our next?
It’s already here!
Is just, a lethal dose in the future?

Who will be the next to brave the cold?
Stand next to Mr. Trump, to join him?
In a ring to convince him, to wake up!
Save the human race
Before, it’s too late

…. Can anyone, grab that?
Am not afraid, to state that!
Am free, alright!
My heart and blood
Still pumps red blood

…The only color
That bares the prints, I can still see of red!
Of my American flag, I can still grab ….
Can anyone, dare to join me?
If you can’t, why not?

I dare you to stay free!
As, all eagles are to be!
Would you join? I, am a woman
Know, thus eagle, whom has joined science
Know more, by earning an MS degree in Microbiology

… and for its creed to believe
Has loss, both of its wings
It’s capacity to fly however, because of its will
To believe … without intimidation, hesitation,
Without a trace of hatred in his blood!

No, once of tainted …
Or bad rhythm to his name
But love with endless peace
He pinned love, dismissed hate
He followed his heart without scandals

With no popularity, medals nor fame
With a desire to only fly … again!
… and be free, by being reborn
His faith was that strong
Being a symbol for all, was born to be free

He’s free …
Alright!
He’s flying
In the skies
High, like a kite!

Minerva A. Garcia, your Poet