In response, the National Academies' Health and Medicine Division and Division on Earth and Life Studies are holding a special edition “Healthy Exchange” webinar series addressing the topic. The first webinar in the series, “What Everyone Should Know About Bird Flu (H5N1),” will take place on April 29, 2025. Subject matter experts will provide general information about the virus and explain how we got here, who's at risk, and what's at stake.
Can’t make the date and/or time? All registrants will receive a link to the recording via email.
The first webinar will also address the spread the bird flu to other animals and humans, pathways of transmission, its impact on common products such as milk and eggs, and much more. An audience Q&A will follow an informal discussion with the following panelists:
Nahid Bhadelia, MD, MALD, is the Founding Director of the Center on Emerging Infections Diseases; Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Boston University School of Medicine; and Global Health Security at the Boston University Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies. She served as Senior Policy Advisor for Global COVID-19 Response for the White House COVID-19 Response Team in 2022-2023, where she coordinated the interagency programs for global COVID-19 vaccine donations from the U.S. and was the policy lead for Project NextGen, a $5B HHS program aimed at developing next generation vaccines and treatments for pandemic prone coronaviruses. Dr. Bhadelia also served as the interim Testing Coordinator for the White House MPOX Response Team. She is the Director and co-founder of Biothreats Emergence, Analysis and Communications Network (BEACON), an open-source outbreak surveillance program.