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@waystation I'm not an expert in the sense of working in virology, but I'm following H5N1 pretty closely.

It's hard to give an answer to your question because no one knows for sure what H5N1 is going to do. At the moment, the vast majority of human cases are in people who work with cows or birds, and the risk to other people is believed to be low. However, if H5N1 mutates, it might achieve efficient human-to-human transmission, and then things could get very, very bad. We cannot predict if/when a deadly mutation will take place. It could happen tomorrow. It could happen next year. It could have happened a week ago. We simply don't know.

A further complication is that the Trump administration has prevented the CDC from sharing crucial research into such matters as transmission of H5N1 between humans and the cats who live with them. If/when things get really bad, we might not know right away if the CDC isn't allowed to report on it.

If you can view videos, you might want to check out the American Medical Association's videos on H5N1 developments. I don't know how good they are, because my data plan doesn't allow me to watch videos, but I'm assuming that a reputable organization like the AMA is providing good information. If you prefer to get updates from Mastodon, I recommend following @ducky and reading their updates. The most update is at https://mstdn.ca/@ducky/113967151307653409 (You'll find only the general update useful, not the one that is specific to British Columbia.) Although Ducky is in Canada, they follow the US news closely.

I'm deeply concerned about H5N1, and am afraid that we are sleepwalking into another pandemic. I'm trying to stay as prepared as possible, and encourage you to do the same. Good luck to you!