joining us now is doctor michael osterholm. he's director for the center of infectious disease research and policy at the university of minnesota. doctor osterholm, thank you so much for being with us. the national institutes of health has called this one mutation. easier. or rather, this makes it easier for this virus to get into humans. should we be worried about this latest outbreak? >> well, let me just. >> put this into. >> perspective. >> boris, because. >> people have been hearing about bird flu literally for the last year, wondering what is this all about? it's something really dangerous happening. we know that the natural location or reservoir for this virus is in waterfowl in north america. there's about 40 million of them, and only in the last several years with this new strain of bird flu, h5n1 and one has we've really been concerned about this nationwide presence of the infection. and to even understand what's just happened in the dairy cattle. just note that since the 1st of january, there have been 96 different f

speaking of researchers, to shed more light on the conversation, i'm joined by michael osterholm, director of the center for infectious disease research and policy at the university of minnesota. thank you so much for joining us this morning, sir. what when you hear this, um, where again, the nih is being targeted. what kind of research may be affected and impacted by this? >> well. >> sarah, it's all. kinds of research. and let me just help put the direct indirect funds into some perspective. direct funds are those which go right to the laboratory or to the research group and the work that they're doing, but all the other funds are not just keeping the lights on. >> but imagine. >> you're. >> a trucking company and. >> you had to build every road that you needed to use to get from point a to point b to deliver your goods. >> that's the indirect cost. >> we account. >> for those every day by being there. >> so there are. >> many laboratories in this country that are doing incredibly important work, that the machines that they are using literally cost millions of dollars. >> now, that's. >>