澳大利亚撤离麦夸里岛研究人员 应对禽流感心理健康风险

澳大利亚政府宣布从麦夸里岛撤离研究人员，以保护他们的心理健康。1这是政府首次因心理风险而采取此类重大行动。1

麦夸里岛位于南冰洋，拥有超过80,000只南象海豹和数百万只繁殖海鸟。1象海豹对H5禽流感特别易感，在赫德岛和麦当劳群岛的一些群落中，幼崽死亡率超过90%。1禽流感可能在繁殖季节杀死数千只象海豹及其幼崽。1岛上24名探险队员可能目睹大规模死亡事件，政府评估撤离是保障员工心理安全的首要措施。1

尽管采取了撤离行动，政府主张禽流感对人类健康的风险仍然较低。1

Australia's government has announced the withdrawal of research personnel from Macquarie Island, a remote territory in the Southern Ocean, to safeguard their psychological wellbeing as avian influenza threatens the region.1 The island is home to more than 80,000 southern elephant seals and millions of breeding seabirds,1 populations that face severe vulnerability to H5 bird flu, with calf mortality rates exceeding 90 percent in some colonies on Heard Island and the McDonald Islands.1 The approximately 24 expedition members stationed on Macquarie Island could potentially witness mass mortality events among these vulnerable wildlife populations.1

This marks an unprecedented government decision to implement such a major operational response based on psychological risk factors rather than direct physical threats.1 While the government maintains that bird flu poses relatively low health risks to humans,1 it has determined that the mental health protection of its staff represents a primary concern in this case.1 The evacuation reflects growing recognition of the psychological toll that observing catastrophic wildlife die-offs could inflict on isolated research teams stationed in one of the world's most remote locations.