In March a farm worker who reported no contact with sick or dead birds, but who was in contact with dairy cattle, began showing symptoms in the eye and samples were collected by the regional health department to test for potential influenza A. Experts have now confirmed the first case of highly pathogenic avian influenza transmission from a mammal (dairy cow) to a human.
And suddenly half of America became extremely passionate about “natural”, untreated milk.
Oh, they were already there. Someone I know who regularly bumps into the raw milk people was recently telling me he was surprised just how many of them are huge Trump supporters. They were ranting to him about how this is just another hoax and that they aren’t scared.
Probably has something to do with the crunchy to alt right pipeline, if I had to guess.
That pipeline is so damn real.
I’ve had occasion to buy raw milk to test making different cheeses (that hobby didn’t last long enough to produce much cheese, sadly). This would have been before Trump was a big thing in politics, but I swear every person I met there was a damn tea party nut.
If you go far enough down the political spectrum everything comes together eventually, and I think raw milk is one of those points. Both right and left seem to have an equal standing.
Lefties are interested in it for the natural side or its different cooking properties. Rightys are making sure the government isn’t putting female replacement hormones or some nonsense when pasturizing.
And here I am, drinking half and half because I need to go to the store.
Okay, stay with me here. What if this time we put the vaccine in the ivermectin?
And put the ivermectin in the bleach?
I think we might be onto something.
You put the bleach in the coconut…
Then you vote better.
Doctor!
Getsuga tenshou?
Hawkins: I've got it! I've got it! The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true! Right? Griselda: Right. But there's been a change: they broke the chalice from the palace! Hawkins: They *broke* the chalice from the palace? Griselda: And replaced it with a flagon. Hawkins: A flagon...? Griselda: With the figure of a dragon. Hawkins: Flagon with a dragon. Griselda: Right. Hawkins: But did you put the pellet with the poison in the vessel with the pestle? Griselda: No! The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true! Hawkins: The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true. Griselda: Just remember that.
Put the vaccine in raw milk
“It’s a huge thing that the virus has jumped from birds to mammals, dairy cows in this case, and then to humans,” Presley said.
I just don’t get why transmission to humans is considered a question. Transmissions to mammals is happening. We are mammals. We aren’t special. We need to stop acting like we’re something different so leopards don’t eat our stupid faces.
I don’t question that the quoted person knows what they are talking about, but that quote perpetuates the idea that H5N1 is a long shot when we already have people playing freedom about milk.
Mammals are not identical and there are a ton of diseases that do affect multiple species and a lot more that don’t.
Opossums rarely, if ever, get rabies. Bats tend to get diseases without suffering from them, but are great incubators for diseases to mutate so they can spread to other mammals. Feline lukemia is extremely contagious between cats, but has never spread to humans.
It is not that humans are special, but that diseases are not universally transmitted between species.
This is a big deal because the bird to cow to human transmission doesn’t have a precedent. No scientist who studies disease thinks transmission is impossible, since diseases can mutate.
You just picked a mammal with one of the most unique immune systems and one that is a completely different class of mammal of which very few exist tbf. Many diseases can only affect a very small handful of even quite related species though. There are diseases that affect some apes but not others.
there are hundreds of diseases that exist in mammals like dogs and bats which do not transmit to humans. when a new one does, it’s a big deal, all the time, every time. especially one that has crossed the taxonomic bridge from avians to mammals. for fucks sake.
Of course it’s a big deal. But H5N1 has transmitted already between multiple mammals (https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/mammals , but you already know that stuff I think).
The phrasing in the quote, in my opinion, gives countless people the wrong idea of human uniqueness in this situation.
giving countless people the idea that this is a very big deal, is dangerous, and something to pay attention to, what is it now, 4 years after the start of a worldwide pandemic which saw millions of lives simply wiped off the board, and the global economy brought to a standstill, is precisely the message which should be broadcast. we were not ready for COVID, and we are STILL not prepared for the next one, because it costs the wrong people, too much time, effort, and money to be ready.
I fully agree, but I also grew up around religion, so… humans gonna get their face eaten.
There have been almost 1000 confirmed H5N1 cases in humans over the past 20 years, and over that time it’s infected many different mammals. What’s different this time is the virulent cattle-to-cattle transmission happening in the US. A human catching it from close contact with an infected animal is not unusual
On the plus side we already have a vaccine for this one, and we have a known medical treatment for it that should work well.
It sucks but this was one we were actually preparing for and expecting to eventually happen.
Something something MICROCHIPS something FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER
We have a vaccine for COVID too…
There’s a difference here.
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We have a vaccine.
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We eventually had a vaccine.
The group in question will treat this vaccine like that vaccine, if that wasn’t clear.
It’s not a matter of when, it’s a matter of what. Antivax don’t give a damn.
And that’s fine. What we need to do is not collectively be pushovers and call them out on their bullshit this time around. While not universal, many of us averted our eyes and ignored their behavior and I honestly feel it’s costing us.
Though hopefully there is no “this time”.
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We were also fully expecting SARS COVID diseases based on the previous epidemics, so preparation doesn’t do much if people intentionally undermine it.
Here we go again…
Don’t worry I am sure we have learned from past experiences…
Well, they say a good laugh prolongs your life, thank you.
What about when laughing causes a coughing fit and you cough up a lung before you have a deadly respiratory infection?
Sure did yes sir. I’m off to buy 3x pallets of toilet paper to Starr my new arbitrage business.
Imagine how fun it is going to be when DJT gets reelected, followed by H5N1 developing human to human transmission capabilities.
No thanks.
Get ready for every knuckle-dragging moron to become a medical expert, and to call you a sheep for listening to an actual doctor.
Fuck.
I wonder if the CDC’s global rapid response team will respond to this?
The NEJM published this on May 3 - I’m surprised that I’m only hearing about it now.
As long as we exploit animals, we will have zoonotic diseases. Kind of deserved at this point.
Yes, but also happens naturally to some extent as well.
It happens a lot less when you don’t cramp billions of animals in extremely close quarters
While I agree. It is really dependent on the pathogenicity of whatever it is.
I do not think we should cramp animals together for food, sadly, which is done now.
Farming could be much more humane, and I hope it becomes that. I totally agree with your point though.
