H5N1 Bird Flu Updates

[Beebo Brink]

Covid lessons remain unlearned as avian flu infects cattle, hospitals say - POLITICO

...hospital officials told POLITICO they’re dismayed that they don’t feel better prepared, just four years after Covid-19 caught them unawares. They’re not confident that the health care system — including the government agencies that have wound down Covid responses — can avoid the missteps around tests, bed space and communication that plagued the last public health emergency, should this strain of flu, H5N1, become more of a threat.

“I don’t think that we would do well if we were to be hit by a pandemic right now,” said Dr. Payal Patel, an infectious disease specialist at Intermountain Health in Utah. “What we’ve learned over the last few years is that it’s really hard to predict what turn things will take — and also that it’s important to learn from the past.”

This, to my mind, is one of the biggest challenges for any future pandemic:

But infectious disease experts at major health systems say they haven’t had time to recover from Covid. Some veteran care providers left the medical profession, and many of the doctors and nurses who remain are at risk of burnout were they to face another crisis.

“We just simply do not have the manpower — currently — to care for the people that are coming in through our doors,” said Dr. George Diaz, an infectious disease specialist at Providence health in Washington state. “We don’t have an adequate supply of the people to care for the people.”

 

[Beebo Brink]

Cows have human flu receptors, study shows, raising the stakes on the bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle | CNN

[Researchers in the US and Denmark published findings] that cows have the same receptors for flu viruses as humans and birds. Scientists fear that cows could be mixing bowls – hosts that help the virus learn to better spread between people. Such an event, while rare, experts say, could put us on the path to another pandemic.

 

[Beebo Brink]

 

[Free]

This is how you jump start an epidemic.

Raw Milk Sales Skyrocket as Idiots Believe Drinking Bird Flu Will Give Them 'Immunity'

Sales of raw milk in the U.S. have risen 21% since bird flu was first confirmed in dairy cattle in late March, according to a report from PBS Newshour, citing new data from research firm NielsenIQ. Why on Earth would people drink raw milk at a time when pasteurization has been shown to kill the virus? Because some people believe intentionally being exposed to H5N1 will give them “immunity” to the disease. Seriously.

At least 46 dairy cow herds in nine states have tested positive for bird flu, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with four new herds reported just today. The big concern is that widespread outbreaks in dairy cows provide more opportunities for the virus to mutate, potentially allowing it to spread freely among other species.

Inactive viral remnants of H5N1 have been found in pasteurized milk but the USDA assures consumers it’s safe to drink. Raw milk, on the other hand, is showing “high concentrations” of the virus, according to the USDA, and consuming unpasteurized dairy products right now feels like playing Russian Roulette.

 

[Myradyl Muse]

This folly seems like more of the rabid internet-driven, anti-science conspiracy crusade. Years ago, I once declared to friends that viruses would eradicate us as a species on Earth. I now bite my tongue and opine that these blathering sheep brigades will be our ultimate undoing.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Although this podcast is already three weeks out of date, it lays the groundwork for scientific concern about transmission in the wild.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

This folly seems like more of the rabid internet-driven, anti-science conspiracy crusade. Years ago, I once declared to friends that viruses would eradicate us as a species on Earth. I now bite my tongue and opine that these blathering sheep brigades will be our ultimate undoing.

COVID was weak enough so that many anti science people got away with their stupidity and even feel vindicated. I think it's just a matter of time before a new, far deadlier pandemic comes around and many of the same people will happily get themselves infected and/or believe they can ignore it until it's far too late.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Oregon State University testing dairy cows amid bird flu outbreak | kgw.com

 

[Beebo Brink]

Wastewater testing finds H5N1 avian flu in 9 Texas cities | CIDRAP (umn.edu)

 

[Free]

Second human case of bird flu linked to cows found—via text messages

Like the first case, the farm worker in Michigan only had an eye infection.

arstechnica.com

A dairy farm worker in Michigan has tested positive for an H5 bird flu virus, marking the second human case of bird flu that has been linked to the unprecedented outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus among dairy cows in the US.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the worker only experienced a mild eye infection and has since recovered, much like the first case in a dairy farm worker in Texas. The Michigan worker was being monitored for symptoms due to exposure—the person worked on a dairy farm with H5N1-infected cattle.

In a press briefing Wednesday afternoon, CDC Principal Deputy Director Nirav Shah said the person was taking part in an active surveillance system, in which the state's health department sent out a text message every day asking about the presence of any symptoms. The worker's infection was identified after the person responded that there were symptoms.

 

[Isabeau]

Limited testing of raw milk for bird flu leaves safety questions unanswered-NPR

The USDA-approved lab authorized to test the milk for the H5N1 bird flu virus called the farms to seek their permission to examine the milk, then also declined to test the milk for bird flu when the farmers did not grant it.

“[The farms] are aware of what a nonnegative test would do to their business,” said Brandon Dominguez, the Veterinary Services Section Head at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic laboratory in College Station, Texas. “They asked that we do not run the test.”

After NPR reported that the USDA had confirmed the agency does not require labs to have permission from farms to test milk samples for bird flu, Amy Swinford, the director of the Texas A&M lab, added that another reason the lab could not perform the test is that reporters did not provide the premise identification numbers for each of the farms. Those numbers are not publicly available; reporters did include the license numbers of each of the farms when they submitted samples for testing.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

“[The farms] are aware of what a nonnegative test would do to their business,”

End capitalism and this problem goes away.

 

[Beebo Brink]

End capitalism and this problem goes away.

Good luck with that.

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

End capitalism and this problem goes away.

Excellent point! Communist states never have to worry about their food production! lol. I assume you're being tongue and cheek but had to comment.

 

[CronoCloud Creeggan]

End capitalism and this problem goes away.

Dream on, my lovely Snow Commie Comrade, Dream on.
Workers of the World, Unite!

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Excellent point! Communist states never have to worry about their food production! lol. I assume you're being tongue and cheek but had to comment.

Dream on, my lovely Snow Commie Comrade, Dream on.
Workers of the World, Unite!

McCarthy Tourettes. Straight to Communism.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Why the New Human Case of Bird Flu Is So Alarming

The third human case of H5N1, reported on Thursday in a farmworker in Michigan who was experiencing respiratory symptoms, tells us that the current bird flu situation is at a dangerous inflection point.

The virus is adapting in predictable ways that increase its risk to humans, reflecting our failure to contain it early on. The solutions to this brewing crisis — such as comprehensive testing — have been there all along, and they’re becoming only more important. If we keep ignoring the warning signs we have only ourselves to blame.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Person with bird flu died in Mexico, WHO says | Reuters

A person with prior health complications who had contracted bird flu died in Mexico in April and the source of exposure to the virus was unknown, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.

WHO said the current risk of bird flu virus to the general population is low.

 

[Beebo Brink]

House mice test positive for H5N1 bird flu - BNO News

Why the discovery of H5N1 bird flu in mice is so alarming (telegraph.co.uk)

H5N1 Is Increasingly Adapting to Mammals | UC Davis

 

[Beebo Brink]

50% mortality rate in some infected cat communities.

Cats died from bird flu 'after consuming raw milk from infected cows' (telegraph.co.uk)