Comment on Lack of bird flu testing may be hiding true spread of virus on US farms
OpenStars@discuss.online 5 months ago
As far as I have been able to read, nobody wants to pay for it.
Fyi, people are mostly safe, for now, so long as the milk drank is pasteurized.
Though its spread everywhere (most recently in Walrus - click “Bird flu” in red at the bottom of the article to see a list of recent developments) indicates that it might start jumping to humans soon. Whatever that means, it doesn’t sound ideal.
Though its spread everywhere … indicates that it might start jumping to humans soon
While this is certainly a possibility, and we should be prepared for it, there isn’t any indication to think it will suddenly become transmissible between humans this time. There have been over a thousand confirmed cases of H5N1 in humans over the past 20 years, and all were caught directly from an animal and not spread between humans.
While this is certainly a possibility, and we should be prepared for it,
This is mostly what I was going for:-). But yeah, you bring up a good perspective: companies aren’t known for paying for things that are not needed, and since the milk is safe after pasteurization…
In my other comment in this thread (I have no idea how to properly make links to comments, without kicking you off your instance to view it), I quoted a linked article describing how the fatality rate was extremely high, as in literally over half - though I did not dig further to see e.g. how many were immunocompromised to begin with.
Thank you for sharing the detail that they all were caught directly from animals. That makes sense:-).
The mortality rate is high, but the sample is also heavily skewed toward low income, rural farming populations in developing countries like Indonesia, Egypt, and Cambodia. Survival rates among the few cases in the US and Europe have been 100%, with one death in Canada
Thank you for the helpful additions there.
Knowing that it’s already been possible for the virus to make the jump, and that there is an upswing of the virus overall, does make it seem quite likely that it will make another jump again soon.
Is there a reason you think it unlikely that once it does so, it will just immediately stop there and not undergo human-to-human transmission?
Ooof.
The Classic American solution of waiting until a bunch of people die before we consider acting because to act now means a lot of companies would lose money.
We must always keep the needs of the truest victim in every scenario first and foremost (and exclusively) in our thoughts, and ask ourselves: how will this impact tHe EcOnoMy ThO?
Soup@lemmy.world 5 months ago
“We must have a government which protects us from threats and that’s why it’s cool when they buy sick jet planes and stuff.”
“What about diseases?”
“Nah bro that shit’s BOR-ING”
Capitalism: “If it don’t make profit, we ain’t for-it.”
OpenStars@discuss.online 5 months ago
It’ll just bring the population down to a more manageable level. You know, get rid of a few more of The Poors. bUt ThE eCoNoMy ThO!
theguardian.com/…/bird-flu-strain-found-in-us-cow… - another one linked to from this article - says:
Tbf, those people might have been the ones at greatest risk like the elderly and immunocompromised, so the actual fatality rate in the general population would probably be significantly lower… possibly more like a bad flu than anywhere close to COVID, but it’s still not great to have to contemplate no matter what.
So I have a thought: let’s totally ignore it, b/c we all (
the Elitesuh I mean “everyone”, yeah totally that’s what I meant) will be safe forever, whoo-hoo! :-Pprotist@mander.xyz 5 months ago
You can absolutely bet this strain is being accounted for in the annual flu vaccine that will be released in the fall
OpenStars@discuss.online 5 months ago
Hrm, I thought one of these various articles mentioned some significant technical hurdles to building up sufficient stocks of that, over a perhaps 2-3 year period. But maybe that meant worldwide whereas what you are most likely referring to is the stock distributed solely within the USA.