/leftypol/ - Leftist Politically Incorrect

Meaning what exactly?

>>486436
Maybe this could be the beginning of something. It is worrisome that H5N1 crossed the species barrier twice already: bird to cow and cow to human. But as long as it doesn't easily do Human to human transmission. You don't have to panic, burn all the cattle and wrap your self in cellophane just yet.

But at the moment there's other stuff to worry about. That Russian general that was assassinated a few days ago, was known for having discovered Biolabs in Ukraine. There appears to be a link to the US as well.

There were a lot of rumors about them trying to make racist viruses that specifically target Russians. Obviously viruses do not care about categories that humans made up so that's impossible to do. However it doesn't mean they didn't cook up a nasty bug none the less. Deluded racialists who think they would not be affected might end up releasing it.

And the fact that they killed the guy who was raising the alarm, gives pause for thought.

flood detected post discarded ( ;m;)

>>486446
>Dr. Rick Bright, an immunologist, vaccine researcher and director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority from 2016 to 2020, recently said:

< It’s so critical that the US government is being as transparent as they can right now, overly transparent, and sharing all of these sequences and all of this data so the world can look at it and make their own risk assessments and start making their own vaccine if they need to in their own countries instead of waiting for the United States to say what’s good and what’s bad…

>Already by April (the H5N1 outbreak in cattle was belatedly announced on March 25), three national veterinary organizations had written a letter to Secretary Vilsack demanding increased transparency and data sharing, saying:

< One way communication will not be effective in uniting regulatory and industry partners to mitigate and control the outbreak. Please encourage open communication, solicit feedback in the creation of guidance, allow access to data and results and continue to allow this coalition unfettered access to our APHIS and Field Staff.

>Vilsack followed the USDA playbook and moved at a snail’s pace even to respond to the letter. It took a month for his reply to arrive, a virtual eternity when it comes to controlling the rapid spread of novel pathogenic viruses. In his reply, he made no promises, merely saying that he was “absolutely committed to timely, accurate, ongoing and coordinated communications about this situation.”

>Even state departments of agriculture, no enemy of the dairy industry, expressed concern with the USDA response. The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture sent Vilsack a letter in June demanding that the outbreak be treated primarily as an issue of animal health and that the USDA increase data collection and sharing on the outbreak.

>Vilsack was quoted as saying on a call with state veterinarians that he was unconcerned by the outbreak and that “It’s just going to burn itself out.” This statement shows complete ignorance about how novel infectious diseases work and a complete lack of concern for the welfare of both animals and humans.

<Growing dangers of a bird flu pandemic under Trump

>Needless to say, humanity would be devastated by a new pandemic sparked by the ongoing H5N1 panzootic. Historically, bird flu has had a roughly 50 percent fatality rate among humans since it was first detected in 1997.

>The dairy industry and its servant, the USDA, are putting the entire world at risk in order to protect profits. The industry exports over $24 billion of produce every year, which is worth more to them than the tens or even hundreds of millions of lives that could be lost in an H5N1 pandemic.

>Of course, the incoming Trump administration offers no hope for improving the situation. The best thing one could say about Trump’s nominee, Brooke Rollins, for USDA is that she does not have extensive ties to the dairy industry. Typical of nearly all of Trump’s nominees, however, she was chosen for her loyalty to Trump and not her expertise.

>The sum total of Rollins’ agriculture expertise is growing up on a farm, graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree in agriculture development from Texas A&M in 1994 and “having a good relationship” with the Texas Farm Bureau.

>Her real credentials that led to her receiving a nomination in the incoming Trump administration was serving in his first administration and founding the America First Policy Institute. During Trump’s first term, Rollins was director of the US Domestic Policy Council, where she was instrumental in Trump’s suppression of protests after the police murder of George Floyd.

>The only agricultural policy put forward by the America First Policy Institute thus far has been to fearmonger about Chinese ownership of agricultural land. The institute drafted model legislation passed by 12 states to ban Chinese ownership of agricultural land. A report by Cornell University debunked the alleged threat.

>Meanwhile, Louisiana reported its first presumptive positive case of H5N1. The patient required hospitalization, and confirmatory testing by the CDC is ongoing. In California, another dairy farmworker was infected, and a child who drank raw milk there is officially listed as a “suspected case.”

>The danger of the virus spreading through raw milk is amplified by Trump’s nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK, Jr.) whose charlatanry extends to advocating vigorously for legalizing the sale and distribution of raw milk. As secretary of Health and Human Services, he could potentially lift a rule banning its sale across state lines.

>Scientifically, raw milk has none of the additional benefits over pasteurized milk that its proponents falsely claim. And it has extraordinary dangers for transmitting a wide variety of pathogens, including H5N1. One outbreak of Salmonella alone, caused by raw milk consumption, sickened at least 171 people from September 2023 to March 2024.

>Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said: “This outbreak could be many times larger than the 171 cases reported.”

>Notably, the company that sold the contaminated raw milk, Raw Farm, was visited by RFK Jr. prior to his withdrawal as a candidate for the presidency. The CEO of Raw Farm, Mark McAfee, has applied for an advisory role with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), something he was reportedly encouraged to do by the RFK Jr. team working on the transition to the new Trump administration.

>If he were brought on as an adviser to the FDA, as is characteristic to so many individuals associated with Trump, it would amount to putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. The FDA has an enforcement action active against Raw Farm in the Eastern District of California.

>The ongoing, rapid spread of H5N1 throughout the United States, infecting people, cattle, poultry, house cats, marine mammals, and of course wild birds, is an object lesson for workers on the inability of capitalism to contain deadly pathogens and prevent future pandemics. The ruling class, as it claws back workers’ gains on wages, pensions, health benefits, and working hours and conditions, is also clawing back the gains in life expectancy seen in the 20th century that resulted from public health innovations and practice.

>To preserve and extend life, workers must organize their own independent program, free from the influence of the two capitalist parties and their subservient trade union bureaucracies. Only then can they overthrow capitalism and replace it with socialism, a social system that prioritizes human life, including the prevention and elimination of future pandemics.

>>486437
Basically there's an incredibly virulent and deadly infection percolating within and around the dairy industry and nothing is really being done to stop it. If left unchecked it's likely there's only a matter of time between us a pandemic which makes corona look like an outbreak of the sniffles.

>>486436
>>486438
>>486446
>>486447
>>486451
Am I gonna die?