3 ms·

Bird flu in Texas: many human cases, no certainty about human to human spread?

5 points by leashless 2y ago

leashless 2y ago
“But Russo and many other vets have heard anecdotes about workers who have pink eye and other symptoms—including fever, cough, and lethargy—and do not want to be tested or seen by doctors. James Lowe, a researcher who specializes in pig influenza viruses, says policies for monitoring exposed people vary greatly between states. “I believe there are probably lots of human cases,” he says, noting that most likely are asymptomatic.“
ungreased0675 2y ago
Why does it seem like the CDC is missing from the picture? They were late to the party on COVID, and they seem to be disinterested in bird flu. Do we need a pandemic response agency?
- smt88 2y ago
  They literally have a bird-flu task force. They're doing everything you would expect and want them to do. I have a friend who was on the task force and quit because the White House kept calling them in on weekends to discuss news like this, even though it wasn't an emergency. This was 2-3 years ago. Also from the article: > Russo says she is heartened that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has “really started to mobilize and do the right thing,” including linking with state and local health departments, as well as vets, to monitor the health of workers on affected farms. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2023-2024/avian-situation-update-05032024.htm https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2023-2024/avian-... https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/what-cdc-doing-h5n1.htm https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/what-cdc-doing-h5n1.htm
  - HarryHirsch 2y ago
    to monitor the health of workers on affected farms Are they really? There's economic incentives against it - the farm owners won't want to know that their herd has bird flu, and the farmworkers, a good chunk of whom are illegal, don't want to know either. And now suddenly, the same government that studiously looked aside wants to count what doesn't want to be counted?
    - smt88 2y ago
      The government doesn't ignore illegal immigrants. There was recently a massive fight to keep them in the census, for example. Democrats and career govt officials wanted to keep them.
      - HarryHirsch 2y ago
        Last summer, Governor Pritzker, who is angling for the presidency, pulled back on a health insurance program for illegal immigrants (https://news.wttw.com/2023/06/20/illinois-scaling-back-health-care-benefits-undocumented-immigrants https://news.wttw.com/2023/06/20/illinois-scaling-back-healt...) and became a crusader for abortion. That is now backfiring, such moves do not engender trust with the near-slaves working in agriculture for the nation's food supply. You think someone who can't take off time when sick and doesn't have the money for the doctor will cooperate?
smt88 2y ago
It's against HN guidelines to editorialize titles. The real title of the article is: "U.S. government in hot seat for response to growing cow flu outbreak"
- leashless 2y ago
  The title summarizes the key facts of the article without adding editorial.
  - smt88 2y ago
    1) The guidelines are against changing the title at all. 2) "Just asking questions, bro" is a form of editorial. And you can make statements in a leading way, as you did in this title.
    - leashless 2y ago
      The article asks that question
reify 2y ago
I will keep saying it! Isn't it about time those lovely cow farmers stopped feeding ground chickens to cows. Cheep-cheep cow feed. Cheeper than your average field of grass. Cows are vegans. You dont see any lined up outside the local burger take away, ber-gerkins or mac-kidees. I bet they roll out a human vaccine before the poor cows get one. Cows look funny in masks.
arctangos 2y ago
There is a financial concept known as universal ownership. The gist of it is that most investors are more affected by the overall returns of the market than by the returns of individual stocks. As a result, rational investors should sometimes vote against their individual holdings’ short term interests in favor of the long-term interest of the economy. Limiting antibiotics for livestock is one of these. Not feeding cows chicken would seem to be another obvious one. Unfortunately, many financial institutions have been slow to pick this up and may soon have an opportunity to learn about the consequences.

5 points by leashless 2y ago

“But Russo and many other vets have heard anecdotes about workers who have pink eye and other symptoms—including fever, cough, and lethargy—and do not want to be tested or seen by doctors. James Lowe, a researcher who specializes in pig influenza viruses, says policies for monitoring exposed people vary greatly between states. “I believe there are probably lots of human cases,” he says, noting that most likely are asymptomatic.“

ungreased0675 2y ago

Why does it seem like the CDC is missing from the picture? They were late to the party on COVID, and they seem to be disinterested in bird flu. Do we need a pandemic response agency?

smt88 2y ago
They literally have a bird-flu task force. They're doing everything you would expect and want them to do. I have a friend who was on the task force and quit because the White House kept calling them in on weekends to discuss news like this, even though it wasn't an emergency. This was 2-3 years ago. Also from the article: > Russo says she is heartened that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has “really started to mobilize and do the right thing,” including linking with state and local health departments, as well as vets, to monitor the health of workers on affected farms. https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2023-2024/avian-situation-update-05032024.htm https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/spotlights/2023-2024/avian-... https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/what-cdc-doing-h5n1.htm https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/what-cdc-doing-h5n1.htm
- HarryHirsch 2y ago
  to monitor the health of workers on affected farms Are they really? There's economic incentives against it - the farm owners won't want to know that their herd has bird flu, and the farmworkers, a good chunk of whom are illegal, don't want to know either. And now suddenly, the same government that studiously looked aside wants to count what doesn't want to be counted?
  - smt88 2y ago
    The government doesn't ignore illegal immigrants. There was recently a massive fight to keep them in the census, for example. Democrats and career govt officials wanted to keep them.
    - HarryHirsch 2y ago
      Last summer, Governor Pritzker, who is angling for the presidency, pulled back on a health insurance program for illegal immigrants (https://news.wttw.com/2023/06/20/illinois-scaling-back-health-care-benefits-undocumented-immigrants https://news.wttw.com/2023/06/20/illinois-scaling-back-healt...) and became a crusader for abortion. That is now backfiring, such moves do not engender trust with the near-slaves working in agriculture for the nation's food supply. You think someone who can't take off time when sick and doesn't have the money for the doctor will cooperate?

smt88 2y ago

It's against HN guidelines to editorialize titles. The real title of the article is: "U.S. government in hot seat for response to growing cow flu outbreak"

leashless 2y ago
The title summarizes the key facts of the article without adding editorial.
- smt88 2y ago
  1) The guidelines are against changing the title at all. 2) "Just asking questions, bro" is a form of editorial. And you can make statements in a leading way, as you did in this title.
  - leashless 2y ago
    The article asks that question

reify 2y ago

I will keep saying it! Isn't it about time those lovely cow farmers stopped feeding ground chickens to cows. Cheep-cheep cow feed. Cheeper than your average field of grass. Cows are vegans. You dont see any lined up outside the local burger take away, ber-gerkins or mac-kidees. I bet they roll out a human vaccine before the poor cows get one. Cows look funny in masks.

arctangos 2y ago

There is a financial concept known as universal ownership. The gist of it is that most investors are more affected by the overall returns of the market than by the returns of individual stocks. As a result, rational investors should sometimes vote against their individual holdings’ short term interests in favor of the long-term interest of the economy. Limiting antibiotics for livestock is one of these. Not feeding cows chicken would seem to be another obvious one. Unfortunately, many financial institutions have been slow to pick this up and may soon have an opportunity to learn about the consequences.