3 ms·

Why does the article devote so many paragraphs to bird flu in cows when the patient contracted it from birds and it's not the strain prevalent in dairy herds?

Polizeiposaune 2y ago
My understanding is that much of the H5N1 bird flu detected in north america before this event was detected in cows and in people with exposure to cows. So if you want to provide background on H5N1 in america you end up talking about cows. See, for instance, https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/mammals.html https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/mammals.html
- winocm 2y ago
  I feel like general press calling it “bird flu” over “highly-pathogenic avian influenza” (as what it is called in literature) might be a big oversight…
bee_rider 2y ago
Did they edit it or something? The version I see has only one paragraph about cows. And it is only there to explain that it isn’t the version going around in cows (But I did have to use the archive link shared here—normally I don’t like those, but curiosity about a potential public health issue overrode my principles).
- tedunangst 2y ago
  The archive version seems to be missing several paragraphs like > But the virus is changing, said John Connor, an associate professor of microbiology at Boston University. “It is essentially going to the gym all the time and training to be better,” Connor said at a webinar on H5N1 this week hosted by hosted by Boston University’s Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases. “The virus is not just getting into birds, now it’s getting into cows. There’s evidence that it’s getting into other animals, cats, dogs, mink,” he said. “Now what we are seeing is that this is a virus that used to be only good at breaking and entering into bird cells and causing disease there and transmitting there, now its getting better at breaking and entering into a bunch of other cells.”
  - jacobgkau 2y ago
    Thanks for giving an example. It looks like someone added an additional snapshot on the archive site which now includes that paragraph. Just have to click "next" to see the next snapshot.
  - southernplaces7 2y ago
    And if one John Conner is worried about the future of this virus, i'd be worried too..
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
throwup238 2y ago
There are two big news items about H5N1 and this article talks about both of them. The CDC announced the first severe case in Louisiana and California declared a state of emergency because of bird flu detected in cows (which is mostly just a bureaucratic formality to release funds and enable agencies to cooperate with less red tape).
- charliebwrites 2y ago
  Why can’t agencies always have easier access to funds and cooperate with less red tape? Seems more…efficient?
  - DrillShopper 2y ago
    [flagged]
  - mort96 2y ago
    I don't know the reason in this specific case, but sometimes, "red tape" exists for a reason. Things like documenting why things are done the way they are, why funds go where they go, going through ethics committees, etc has real benefits (including from an efficiency perspective; without oversight over e.g where funds go, you open up for both embezzlement and bad allocation). However getting rid of that stuff might make sense in situations where being able to rapidly respond is essential.
    - ska 2y ago
      > but sometimes, "red tape" exists for a reason. Pretty much always. And a lot of the time, the reason (if not the implementation) was pretty good. But these things almost always grow, and interact, and are very hard to update with changing times. SO you get a mess, and you get friction, but mostly as you note, the friction is viewed as a brake on other undesirable outcomes. So people learn to work with it. I guess there aren't enough incentives for people to clean up/optimize it until well past when it becomes an obvious problem.,,
  - jfengel 2y ago

Polizeiposaune 2y ago

My understanding is that much of the H5N1 bird flu detected in north america before this event was detected in cows and in people with exposure to cows. So if you want to provide background on H5N1 in america you end up talking about cows. See, for instance, https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/mammals.html https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/mammals.html

winocm 2y ago
I feel like general press calling it “bird flu” over “highly-pathogenic avian influenza” (as what it is called in literature) might be a big oversight…

bee_rider 2y ago

Did they edit it or something? The version I see has only one paragraph about cows. And it is only there to explain that it isn’t the version going around in cows (But I did have to use the archive link shared here—normally I don’t like those, but curiosity about a potential public health issue overrode my principles).

tedunangst 2y ago
The archive version seems to be missing several paragraphs like > But the virus is changing, said John Connor, an associate professor of microbiology at Boston University. “It is essentially going to the gym all the time and training to be better,” Connor said at a webinar on H5N1 this week hosted by hosted by Boston University’s Center on Emerging Infectious Diseases. “The virus is not just getting into birds, now it’s getting into cows. There’s evidence that it’s getting into other animals, cats, dogs, mink,” he said. “Now what we are seeing is that this is a virus that used to be only good at breaking and entering into bird cells and causing disease there and transmitting there, now its getting better at breaking and entering into a bunch of other cells.”
- jacobgkau 2y ago
  Thanks for giving an example. It looks like someone added an additional snapshot on the archive site which now includes that paragraph. Just have to click "next" to see the next snapshot.
- southernplaces7 2y ago
  And if one John Conner is worried about the future of this virus, i'd be worried too..

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]

throwup238 2y ago

There are two big news items about H5N1 and this article talks about both of them. The CDC announced the first severe case in Louisiana and California declared a state of emergency because of bird flu detected in cows (which is mostly just a bureaucratic formality to release funds and enable agencies to cooperate with less red tape).

charliebwrites 2y ago
Why can’t agencies always have easier access to funds and cooperate with less red tape? Seems more…efficient?
- DrillShopper 2y ago
  [flagged]
- mort96 2y ago
  I don't know the reason in this specific case, but sometimes, "red tape" exists for a reason. Things like documenting why things are done the way they are, why funds go where they go, going through ethics committees, etc has real benefits (including from an efficiency perspective; without oversight over e.g where funds go, you open up for both embezzlement and bad allocation). However getting rid of that stuff might make sense in situations where being able to rapidly respond is essential.
  - ska 2y ago
    > but sometimes, "red tape" exists for a reason. Pretty much always. And a lot of the time, the reason (if not the implementation) was pretty good. But these things almost always grow, and interact, and are very hard to update with changing times. SO you get a mess, and you get friction, but mostly as you note, the friction is viewed as a brake on other undesirable outcomes. So people learn to work with it. I guess there aren't enough incentives for people to clean up/optimize it until well past when it becomes an obvious problem.,,
- jfengel 2y ago