• Catoblepas
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    7 months ago

    The institute’s founder, Mark McAfee, told the Los Angeles Times this weekend that his customers are, in fact, specifically requesting raw milk from H5N1-infected cows. According to McAfee, his customers believe, without evidence, that directly drinking high levels of the avian influenza virus will give them immunity to the deadly pathogen.

    Looks like it’s going to be a fun flu season this year 🫠 Every day I feel more justified in my decision to relentlessly mask with an N95 every time I’m indoors in public.

    • Grass@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      didn’t cats already get the virus from drinking the raw milk? honestly at this point if only they wouldn’t end up infecting a bunch of other likely non-retarded individuals, I’d be inclined to just let them kill themselves with this and pass on beleiving that they proved their point. More realistically, they will probably spread it and kill a bunch of other people that way then still act like they have uncovered some great fucking secret, while somehow being the only survivors of the incident.

  • MyOpinion@lemm.ee
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    7 months ago

    These raw milk fools never learn. Raw milk has always been dangerous. Now even more dangerous. Avoid raw milk.

      • capital@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Commenters in here fully on board with advocating against raw milk because they don’t drink it.

        As soon as you advocate against something which is the source of many of our zoonotic diseases they downvote because they do not want to stop eating animals.

        People who would downvote the above comment: we see you like you see raw milk drinkers.

  • FirstCircle@lemmy.ml
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    7 months ago

    The California-based Raw Milk Institute called the warnings “clearly fearmongering.” The institute’s founder, Mark McAfee, told the Los Angeles Times this weekend that his customers are, in fact, specifically requesting raw milk from H5N1-infected cows. According to McAfee, his customers believe, without evidence, that directly drinking high levels of the avian influenza virus will give them immunity to the deadly pathogen.

    By all means, drink up, morons, get the hell out of our gene pool, we’ve got enough troubles without your Dimwit DNA.

    • CareHare@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      I know there are also conspiracy theories around pasteurization. Supposedly it doesn’t work and you don’t need it. Oh and viruses are a hoax. Or at least that’s what my very self educated husband of my cousin believes.

      • 8ender@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Can we just call this what it is as likely troll farm activity to sow discord in western society. I’m tired of it now being called out.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        “Viruses are a hoax” seems to have been growing ever since COVID. I never encountered it before that, now I’ve encountered it multiple times. There was a guy in the skeptic sub on Reddit who came in to argue like mad that viruses didn’t exist.

          • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            People were lined up around street corners to get the polio vaccine when it came out because they all knew just how horrible polio was.

            And now that we’ve had decades of basically no polio because of the vaccine, people think vaccines aren’t needed, are dangerous, and that diseases are a hoax.

            Education is critical.

            • Andonyx@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              I do work for a bunch of pharmaceutical companies and developing nation health outreach type organizations. (Don’t ask me much technical, I’m not personally on the medical side.) But I can tell you that most major pharmas, Health NGOs and Government drug safety regulatory bodies are keenly aware that “Vaccines are a victim of their own success.” They have multiple approaches to dealing with the problem that a successful vaccine campaign makes the need for the vaccines socially invisible. There are varying degrees of success, but not a lot of generalized and reliable ways to combat this kind of cognitive disconnect.

        • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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          7 months ago

          The spectrum of human thought is astounding some times.

          On the one hand you have people adamant that viruses don’t even exist against all rational thought, reason, the almost daily experience of their existence, and over a hundred years of scientific research around the world learning more about them in detail and cataloguing at least 15,000 distinct species.

          While simultaneously you have people who know so much that they can manipulate viruses into becoming our own little machines to deliver working copies of genes straight into particular types of cells in someone’s body and treat their deadly genetic illness with gene therapy.

  • kinther@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    If we all have to endure another pandemic that will further worsen our overall health… we really do live in the dumbest timeline.

    • HessiaNerd@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I think I may have long COVID or something… I got COVID in November, recovered, then caught a cold in January and have been sick since. I just want to be healthy. Why do the stupidest among us have to fuck everything up?

      • Poik@pawb.social
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        7 months ago

        Good luck. Don’t catch covid again if you can help it. Repeated exposure makes it worse. Pretty sure that’s where I’m at. At least I’ve been up to date with vaccines or it could have been much worse, likely.

    • No_Eponym@lemmy.ca
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      7 months ago

      Probably how the raw milk sinkers think of themselves too. Super-powered, misunderstood, fighting an oppressive government, actually the hero.

      The reality? Bit-character, backwater hicks.

  • MrEff@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    It’s all milky fun and games with a side of creamy fat until someone gets a case of brucellosis.

    • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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      7 months ago

      I’m kinda ashamed of this, but I used to prefer the raw milk from a local dairy farm because it comes with all the fat and cream(you have to shake it before drinking) and it tasted soo freaking good. They vaccinate their cows and only have about 8 of them.
      However, I will not be buying that anymore and go back to buying pasteurized all the time. The taste isn’t worth risking h5n1. I know it’s a pretty stupid thing to do since other illnesses can happen from raw milk, but I guess it’s better late than never to stop doing that

      • melisdrawing@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Dude, you were taking a calculated risk before, and the calculations have changed. Good on you for adapting to this very real threat to our collective well-being.

        • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Thanks for saying this, I hadn’t thought about it that way. I still feel foolish for taking any risk in the first place, but h5n1 is just messed up levels of scary.

      • lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Yeah you can totally get unhomogenized milk that is pasteurized. They sell one brand at my local grocery store. Look for some in your area.

        Edit: they would refer to it as cream top most likely.

        • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Thank you! I didn’t know that was available as a product and will keep my eye out for it. Probably just as good too

      • Andonyx@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        As Melisdrawing made clear, never feel bad about using new information to make a better decision.

        • JovialMicrobial@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Thank you, I still feel a kinda dumb, but a little less so now. I appreciate the quote and will be saving it for use in the future

  • InternetUser2012@midwest.social
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    7 months ago

    Biden should tell everyone NOT to drink raw milk. Farmers will make tons of money and love him for it, and darwin will take over costing tRump votes. The end result will make for a better America.

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      At this point Biden could summon a genie to grant everyone in America three wishes and people would still blame him for not giving them six wishes.

  • Red_October@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Can we just skip to producing a vaccine for this now? If they’re that intent on giving it every possible chance to jump to humans, and we obviously can’t stop them, let’s at least try to contain it before we get Pandemic 2: Electric Boogaloo.

    • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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      7 months ago

      We have made H5N1 avian flu vaccines many times before. We have one developed as recently as 2020 that’s been approved by the FDA for use in humans, not sure how great it is against the current incarnation though. Flu is quite good at evading vaccines, hence the need for frequent updates.

      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/H5N1_vaccine

      The US government funds vaccine development for viruses that might become a problem at some point. There’s also work into expanding rna vaccine technology, which can allow for very quick updates as viruses change. We need way more work and funding on pandemic prep and surveillance. We’ve all seen how devestating a global pandemic can be. Even if the vast majority developed never end up needing use, one of them may save millions of lives.

      https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/vaccine-makers-are-preparing-for-bird-flu/

      Anyways, if an H5N1 pandemic started tomorrow, there’s a vaccine that would probably be helpful already made. Would need to be scaled up massively in production of course though.

    • piecat@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      And milk hasn’t made me sick. But clearly people get sick drinking milk, and people get sick drinking plant milk. Mold, botulism, Listeria, Salmonella…

      What’s my point? That you don’t really have a point.

  • protist@mander.xyz
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    7 months ago

    I’m going to play scientist here and not knee-jeek call these people names. Is there actually any evidence of viable viral transmission in raw cow’s milk? The expression and transmission of viruses in human breast milk is an extremely complex subject. Antibodies are often expressed in breast milk, and active viruses are only sometimes expressed, with highly variable infection rates among infants based on the type of virus. So my genuine question: What evidence is there supporting this warning not to drink raw milk for fear of H5N1 transmission?

    • Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      This is what the FDA says

      Raw Milk/Cheese Concerns

      **Are there concerns about HPAI and raw, unpasteurized milk? **

      Based on the limited research and information available, we do not know at this time if HPAI A (H5N1) viruses can be transmitted through consumption of unpasteurized (raw) milk and products (such as cheese) made from raw milk from infected cows. However, we have long known that raw milk can harbor dangerous microorganisms (germs) that can pose serious health risks to consumers. According to the CDC, from 1998 through 2018, there were 202 outbreaks linked to drinking raw milk, resulting in 2,645 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations. These outbreaks have typically been caused by the presence of bacteria such as Campylobacter, Cryptosporidium, E. coliSalmonella, or Listeria monocytogenes in the raw milk. For more information about how consumers can protect themselves from these risks see our website: Raw Milk.

      • Kowowow@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        Weren’t there cats showing signs of infection from drinking the milk like blindness and what not?

      • protist@mander.xyz
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        7 months ago

        The possibility of bacterial growth in unpasteurized milk is without question, but this clearly states there is no known evidence that flu virus can be passed through raw milk. So why are there official warnings being issued about this? I want to be clear I don’t think drinking raw milk is a good idea, but I also want the public to trust our institutions, and putting out a warning based on zero evidence doesn’t foster trust

        • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.ml
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          It’s not zero evidence, it’s just not 100% certain. There have had known H5N1 infections in other mammals consuming raw milk that spilled. Many of them have died from it. Additionally, the testing that has happened shows that 1 in 5 US dairy samples are positive for H5N1 so it’s prevelence is rather high making there be a very real risk

        • 4am@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Zero evidence doesn’t mean it’s safe - zero evidence means we don’t know.

          I’m sure it’s being looked into, but why would “go ahead, take a chance!” be the trustworthy take?

    • Tarquinn2049@lemmy.world
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      Well, they detected destroyed versions of the virus in pasteurized milk, so unless something else destroyed them before the pastuerization would have done so, there is a chance raw milk would have live virus in it. But it is certainly possible something else was responsible for destroying it before it got into the milk. I sure wouldn’t take the chance myself, it’s already a pretty bad idea to drink raw milk without this added.