This year has been marked by concerning developments in the virus’ spread, including widespread detections in wastewater and mutations observed in the virus.
This would be a good moment for every country to be investing heavily in vaccines. A bird flu pandemic will most likely be far worse than COVID was, and the virus is all around us just waiting for the right mutation.
Instead, the USA has put RFK Jr, an extreme paranoid antivax fool, in charge of the Department of Health, and the Republicans are talking about banning most or all vaccines and forbidding health professionals from recommending vaccines. There is absolutely no logic or science behind this - it’s based on irrational feelings. This could get a large chunk of the US population killed quite soon, worsen the pandemic for every other country around the world, and set back vaccine development and production for the whole world.
This could go down in history as one of the most self-destructive political decisions ever made. It will make other idiocies like Brexit and tariffs look like a walk in the park.
I know lots of antivaxxers spread Covid while traveling and the avian pandemic will likely have just as much help if not more now. Capitalism giving those fat greasy dollars the ability to travel anywhere, so there go tourist destinations.
bird flu pandemic will most likely be far worse than COVID was, and the virus is all around us just waiting for the right mutation.
I keep hearing this but its unclear to me why we should expect this strain to be worse than say, the Swine Flu that hit several years before Covid? I know it caused a few deaths but was generally pretty forgettable and short lived in peoples awareness.
Because it spreads by birds, who migrate a lot and is less fatal to them. And when a human catches it, i ha a high death rate. Currently the species jump is rare and only for those in contact with birds, but that could change.
Then it’s a constantly spreading disease with a high death rate.
Not really rare. It wrecked sea lion populations in Peru, penguin populations in the arctic. It was found in different bears species, foxes or pumas and as far as I understood it was deadly for them too. Millions of birds in wildlife. And now cows, cats and chickens.
If pigs get it (I don’t know if it happened already) it’ll get very serious. That’s how the “spanish” flu started in the USA.
[The hospital] also was home to a piggery and poultry was regularly brought in from surrounding villages to feed the camp. Oxford and his team postulated that a precursor virus, harbored in birds, mutated and then migrated to pigs kept near the front.
Because pigs are more readily infected with avian influenza viruses than are humans, they were suggested as the original recipients of the virus, passing the virus to humans sometime between 1913 and 1918.
[I fact-check as much as my time and preexisting knowledge allow. I post what I found to vouch for your comment and save other people time. I hope I don’t come across in the wrong way.]
penguin populations in the arctic
There are no penguins in the Arctic and the article you linked to doesn’t mention them. Where has bird flu infected penguins?
This would be a good moment for every country to be investing heavily in vaccines. A bird flu pandemic will most likely be far worse than COVID was, and the virus is all around us just waiting for the right mutation.
Instead, the USA has put RFK Jr, an extreme paranoid antivax fool, in charge of the Department of Health, and the Republicans are talking about banning most or all vaccines and forbidding health professionals from recommending vaccines. There is absolutely no logic or science behind this - it’s based on irrational feelings. This could get a large chunk of the US population killed quite soon, worsen the pandemic for every other country around the world, and set back vaccine development and production for the whole world.
This could go down in history as one of the most self-destructive political decisions ever made. It will make other idiocies like Brexit and tariffs look like a walk in the park.
To be fair, RFK Jr has not been approved yet. He almost certainly will be, but so far he’s just been nominated.
I know lots of antivaxxers spread Covid while traveling and the avian pandemic will likely have just as much help if not more now. Capitalism giving those fat greasy dollars the ability to travel anywhere, so there go tourist destinations.
I keep hearing this but its unclear to me why we should expect this strain to be worse than say, the Swine Flu that hit several years before Covid? I know it caused a few deaths but was generally pretty forgettable and short lived in peoples awareness.
OK but my lungs never recovered from swine flu. It wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, but it’s not like it was no big deal.
And back then vaccines were apolitical
Because it spreads by birds, who migrate a lot and is less fatal to them. And when a human catches it, i ha a high death rate. Currently the species jump is rare and only for those in contact with birds, but that could change.
Then it’s a constantly spreading disease with a high death rate.
Not really rare. It wrecked sea lion populations in Peru, penguin populations in the arctic. It was found in different bears species, foxes or pumas and as far as I understood it was deadly for them too. Millions of birds in wildlife. And now cows, cats and chickens.
If pigs get it (I don’t know if it happened already) it’ll get very serious. That’s how the “spanish” flu started in the USA.
https://wildlife.org/highly-pathogenic-bird-flu-an-unprecedented-threat-to-wildlife/
That article is a sobering read. I wasn’t aware of the extent of the spread and thank you for sharing it.
That is indeed a theory, hypothesized in a paper from 2005 and mentioned on the Wikipedia article about the Spanish flu:
[I fact-check as much as my time and preexisting knowledge allow. I post what I found to vouch for your comment and save other people time. I hope I don’t come across in the wrong way.]
There are no penguins in the Arctic and the article you linked to doesn’t mention them. Where has bird flu infected penguins?
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