With #H5N1#birdflu spreading amongst dairy cows, one of the most important things to think about right now is what would need to happen for this virus to actually start a pandemic.
I'm on a train, so a brief thread...
#BirdFlu#H5N1#PublicHealth: "Over the past four years, a silent pandemic has been raging. One in which the death toll is believed to number in the hundreds of millions, but which has received remarkably little attention until now.
The pandemic in question is bird flu, the H5N1 strain of influenza, which since 2020 has moved far beyond the avian world and into mammals ranging from dairy cattle to domestic pets, and species that live on our doorsteps, such as foxes. The virus’s presence has been detected on every continent, even Antarctica. While it has yet to evolve the capability of spreading between humans, alarm bells were raised last month after a dairy farm worker in Texas contracted H5N1, seemingly from cattle.
It would appear to be the first known case of bird flu jumping to humans from another mammal. “There is increasing concern at the scientific and public health levels,” says Dr Gregory Poland, director of the Mayo Clinic’s vaccine research group, who has previously compared the rising infection rates among animals to “the rumbles prior to an earthquake”."
In the U.S, at least 23 cats have been infected with H5N1 bird flu & 10 have died. Cats are believed to be highly vulnerable to this strain of bird flu. Don’t let your cats drink unpasteurized milk!:)
"Bird flu had been circulating in dairy cows for at least 4 months before it was detected. The USG cannot afford to repeat the mistakes made at the onset of the COVID pandemic.
The US Gov should incentivize farmers to test their livestock, environment & ppl working in proximity. Without major incentives - esp. FIN so farmers don't fear for their livelihood if #H5N1 is detected, we have no chance of success." https://time.com/6976402/bird-flu-next-pandemic-testing/
New: Cases surging globally (again), KP.2 FLiRT variant dominant in US “defies vaccines,” FDA postpones vaccine meeting, Moderna warns LC risk rises w/each infection, tests rated from best to worst, WHO knew it was airborne, hospital acquired infection = nearly 1 death/day in AU, and more.
#H5N1 spreading rapidly among cows +infecting skunks, mountain lions & red foxes.
Yet as the highly contagious avian flu affects mammals across the US, just 1 human case has been reported so far.
But we could be missing cases with limited surveillance from states & dairy farms. In a test for pandemic preparedness "We're not going to be ready," one epidemiologist told me🚨.
"We need to do much better to stop this outbreak & detecting future ones."
-Dr Bright
Who could have guessed that forcing cows to eat bird poo would result in spreading pathogens ?
Experts fear that H5N1, which was only first detected in cows a few weeks ago, may have been transmitted through a type of cattle feed called “poultry litter” – a mix of poultry excreta, spilled feed, feathers, and other waste scraped from the floors of industrial chicken and turkey production plants.