H5N1 virus.

[Ianab]

I see this "Bird Flu" virus is now infecting cows in the US. More worrying is that it also seem to infect their milk, transferring it to cats, and so far 2 humans. But it seems to be able to infect via raw milk, at least to lab mice. 

Good news is that at least the US isn't hiding the info, and current flu vaccine seems to give some protection. 

Worrying is that it's a new and seemingly natural virus mutation. Earlier versions of this virus have been ~ 50% fatal to humans. So far both human cases were minor, but it's probably one mutation away from a pandemic.

[Southside]

Cows don't have any symptoms other than reduced milk for a couple of days - same as when they go into heat, it gets hot suddenly, feed changes, you know things that never happen.  Turns out you can only get it from milk if you squirt it into your eye and are working on a diary farm that you don't reveal the name of and you will end up with bloodshot eyes as a result.  On top of that it infects porpoises and polar bears, because when you find a deceased porpoise the first thing you run is a PCR test for bird flu naturally.   

The only thing that will save us is clearly to have mail in ballots, yup that's what's going to save us.  

[Southside]

Let me add to this.  We are NPIP certified which is a poultry program and as it turns out the state administrator doesn't have, and has not had for months, access to any serum to be able to run tests for bird flu for their regulatory testing requirements, yet somehow someone in Antarctica can run a test on a polar bear?

Recently USDA inspectors pulled 96 dairy cow carcass out of a beef production plant because they "observed symptoms of the illness" in all of them. One carcass was said to have tested positive, 1.04% accuracy based on expert observation.  

This virus may or may not be a real problem to birds not in confinement systems as all the guys I know who don't run confinement have had zero problems and all the problems I know of have been in confinement so that says to me there is more to the story, but the whole - it's mutating and jumping and just one CRISPER lab modification away from another pandemic is fear mongering to the max.  Maybe if we stop screwing around with stuff we don't belong messing with this stuff won't be a problem.  

[NewYankeeSawmill]

@Southside  ... Election year virus. I'll stop there.
My tinfoil hat is thicker than most and I don't want to offend anyone.

[SwampDonkey]

Hasn't even been news worthy up here, it's a wonder. Last I seen anything was 1-1/2 years ago. And that was nothing more than what we see every so many years in the past. Of course that last news I seen blamed back yard birders. Kinda makes sense if your birds are in contact with wild birds. It has to come in from somewhere.

[Ianab]

It's been circulating via wild birds all the time, it's basically their version of "flu". 

It's a concern if it jumps to humans, because when it has in the past it's been bad, as in a ~50% fatality rate. But so far it's not spread widely between humans. 

The concern is that it's now spread to cows. Now as Southside says, the cows don't get badly sick, but the infection seem to hit their udders / milk production for a few days. Then the milk they produce contains viable viruses, that CAN infect humans, and also cats / mice. Pasteurising milk of course destroys the virus.

I'm not running around in the panic buying up toilet paper or anything. But if you think back to 2019, it was "Nothing to see here folks" 'Everything is under control" etc. 

BTW, the US just banned import of some chicken products from Australia due to an outbreak of a different bird flu strain on chicken farms there. So some folks are taking notice of this sort of thing. 

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Im sure it will all blow over just about Nov. 6.

[Southside]

An import ban on chicken products is going to be motivated more by financial protection than consumer safety, just happens to be a convenient excuse.  The commercial US chicken industry has some serious financial challenges right now and anything they can do to raise prices and reduce competition is worthy of paying the lobbyist.  

[newoodguy78]

Not to worry I'm sure there's a totally harmless vaccine being derived that will save us all provided we comply  .

NewYankee just be thankful you've got that hat and not a blindfold.

[barbender]

 If these government agencies ever had any credibility, they lost it on the last go around imo.

[Southside]

Do you have any idea how complicated it is to keep 3,000 chickens 6' apart and enforce the mask mandate with them?  Now I have to do it with my dairy cows, but not my beef cows.  Is that the same science that allowed Walmart to stay open but not the mom and pop shop?  

I spend quite a fair bit of time outside in open areas that attract a lot of wild birds. Geese, ducks, song birds, cow birds, thousands and thousands of cow birds, etc - not any more common than when I recall them flying into my parents big picture window as a kid.   Where are the millions of dead migratory birds that justified killing so many poultry farms?

Oh - lets not forget that Zoetis, the largest animal vaccine mfg, which happens to be a spin off of Pfizer, and is run by Kristen Peck, who just happened to be an executive at Pfizer and is coincidentally on the board of directors for Black Rock, has been lobbying the Biden administration hard for a mandatory mRNA Avian Influenza vaccine for about two years now.  Said vaccine would be mandated for each and every chicken in the US.  That's not a money stream, it's a DanG flooded Mississippi River flow of money to the most corrupt corporation to ever exist, brought to you with the twitch of a pen and 10% to the Big Guy.

Anyone else notice that the WHO is trying to push through their "Pandemic Treaty" right now which would change the WHO from an advisory entity into one with health authority over sovereign nations? What better time to have a new, "50% fatal" virus scare??

What is funny is that for actual flu vaccines chicken eggs must be used in massive volumes, so much so that the US Government has a program which pays egg farmers to stay in business no matter what.  This way if those eggs are needed for vaccine products the govt claims them.  What's next - you can't eat eggs because they have the virus in them and can't be used for vaccine production?  Or are we just going to kill off our vaccine safety flock?

Sorry folks, not this time, the powers that be cried wolf too often. 

[Magicman]

Extinction is the only key to world peace.

[newoodguy78]

True statement Magicman. 

People messing with things that were never intended nor should be played with and thinking they're smarter than God himself while doing it wipes out a lot of innocent people along the way as well. It's happened over and over throughout history, different tactics at different times with the same result. Never good. 

There's a lot to be said for staying humble and paying attention to how Mother Nature works imo. 

[Paul_H]

Yes, Magic's post reminded me of the statement on the Georgia Guidestone monument that the population need to remain under a half Billion

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_Guidestones

And of course the gain of function labs seem a mite sketchy too.

[Mooseherder]

Brought to you by the same people who's investigation couldn't find whom the cocaine belongs to in the Whitehouse.  The nothing to see here crowd works both ways.

[Ianab]

but the whole - it's mutating and jumping and just one CRISPER lab modification away from another pandemic is fear mongering to the max. 

Thing is, it is probably one NATURAL mutation away from being a problem. 

I'd bet there is a 98% change that this virus will fizzle out and not be a big problem. The (natural) mutation that makes it more infectious to cows / cats / mice (and now Lamas), may mean it doesn't affect humans as much? 

But viruses mutate. It's like the infinite monkeys with typewriters. Eventually one will randomly write a Shakespeare play. A million mutations will be dead ends, and that happens every time you get a cold. It's the one in a billion that's a problem, and why we live now live with endless versions of the common cold. We have pretty good resistance to the base virus, and new mutations / declining immunity mean we get a snotty nose or sore throat. Shake it off and carry on. Rinse and repeat a couple of times a year. 

There WILL be another pandemic. It's happened before, and nothing we do will stop it happening again. Next year? 10 years? 50 years? 

The whole "Move along, nothing to see here folks" was the initial response from China. Until it was suddenly "Oh crap, there is actually a nasty virus going around". 

[Southside]

Except for the fact that the problem was the solution, not the gain of function derived virus itself.  It has now come out that masks did nothing, yet people were wrestled to the ground and arrested for not wearing one.  The AZ jab was the latest one to be removed from the market due to significant side effects more damaging than the virus itself, and now Moderna is getting a government cash infusion to create a mRNA jab for this nothingburger.  Guaranteed gain of function research is happening right now to ensure that funding shows up.  Follow the money.  

[NewYankeeSawmill]

Man... I've written and deleted a response like this 20 times... Maybe I should this time, too? I

The base virus originated in 3 camel herders in Saudi Arabia in the 90's, they didn't know what to do with it so they called in the US Army, who took it to Ft. Detrick where they started monkeying with it, under the argument "what mightcould happen".

Obama actually outlawed the type of GOF research they were doing, so it went to Toronto where "Bat Lady Zhengli" stole it and took it to Wuhan. Eco Health Alliance continued the GOF research WITH US TAX FUNDED GRANTS to hook the spike protein from the AIDS virus onto this weird flu virus they found...

No bats every got jiggy with pangolins, and if you believe any of that, I really have nothing more to say on the topic. The number of people that hold the official narrative as 'true' is truly astonishing to me. I had a higher opinion of the populace, but I guess that's my fault. I mean, really, if you have even a cursory knowledge of the last ~60 years of US/World history, you have to be exceptionally slow to not question what's going on today. They've finally admitted they killed Kennedy! Thalomide, DDT, Tuskegee, Bay of Pigs, and you still listen to these people and accept what they say as fact? Really?!??!!

I don't mean to insult any of the readers here, honestly, I _can_ be a jerk at times, that's not my intent today. I honestly cannot believe folks STILL DO NOT SEE what's going on. It's been 8 years! It's not politics, it's COMMUNISM! The Government HAS BEEN TAKEN OVER, and we're now in the clean-up phase. Political opponents being jailed on trumped up charges anyone? Am I the only one who learned who Mao Tse Tung was in High School?

[Southside]

Just out today there is now a prototype bulk tank testing process for dairy cows.  Guys can sign up and get their "lactating dairy cow" farm declared "clean" with weekly testing..... Just remember that Angus standing over the fence is magically immune from "Bird Flu", I mean they are a different species correct?  News flash, we and others, milk some half Angus (or other beef breeds) as the bulls are often used with first calf heifers due to calving ease and nobody is going to give up on a promising heifer calf, so they end up getting milked.  A bit less volume usually, but more cream and they do great on grass.  

This is an absolute politically motivated attack on your food supply folks, nothing more can be said. The "bird flu" human victims somehow all splash milk into their eyes and get bloodshot, puffy eyes, no respiratory issues and they get better in a couple of days - ya know that sounds like pink eye to me, we even have a spray bottle to treat it and it's over the counter.  

Lets see, you are working in the parlor stripping a cow while standing in the trench, and "squirt" something gets into your eye - so what do you do?  You reach up with your hand - that has been all around manure - you look for a clean spot on your glove, and you rub your eye - then you go back to work.  Did you just smash some bacteria into your eye and feed it with the milk residue?  Instant pink eye.  Things that make you go hummmm.....
   

[Mooseherder]

And on other related China happenings, Peter Navaro, our US representative on Trade with China sits in jail down in West Miami because why?
Nothing to see there either.
The WHO guy came out today and said the world needs to get tougher with non Vaccination people.  What are they gonna do?
Invite them to a hunting event with Justice Scalia's hunting party.

[Southside]

I sure don't want to use the word "served" or "under" so I will say I spent a little time "being lectured to" by some UN globalist type in Panama.  This dude had more tin on his uniform than any combat Admiral would ever earn and as far as I knew his home country back in Africa hadn't been in actual combat since WWII.  We feared if he fell into the canal we would have to go and save his drowning butt as the weight would drag him under.  Anyway, the WHO very much reminds me of his type, a little bit of self claimed authority and suddenly they know what is best for everyone.  This was back in the day when command would make a call and things got resolved pretty quickly without giving a DanG about hurting someones feelings.  Not so much today it seems. 

[Ianab]

The "bird flu" human victims somehow all splash milk into their eyes and get bloodshot, puffy eyes, no respiratory issues and they get better in a couple of days - ya know that sounds like pink eye to me, we even have a spray bottle to treat it and it's over the counter.

While I 100% know what you are saying, I've milked cows on my younger days, it's hard to avoid some sort of ""cow juice" getting on you.    But the eye infections WERE H5N1, it's a known strain of influenza that's infected humans before. It's a standard test that Drs can order, which will sort out which of the dozens of bacteria or viruses might be causing your "Pink Eye". If it had been say a bacterial "staph" infection the lab test would show that. It's also quite likely that if no one was actually looking for the spread, it might have been writtin off as "just one of those random things you get", and would have gone away in a few days with no treatment.

Now the third reported case was actually respitory in nature. Again not serious, Dr gave the guy some Tamiflu and he got better. Maybe a cow sneezed on him? Maybe he picked his nose instead of rubbing his eye? 

I guess what's not really known is the true fataltiy rate. The KNOWN numbers worldwide are 889 cases, with 463 of them dying. But I would guess the actual number of cases is higher, and only the worst cases have sought medical attention. Maybe there has been 10X, or 100X the actual cases, and if they weren't bad enough to go to the Doc, they were never recorded. Those numbers just aren't known because there has been no widespread testing for it. 

The focus on daiiry cows is because this virus seems to have an affinity for the cows udder (the sort of cells that make it up), and that results in infectious milk. It can also be passed on to farm cats and lab mice, via raw milk. I'm sure beef cattle can be infected too, but as we aren't consuming their milk, so it's not such a direct health risk. 

Now I sure as heck hope this outbreak just sort of fizzles out over your Summer, and I'm also happy that there are actually people looking for this sort of thing. If you remember back to the start of Covid there was so much denial from various areas that the virus had left China before their Govt even acknowledged it was actually a thing. 

[Southside]

The virus will magically determine it's own fate on November 5th