Experts say current US outbreak is unlikely to end without intervention with further mutation of virus likely

Summary

A new H5N1 bird flu variant has become “endemic in cows,” with cases detected in Nevada and Arizona, raising concerns about human transmission.

Experts warn that without intervention, the outbreak will continue, but Trump has cut CDC staff and halted flu vaccination campaigns.

The virus’s spread coincides with a severe flu season, increasing the risk of mutation.

The administration has also stopped sharing flu data with the WHO and shifted its containment strategy away from culling infected poultry, raising fears of inadequate response.

        • queermunist she/her
          3•1 month ago

          Meat is a vector for all pandemics, so the goal should be to create a world where no one ever has to eat meat ever again.

              • @throwback3090@lemmy.nzEnglish
                4•1 month ago

                Modern fake meat is not super distinguishable anymore. The stuff you buy at the market I mean, not the stuff that is sold at restaurants even when the brand is same (maybe restaurant cooks just don’t know?)

            • queermunist she/her
              1•1 month ago

              That’s always going to be vastly more expensive than just eating plants, it’s just not a realistic way to feed everyone. It could really only ever be a sometimes food.

        • @Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
          5•1 month ago

          And if you had argued that killing animals and eating their meat is the source of diseases, well again that’s not how AIDS started

          I was under the impression primate bush meat consumption was believed to be the origin of HIV, is that not the case anymore?

          • @Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
            5•1 month ago

            According to (The National Institute of Health Library of Medicine)[https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3234451/] you are possibly correct. It most likely jumped to people from hunting bush meat, but it’s possible it could also have made the jump to people in a livestock setting where someone was raising monkeys for sale as pets or lab animals. Getting bit by an infected animal could be enough to transmit the virus.

            How humans acquired the ape precursors of HIV-1 groups M, N, O, and P is not known; however, based on the biology of these viruses, transmission must have occurred through cutaneous or mucous membrane exposure to infected ape blood and/or body fluids. Such exposures occur most commonly in the context of bushmeat hunting (Peeters et al. 2002).