Bird Flu - Ag vs CDC

[pixy0stix]

www.politico.com/news/2024/05/06/bird-flu-dairy-farms-cdc-00156119

The CDC is locked in a power struggle with key states and agriculture players as it tries to better track the virus and prevent another potential pandemic.

[picksthemusic]

Ugh.

[macmars45]

Those states wouldn't be operating under the belief that if you don't track it it magically disappears like trump about covid would they?

[livinitup]

“It’s overreach. They don’t need to do that. They need to back off,” Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller

[Prediction] In 6 month, also a quote by Sid:
“This is a disaster and it’s all Biden’s fault. Why didn’t the federal government do more to prevent this catastrophe?”

[noodleoo]

This feels like the next disaster coming. YLE has 2 articles about it that made me feel a little better, but also concerned that we aren't being proactive enough.

From Apr 2: open.substack.com/pub/yourlocalepidemiologist/p/avian-flu-birds-cows-and-now-a-human?r=yelgf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

From Apr 25: open.substack.com/pub/yourlocalepidemiologist/p/h5n1-update-we-have-to-do-better?r=yelgf&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

[karinothing]

I have been listening to a few stories on NPR about this and honestly it all sounds a bit terrifying.

The initial story I heard talked about how it has spread to marine mammals which was very concerning and something they haven't seen before.

[tiki]

Taking a local-first approach to understanding something spread by animals *that fly and migrate long distances* sounds like a perfect plan.

[curbsideprophet]

I have zero confidence that the CDC or any other government agency (local or federal) will do what needs to be done. I think things will be worse than they need to be because we are not going to be aggressive in stopping this.

[neverfstop]

Looks like we're heading to another gigantic systemic failure???

I listened to this podcast a few weeks ago & was freaked out. www.nytimes.com/2024/04/22/podcasts/the-daily/bird-flu.html

I know "bird flu" has been around for many years, but the scale/scope/lethality of this new strain is frightening. I can't believe all the mammals it has jumped too. It's wiping out ridiculously large populations of birds. I can't imagine what will happen to chicken/turkey prices if we have to start slaughtering larger percentages of the population to stop the spread.

DNA portions are being found in 20% of milk at the grocery store.
www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bird-flu-the-latest-on-us-spread-the-safety-of-milk-and-more-precautions-150904444.html

[basilosaurus]

Zero tracking. Lovely.

What I don't see reporting is how this affects exports. Just a couple years ago, all poultry imports from US were banned here due to a bird flu. It's similar to how beef exports were banned. People who've lived in UK during certain years were not permitted to give blood. (has that been lifted? I don't know as it doesn't affect me. I'm regularly banned for a year due to travel)

I'm firmly on the side of CDC vs big ag. But I don't like reporting boiled down like this. It took me 2 years to even find a turkey, and for a shitton of money, that's how far reaching this can be.

It's not just an inter office fight. It really does affect global markets. It's common here to have eggs in open cartons at every corner store and market. It's also common that there are zero eggs on an island of 100k people due to outside forces. I never really though about eggs before until I lived where it's the primary protein. It got so bad our local fb group would post when they got a shipment. Have you ever seen your Kroger or Publix advert that they have eggs complete with pictures of stacks of eggs?

This is a much bigger deal than just ag vs cdc. Again, I'm on cdc side. But they're terrible about ensuring the global market that exports are safe, and that's a huge component to ag in america.

[basilosaurus]

Sorry, tl:dr

Ag sucks. CDC is right.

BUT Because ag sucks so much and is so powerful the global market doesn't trust them. This gives ag power because they are hurting without global, and I have sympathy for that. It's such a big issue and is downplayed everywhere.

[mrsukyankee]

We're pretty much on top of it in the UK - it's being monitored and the numbers are low. I do worry though as we're not vetting what comes into this country *thanks Brexit*, so I could see it spreading in other ways.