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image.thumb.png.15d78ba4c00d825bcc6a7e33a1932c5d.png
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/health/kennedy-bird-flu.html

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, has an unorthodox idea for tackling the bird flu bedeviling U.S. poultry farms. Let the virus rip.

Instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it,” Mr. Kennedy said recently on Fox News.

He has repeated the idea in other interviews on the channel.

Mr. Kennedy does not have jurisdiction over farms. But Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, also has voiced support for the notion.

“There are some farmers that are out there that are willing to really try this on a pilot as we build the safe perimeter around them to see if there is a way forward with immunity,” Ms. Rollins told Fox News last month.

Yet veterinary scientists said letting the virus sweep through poultry flocks unchecked would be inhumane and dangerous, and have enormous economic consequences.

“That’s a really terrible idea, for any one of a number of reasons,” said Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas.

Since January 2022, there have been more than 1,600 outbreaks reported on farms and backyard flocks, occurring in every state. More than 166 million birds have been affected.

Every infection is another opportunity for the virus, called H5N1, to evolve into a more virulent form. Geneticists have been tracking its mutations closely; so far, the virus has not developed the ability to spread among people.

But if H5N1 were to be allowed to run through a flock of five million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Dr. Hansen said.

Large numbers of infected birds are likely to transmit massive amounts of the virus, putting farm workers and other animals at great risk.

“So now you’re setting yourself up for bad things to happen,” Dr. Hansen said. “It’s a recipe for disaster.”

cont'd

Spoiler

Emily Hilliard, the deputy press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said Mr. Kennedy’s comments were aimed at protecting people “from the most dangerous version of the current bird flu, which is found in chickens.”

“Culling puts people at the highest risk of exposure, which is why Secretary Kennedy and N.I.H. want to limit culling activities,” she said, referring to the National Institutes of Health. “Culling is not the solution. Strong biosecurity is.”

In her plan to combat bird flu, Ms. Rollins recommended strengthening biosecurity on farms — preventing the virus from entering their premises, or halting its spread with stringent cleaning and use of protective gear.

But that is a longer-term solution. The U.S.D.A. is beginning those efforts in just ten states.

The virus first took root among wild birds, which transmitted it to domestic poultry and various mammal species. Now a single infected duck flying overhead may drop excrement onto a farm, where a chicken or turkey may ingest it.

Farmed poultry have weak immune systems and are under enormous environmental stress, often packed together in wire cages or poorly ventilated barns. Within a day, H5N1 can sicken as much as a third of a flock.

Infected birds can develop severe respiratory symptoms, diarrhea, tremors and twisting of their necks, and produce misshapen or fragile eggs. Many die gasping for breath. (Some birds die suddenly without showing any symptoms at all.)

The speed with which infected birds collapse has been cited as one reason that officials believe eggs to be safe for consumption. Most sick birds die before they can lay an egg, or are so visibly diseased that it is easy to filter them out.

Poultry farmers call the authorities as soon as they spot the signs of illness or death. If the tests turn up positive for bird flu, they are reimbursed for killing the rest of the flock before the virus spreads any farther.

If farmers were instead to let the virus make its way across the farm, “these infections would cause very painful deaths in nearly 100 percent of the chickens and turkeys,” said Dr. David Swayne, a poultry veterinarian who worked at the U.S.D.A. for nearly 30 years.

The result would be “inhumane, resulting in an unacceptable animal welfare crisis,” he added. (Methods to cull birds can also be cruel but at least are generally faster.)

Farmers who cull infected flocks must also clean the premises and pass audits before restocking. They are often eager to resolve the crisis quickly. Simply stepping back would have serious financial consequences.

The strategy “means longer quarantine, more downtime, more lost revenue and increased expenses,” said a U.S.D.A. scientist who was not authorized to speak to the media.

Mr. Kennedy has suggested that a subset of poultry might be naturally immune to bird flu. But chickens and turkeys lack the genes needed to resist the virus, experts said.

“The way we raise birds now, there’s not a lot of genetic variability,” Dr. Hansen said. “They’re all the same bird, basically.”

Public health regulations would forbid the very few birds that might survive an infection from being sold. In any event, those birds might only be protected against the current version of H5N1, not others that emerge as the virus continues to evolve.

“The biology and the immunology doesn’t work that way,” said Dr. Keith Poulsen, the director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

Letting the virus spread unchecked would also likely lead to trade embargoes against poultry from the United States, he added: “There’s a huge economic loss immediately.”

In one interview with Fox News, Mr. Kennedy also suggested that the virus “doesn’t appear to hurt wild birds — they have some kind of immunity.”

In fact, while ducks and shorebirds may not show symptoms, H5N1 has killed raptors, waterfowl, sand hill cranes and snow geese, among many other species.

 

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Posted

Well, I am rather happy that smallpox has been eradicated, because the RFK method of letting disease run rampant so as to prune a species of its weaker members seems to portend a grim future for more than just our avian friends.

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Posted
48 minutes ago, bolverk said:

Every infection is another opportunity for the virus, called H5N1, to evolve into a more virulent form. Geneticists have been tracking its mutations closely; so far, the virus has not developed the ability to spread among people.

But if H5N1 were to be allowed to run through a flock of five million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Dr. Hansen said.

Large numbers of infected birds are likely to transmit massive amounts of the virus, putting farm workers and other animals at great risk.

“So now you’re setting yourself up for bad things to happen,” Dr. Hansen said. “It’s a recipe for disaster.”

I mean.....the bolded demonstrates that RFK does not even grasp the most basic concepts of virology and the risks that viruses present.

"Give a deadly virus near infinite chances to mutate into something worse" is.....not a practice recommended by anyone with an ounce of sanity.  Because the virus WILL MUTATE.  THEY ALWAYS DO.  IT'S WHAT THEY DO.  Some strains may be less harmful/easily transmitted to humans, others may be more harmful/easily transmitted to humans.  You don't get to choose which, by the way.  Virus gonna virus.

Jesus fucking Christ this stupid fucking timeline.

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Posted
48 minutes ago, bolverk said:

image.thumb.png.15d78ba4c00d825bcc6a7e33a1932c5d.png
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/health/kennedy-bird-flu.html

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, has an unorthodox idea for tackling the bird flu bedeviling U.S. poultry farms. Let the virus rip.

Instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it,” Mr. Kennedy said recently on Fox News.

He has repeated the idea in other interviews on the channel.

Mr. Kennedy does not have jurisdiction over farms. But Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, also has voiced support for the notion.

“There are some farmers that are out there that are willing to really try this on a pilot as we build the safe perimeter around them to see if there is a way forward with immunity,” Ms. Rollins told Fox News last month.

Yet veterinary scientists said letting the virus sweep through poultry flocks unchecked would be inhumane and dangerous, and have enormous economic consequences.

“That’s a really terrible idea, for any one of a number of reasons,” said Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas.

Since January 2022, there have been more than 1,600 outbreaks reported on farms and backyard flocks, occurring in every state. More than 166 million birds have been affected.

Every infection is another opportunity for the virus, called H5N1, to evolve into a more virulent form. Geneticists have been tracking its mutations closely; so far, the virus has not developed the ability to spread among people.

But if H5N1 were to be allowed to run through a flock of five million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Dr. Hansen said.

Large numbers of infected birds are likely to transmit massive amounts of the virus, putting farm workers and other animals at great risk.

“So now you’re setting yourself up for bad things to happen,” Dr. Hansen said. “It’s a recipe for disaster.”

cont'd

  Reveal hidden contents

Emily Hilliard, the deputy press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said Mr. Kennedy’s comments were aimed at protecting people “from the most dangerous version of the current bird flu, which is found in chickens.”

“Culling puts people at the highest risk of exposure, which is why Secretary Kennedy and N.I.H. want to limit culling activities,” she said, referring to the National Institutes of Health. “Culling is not the solution. Strong biosecurity is.”

In her plan to combat bird flu, Ms. Rollins recommended strengthening biosecurity on farms — preventing the virus from entering their premises, or halting its spread with stringent cleaning and use of protective gear.

But that is a longer-term solution. The U.S.D.A. is beginning those efforts in just ten states.

The virus first took root among wild birds, which transmitted it to domestic poultry and various mammal species. Now a single infected duck flying overhead may drop excrement onto a farm, where a chicken or turkey may ingest it.

Farmed poultry have weak immune systems and are under enormous environmental stress, often packed together in wire cages or poorly ventilated barns. Within a day, H5N1 can sicken as much as a third of a flock.

Infected birds can develop severe respiratory symptoms, diarrhea, tremors and twisting of their necks, and produce misshapen or fragile eggs. Many die gasping for breath. (Some birds die suddenly without showing any symptoms at all.)

The speed with which infected birds collapse has been cited as one reason that officials believe eggs to be safe for consumption. Most sick birds die before they can lay an egg, or are so visibly diseased that it is easy to filter them out.

Poultry farmers call the authorities as soon as they spot the signs of illness or death. If the tests turn up positive for bird flu, they are reimbursed for killing the rest of the flock before the virus spreads any farther.

If farmers were instead to let the virus make its way across the farm, “these infections would cause very painful deaths in nearly 100 percent of the chickens and turkeys,” said Dr. David Swayne, a poultry veterinarian who worked at the U.S.D.A. for nearly 30 years.

The result would be “inhumane, resulting in an unacceptable animal welfare crisis,” he added. (Methods to cull birds can also be cruel but at least are generally faster.)

Farmers who cull infected flocks must also clean the premises and pass audits before restocking. They are often eager to resolve the crisis quickly. Simply stepping back would have serious financial consequences.

The strategy “means longer quarantine, more downtime, more lost revenue and increased expenses,” said a U.S.D.A. scientist who was not authorized to speak to the media.

Mr. Kennedy has suggested that a subset of poultry might be naturally immune to bird flu. But chickens and turkeys lack the genes needed to resist the virus, experts said.

“The way we raise birds now, there’s not a lot of genetic variability,” Dr. Hansen said. “They’re all the same bird, basically.”

Public health regulations would forbid the very few birds that might survive an infection from being sold. In any event, those birds might only be protected against the current version of H5N1, not others that emerge as the virus continues to evolve.

“The biology and the immunology doesn’t work that way,” said Dr. Keith Poulsen, the director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

Letting the virus spread unchecked would also likely lead to trade embargoes against poultry from the United States, he added: “There’s a huge economic loss immediately.”

In one interview with Fox News, Mr. Kennedy also suggested that the virus “doesn’t appear to hurt wild birds — they have some kind of immunity.”

In fact, while ducks and shorebirds may not show symptoms, H5N1 has killed raptors, waterfowl, sand hill cranes and snow geese, among many other species.

 

That sounds really stupid and ineffective. 

Can’t we just all pray and ask baby Jesus to take away the virus?

Posted
23 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

If you had a cat, you'd see at least one dead bird a week, probably more.

Will bird flu take out the outdoor cats? Asking for a friend.

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Posted

Bring on Dengue. Yo Florida.....

CDC here.

Ongoing Risk of Dengue Virus Infections and Updated Testing Recommendations in the United States

Summary

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is issuing this Health Alert Network (HAN) Health Update to provide additional information to healthcare providers, public health departments, and the public about the ongoing risk of dengue virus (DENV) infections and updates to testing recommendations in the United States. Dengue activity remains high in some parts of the United States and globally, with many countries reporting higher-than-usual number of dengue cases in 2024 and 2025. Healthcare providers, public health departments, and the public are urged to continue to take steps to prevent, detect, diagnose, and respond to dengue as described in the June 2024 HAN Health Advisory (CDCHAN-00511) on dengue in the United States. Updates include:

  1. Dengue virus transmission remains high in the Americas region, including in the U.S. territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Spring and summer travel coincide with the peak season for dengue in many countries, increasing the risk of both travel-associated and locally acquired cases in the United States.
  2. Use the CDC DENV-1-4 real time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay when dengue is the most likely diagnosis.
  3. New resources are available for public health professionals including a job aid for reviewing medical records and guidance for investigating and responding to dengue cases in non-endemic areas of the United States.

Background

Dengue is caused by four distinct but closely related dengue viruses or serotypes (DENV-1, -2, -3, and -4). Infection with one DENV usually induces lifelong immunity to that serotype and short-term immunity to other DENV serotypes for months to years. Repeat infections with different serotypes can occur, particularly in DENV endemic areas. Approximately one in four DENV infections are symptomatic. Infection with any DENV serotype can cause severe illness, particularly in infants aged ≤1 year, pregnant women, adults aged ≥65 years, people with certain medical conditions, and people with previous DENV infections.

Daily mail for those who like hotties on the side images.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14515015/cdc-urgent-warning-illness-nose-bleeds.html

Spring breakers are being warned over a fast-spreading disease that could be life-threatening.

In an emergency notice, the CDC raised the alarm over dengue fever — saying the US and Americas region is seeing high transmission, with nearly 1,000 cases reported across 21 states already this year.

A record number of infected travelers - nearly 4,000 - returned to the US in 2024.

And just as the spring travel season kicks off, popular destinations like the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Mexico, are experiencing high transmission of the illness, with Mexico recording 20,000 cases already this year. 

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Posted
2 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Well, I am rather happy that smallpox has been eradicated, because the RFK method of letting disease run rampant so as to prune a species of its weaker members seems to portend a grim future for more than just our avian friends.

As of 20 years ago, the military was still giving smallpox vaccinations because there’s plenty of it hanging around and labs around the world.

 

Not sure about now but as of 25 years ago, the military was still giving smallpox vaccinations because there’s plenty of it hanging around in labs around the world.

 

So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice

Posted (edited)
44 minutes ago, Sawbonz said:

As of 20 years ago, the military was still giving smallpox vaccinations because there’s plenty of it hanging around and labs around the world.

 

Not sure about now but as of 25 years ago, the military was still giving smallpox vaccinations because there’s plenty of it hanging around in labs around the world.

 

So we’ve got that going for us, which is nice

 

image.jpg
 

I know I know, small pox vax scar would not bang. It’s fine. 

Edited by troph
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Posted

jay z GIF

The parents of a Texas child who just died of measles are urging others to let their children die too. 

“Contracting measles strengthens the immune system in the long run and makes a person less likely to develop cancer.”

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Posted
8 minutes ago, tx 3 putt said:

“Contracting measles strengthens the immune system in the long run and makes a person less likely to develop cancer.”

You know, they're on to something.  I have it on good authority that once you're dead, you don't develop cancer.

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Posted
On 3/19/2025 at 7:25 PM, troph said:

I know I know, small pox vax scar would not bang. It’s fine. 

I actually never got that vaccine.  I had severe allergies and my pediatrician thought the risk was too high.  So, I look forward to the next smallpox outbreak in the US, which should be within the year.

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Posted
45 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

I actually never got that vaccine.  I had severe allergies and my pediatrician thought the risk was too high.  So, I look forward to the next smallpox outbreak in the US, which should be within the year.

My dad gave it to me gratuitously, he was the guy giving the vaccinations to service members being deployed I sat in the chair hanging out for the whole day. He asked if I wanted one, I said sure (because I was bored to hell and all these grown ass men were getting them so why shouldn’t I)? I guess it was harmless but Jesus johnny, why the fuck are you giving a small pox vaccine to a 3rd or 4th grader in 1983?

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Posted
13 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

The parents of a Texas child who just died of measles are urging others to let their children die too. 

 

They’ve doubled down and it’s quite sickening that they think of their dead child as some sort of martyr. This has been brought to fruition by group think and fed by some quack, Dr. Edwards, who “saw the light” on functional medicine when he took some anecdotal evidence by treating one patient with Celiac disease with some non disclosed alternative therapy and then threw out basically everthing he learned at UT Houston med school and one of the better residences in Texas. Now he’s treating measles with cod liver oil and inhaled steroids. He’s going to kill a lot of people eventually, with RFK Jr’s help.

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Posted
43 minutes ago, troph said:

My dad gave it to me gratuitously, he was the guy giving the vaccinations to service members being deployed I sat in the chair hanging out for the whole day. He asked if I wanted one, I said sure (because I was bored to hell and all these grown ass men were getting them so why shouldn’t I)? I guess it was harmless but Jesus johnny, why the fuck are you giving a small pox vaccine to a 3rd or 4th grader in 1983?

Great story. Now you did it.  Aggy lurkers be like:

”HEY EVERYBODY!! SMALLPOX VACCINE WILL TURN YOU, TRANS!!!!

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Posted
7 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

Great story. Now you did it.  Aggy lurkers be like:

”HEY EVERYBODY!! SMALLPOX VACCINE WILL TURN YOU, TRANS!!!!

Nah it was the ass beating for putting a honkey tonk bumper sticker on the family car. Didn’t jibe with the city slicker martini style my dad tried to project. 

Posted (edited)

Latest numbers from Texas Health & Human Services: 309 cases of measles. Lubbock had been mostly keeping the virus at bay but now has 8 cases, perhaps due to  the Lubbock hospital where many children are being treated,  which increases exposure risk to others. Gaines County still the leader with 211 cases.

 

In addition, there are ~18 states with cases for a total of 378 nationwide. However, the CDC does not have Oklahoma listed as one of the states, and their health officials have reported several cases so I guess the Oklahoma govt doesn't even bother with sending in data to the feds that, I don't know, might be useful to others. That's no surprise though, their newborn screening lab is/was messed up.

Edited by Mrs Whiggins
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Posted
21 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Latest numbers from Texas Health & Human Services: 309 cases of measles. Lubbock had been mostly keeping the virus at bay but now has 8 cases, perhaps due to  the Lubbock hospital where many children are being treated,  which increases exposure risk to others. Gaines County still the leader with 211 cases.

 

In addition, there are ~18 states with cases for a total of 378 nationwide. However, the CDC does not have Oklahoma listed as one of the states, and their health officials have reported several cases so I guess the Oklahoma govt doesn't even bother with sending in data to the feds that, I don't know, might be useful to others. That's no surprise though, their newborn screening lab is/was messed up.

Cases have also spread to three new counties surrounding Lubbock where it wasn't previously reported: Garza (Post), Hale (Plainview), and Hockley (Levelland).

Hey, dipshits with kids! Vax 'em up before it spreads out of the Llano Estacado and pours over the top of the Caprock down into the part of the state that actually has people. 

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Posted
1 minute ago, bolverk said:

Cases have also spread to three new counties surrounding Lubbock where it wasn't previously reported: Garza (Post), Hale (Plainview), and Hockley (Levelland).

Hey, dipshits with kids! Vax 'em up before it spreads out of the Llano Estacado and pours over the top of the Caprock down into the part of the state that actually has people. 

Measles has a somewhat long incubation period: 10-14 days. There were some promising reports of people lining up to get vaccinated, but lately, the misinformation seems to have taken hold. Next week's update (post spring break for many children) will give an idea of how it's going.

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Posted
2 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Latest numbers from Texas Health & Human Services: 309 cases of measles.

So? At worst, measles is merely fatal. It’s not a big deal.

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Posted
On 3/19/2025 at 3:30 PM, bolverk said:

image.thumb.png.15d78ba4c00d825bcc6a7e33a1932c5d.png
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/health/kennedy-bird-flu.html

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s top health official, has an unorthodox idea for tackling the bird flu bedeviling U.S. poultry farms. Let the virus rip.

Instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it,” Mr. Kennedy said recently on Fox News.

He has repeated the idea in other interviews on the channel.

Mr. Kennedy does not have jurisdiction over farms. But Brooke Rollins, the agriculture secretary, also has voiced support for the notion.

“There are some farmers that are out there that are willing to really try this on a pilot as we build the safe perimeter around them to see if there is a way forward with immunity,” Ms. Rollins told Fox News last month.

Yet veterinary scientists said letting the virus sweep through poultry flocks unchecked would be inhumane and dangerous, and have enormous economic consequences.

“That’s a really terrible idea, for any one of a number of reasons,” said Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas.

Since January 2022, there have been more than 1,600 outbreaks reported on farms and backyard flocks, occurring in every state. More than 166 million birds have been affected.

Every infection is another opportunity for the virus, called H5N1, to evolve into a more virulent form. Geneticists have been tracking its mutations closely; so far, the virus has not developed the ability to spread among people.

But if H5N1 were to be allowed to run through a flock of five million birds, “that’s literally five million chances for that virus to replicate or to mutate,” Dr. Hansen said.

Large numbers of infected birds are likely to transmit massive amounts of the virus, putting farm workers and other animals at great risk.

“So now you’re setting yourself up for bad things to happen,” Dr. Hansen said. “It’s a recipe for disaster.”

cont'd

  Reveal hidden contents

Emily Hilliard, the deputy press secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said Mr. Kennedy’s comments were aimed at protecting people “from the most dangerous version of the current bird flu, which is found in chickens.”

“Culling puts people at the highest risk of exposure, which is why Secretary Kennedy and N.I.H. want to limit culling activities,” she said, referring to the National Institutes of Health. “Culling is not the solution. Strong biosecurity is.”

In her plan to combat bird flu, Ms. Rollins recommended strengthening biosecurity on farms — preventing the virus from entering their premises, or halting its spread with stringent cleaning and use of protective gear.

But that is a longer-term solution. The U.S.D.A. is beginning those efforts in just ten states.

The virus first took root among wild birds, which transmitted it to domestic poultry and various mammal species. Now a single infected duck flying overhead may drop excrement onto a farm, where a chicken or turkey may ingest it.

Farmed poultry have weak immune systems and are under enormous environmental stress, often packed together in wire cages or poorly ventilated barns. Within a day, H5N1 can sicken as much as a third of a flock.

Infected birds can develop severe respiratory symptoms, diarrhea, tremors and twisting of their necks, and produce misshapen or fragile eggs. Many die gasping for breath. (Some birds die suddenly without showing any symptoms at all.)

The speed with which infected birds collapse has been cited as one reason that officials believe eggs to be safe for consumption. Most sick birds die before they can lay an egg, or are so visibly diseased that it is easy to filter them out.

Poultry farmers call the authorities as soon as they spot the signs of illness or death. If the tests turn up positive for bird flu, they are reimbursed for killing the rest of the flock before the virus spreads any farther.

If farmers were instead to let the virus make its way across the farm, “these infections would cause very painful deaths in nearly 100 percent of the chickens and turkeys,” said Dr. David Swayne, a poultry veterinarian who worked at the U.S.D.A. for nearly 30 years.

The result would be “inhumane, resulting in an unacceptable animal welfare crisis,” he added. (Methods to cull birds can also be cruel but at least are generally faster.)

Farmers who cull infected flocks must also clean the premises and pass audits before restocking. They are often eager to resolve the crisis quickly. Simply stepping back would have serious financial consequences.

The strategy “means longer quarantine, more downtime, more lost revenue and increased expenses,” said a U.S.D.A. scientist who was not authorized to speak to the media.

Mr. Kennedy has suggested that a subset of poultry might be naturally immune to bird flu. But chickens and turkeys lack the genes needed to resist the virus, experts said.

“The way we raise birds now, there’s not a lot of genetic variability,” Dr. Hansen said. “They’re all the same bird, basically.”

Public health regulations would forbid the very few birds that might survive an infection from being sold. In any event, those birds might only be protected against the current version of H5N1, not others that emerge as the virus continues to evolve.

“The biology and the immunology doesn’t work that way,” said Dr. Keith Poulsen, the director of the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

Letting the virus spread unchecked would also likely lead to trade embargoes against poultry from the United States, he added: “There’s a huge economic loss immediately.”

In one interview with Fox News, Mr. Kennedy also suggested that the virus “doesn’t appear to hurt wild birds — they have some kind of immunity.”

In fact, while ducks and shorebirds may not show symptoms, H5N1 has killed raptors, waterfowl, sand hill cranes and snow geese, among many other species.

 

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Posted
5 hours ago, troph said:

Nah it was the ass beating for putting a honkey tonk bumper sticker on the family car. Didn’t jibe with the city slicker martini style my dad tried to project. 

So your dad posted on Surly?

Posted
3 hours ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

In addition, there are ~18 states with cases for a total of 378 nationwide. However, the CDC does not have Oklahoma listed as one of the states, and their health officials have reported several cases so I guess the Oklahoma govt doesn't even bother with sending in data to the feds that, I don't know, might be useful to others. That's no surprise though, their newborn screening lab is/was messed up.

That is going to be a problem going forward and I expect Texas and other states will follow.  Can’t have a pandemic or disease outbreak if the states don’t provide the data.

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Posted

It sounds like doctors up in Lubbock are ready to give up on a mass vaccination effort and are now resigned to the fact that this is just going to spread. 

Against stupidity, we are defenseless.

image.thumb.png.a55a47519c7b81a967e83de7d222bf5f.png
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/health/measles-outbreak-texas.html

Quote

 

As containment efforts falter, the measles outbreak in West Texas is likely to persist for a year, perhaps even setting back the country’s hard-fought victory over the virus, according to Texas health officials.

As of Friday, the outbreak had sickened more than 300 people in Texas since January; 40 have been hospitalized. One child has died from the disease, the first such death in a decade. Related cases have been reported in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Chihuahua, Mexico.

“This is going to be a large outbreak,” Katherine Wells, director of public health in Lubbock, Texas, said at a recent news briefing. “And we are still on the side where we are increasing the number of cases.”

“I’m really thinking this is going to be a year long,” she added.

Some doctors in West Texas said in interviews that they had given up hope that a vaccination campaign could end the outbreak.

Dr. Ron Cook, also a state health official in Lubbock, said he had resigned himself to the fact that the outbreak will infect many more children, and may kill again.

“It’s just going to have to burn through the community,” Dr. Cook said. “That’s where we are.”

So far, cases have been centered in a large Mennonite community in Gaines County, which has had historically low vaccination rates. But experts fear that the longer the outbreak lasts, the more likely it is to spread to other unvaccinated communities around the country.

In New Mexico, officials have reported 42 cases and one death. In Oklahoma, there have been four probable measles cases.

Public health officials are particularly concerned now that potentially infected children in West Texas will begin traveling for spring break, said Dr. Phil Huang, director of Dallas County Health and Human Services.

Measles has been considered “eliminated” in the United States since 2000: Cases generally have been tied to international travel, and when the virus does strike an unvaccinated community, the outbreaks don’t continue for longer than a year.

The United States nearly lost its elimination status in 2019, when a large outbreak spread through parts of New York State for nearly 12 months. The outbreak was contained in large part because of aggressive vaccine mandates, which helped substantially increase childhood immunization rates in the community.

In Texas, where mandates are deeply unpopular, the vaccination effort has “been a struggle,” Ms. Wells said. Public health officials have set up vaccination clinics around the region and encouraged attendance with fliers and billboards. There has been little success.

In Seminole, Texas, a city of about 7,200 people and the epicenter of the outbreak, roughly 230 residents have received shots at vaccination clinics.

“They’ve handed out a few vaccines in their community, but certainly not a lot,” Dr. Cook said.

“It doesn’t help that our H.H.S. secretary continues to not really reinforce vaccination,” he added.

Local efforts to encourage the shots have been hamstrung by a muddled message from the country’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

In his first public statements about the outbreak, Mr. Kennedy faced intense backlash for minimizing the threat, saying outbreaks were “not unusual” and falsely claiming that many people hospitalized were there “mainly for quarantine.”

He later changed his approach, offering a muted recommendation of vaccines for people in West Texas while also raising frightening concerns about the safety of the vaccines.

To the frustration of local doctors and health officials, he has also promoted unproven treatments like cod liver oil and vitamins, and touted “almost miraculous and instantaneous” recoveries with steroids or antibiotics.

There is no cure for measles, only medications to help manage the symptoms. Vaccination is the most effective way to prevent the infection.

Texas health officials have said they worry that measles patients were over-relying on these unproven treatments and delaying critical medical care as a result.

 

 

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Posted

I assume if they’re not getting measles vaccinations, they’re not getting other vaccinations.   Is this the precursor to whooping cough, chickenpox and mumps outbreaks?

And the smallpox and polio gods and goddesses are probably getting swole as well

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Posted
14 hours ago, Newdoc said:

They’ve doubled down and it’s quite sickening that they think of their dead child as some sort of martyr. This has been brought to fruition by group think and fed by some quack, Dr. Edwards, who “saw the light” on functional medicine when he took some anecdotal evidence by treating one patient with Celiac disease with some non disclosed alternative therapy and then threw out basically everthing he learned at UT Houston med school and one of the better residences in Texas. Now he’s treating measles with cod liver oil and inhaled steroids. He’s going to kill a lot of people eventually, with RFK Jr’s help.

Maybe a rhetorical question, but is there anything you can lose your dr's license for anymore in Texas? I've had some familiarity with the Board of Medical Examiners and the protection of their own, so color me skeptical. But if anyone deserves to be brought before the board for medical misconduct, isn't it this quack?

Posted
4 hours ago, bolverk said:

It sounds like doctors up in Lubbock are ready to give up on a mass vaccination effort and are now resigned to the fact that this is just going to spread. 

Against stupidity, we are defenseless.

Darwin is going to thin some of these people out. Measles used to fuck up plenty of people, what with the whole encephalitis or pneumonia thing amongst young kids.

Of course, some of these people, when you say "encephalitis", they think

the-elephant-man.gif

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Posted
14 hours ago, troph said:

Nah it was the ass beating for putting a honkey tonk bumper sticker on the family car. Didn’t jibe with the city slicker martini style my dad tried to project. 

Less Honkin’, More Tonkin’?

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Posted

Checking in with more measles news.

Texas is reporting 327 cases as of today; New Mexico has 43 and their cases have been on a downward trajectory from the initial outbreak. Texas cases (as @bolverk mentioned last week) have spread to some other counties, and Lubbock has seen two additional cases since last Friday. In northeastern TX, Lamar County has 5 cases (local their health department stated 7 cases but I'll err on the side of the State for now) and the initial four patients were reported as having traveled to Gaines County (home of the initial outbreak) so a nice long trip from east to west while contagious. Do not know if the latter cases were due to exposure in public.

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Posted
4 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

Checking in with more measles news.

Texas is reporting 327 cases as of today; New Mexico has 43 and their cases have been on a downward trajectory from the initial outbreak. Texas cases (as @bolverk mentioned last week) have spread to some other counties, and Lubbock has seen two additional cases since last Friday. In northeastern TX, Lamar County has 5 cases (local their health department stated 7 cases but I'll err on the side of the State for now) and the initial four patients were reported as having traveled to Gaines County (home of the initial outbreak) so a nice long trip from east to west while contagious. Do not know if the latter cases were due to exposure in public.

Glancing at the map, it looks like a new West Texas county popped up: Lamb County (Littlefield). 15 of the 18 new cases were reported in Gaines County, which I guess is kinda, sorta good news, I guess.
https://www.fox4news.com/news/texas-measles-outbreak-2025-18-new-cases-reported-west-texas

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Posted

The new county makes sense. Oklahoma had several cases and those were linked mostly to Gaines County so it's entirely possible that the folks in this community that gather for religious purposes are exhibiting similar behavior as those in the NYC outbreak several years ago did. The families there did not wish to stop socializing with family and friends and thus cases kept climbing. While Gaines County obviously has fewer people than a NYC burrough, measles gonna measles if you don't quarantine at the very least. Given that the news reported that many were on the record as not going to vaccinate, it's going to keep going just as the health department suggested.

 

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Posted
2 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

The new county makes sense. Oklahoma had several cases and those were linked mostly to Gaines County so it's entirely possible that the folks in this community that gather for religious purposes are exhibiting similar behavior as those in the NYC outbreak several years ago did. The families there did not wish to stop socializing with family and friends and thus cases kept climbing. While Gaines County obviously has fewer people than a NYC burrough, measles gonna measles if you don't quarantine at the very least. Given that the news reported that many were on the record as not going to vaccinate, it's going to keep going just as the health department suggested.

 

I'm kind of amazed no one in Andrews has caught it yet since I figured those two communities would have at least somewhat close economic and social ties. It does make sense for it to have jumped over into Hobbs, as I'm sure a lot of Gaines residents do some shopping over there. With it hitting Lubbock, the Hub City as it's known on the South Plains (regional center for commerce, education, and healthcare), it also makes sense that it can spread from there into areas that have no real ties at all to ground zero in Seminole.

Posted
On 3/21/2025 at 3:16 PM, atomheartbevo said:

So your dad posted on Surly?

That’s a very uncomfortable thought. He’s an army brat age guy we’d see it a mile away. 

Posted
13 hours ago, Willfully Horn said:

Having luckily overcome LC I can tell you this is a disaster in the making. It’s a fucked up condition sidelining millions of folks and the more times you are infected the greater chance you suffer long covid. We about to FAFO.

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Posted
2 hours ago, troph said:

Having luckily overcome LC I can tell you this is a disaster in the making. It’s a fucked up condition sidelining millions of folks and the more times you are infected the greater chance you suffer long covid. We about to FAFO.

"About to."  Gosh, you're adorable sometimes.

We are going to bring back fucking polio, man.  Long COVID is the mildest box of shit we're unsealing these days.

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Posted

image.png.ca80659f94b77aacc2b5cf624e606cdb.png
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/health/usaid-cuts-gavi-bird-flu.html

Quote

 

The Trump administration intends to terminate the United States’ financial support for Gavi, the organization that has helped purchase critical vaccines for children in developing countries, saving millions of lives over the past quarter century, and to significantly scale back support for efforts to combat malaria, one of the biggest killers globally.

The administration has decided to continue some key grants for medications to treat H.I.V. and tuberculosis, and food aid to countries facing civil wars and natural disasters.

Those decisions are included in a 281-page spreadsheet that the United States Agency for International Development sent to Congress Monday night, listing the foreign aid projects it plans to continue and to terminate. The New York Times obtained a copy of the spreadsheet and other documents describing the plans.

The documents provide a sweeping overview of the extraordinary scale of the administration’s retreat from a half-century-long effort to present the United States to the developing world as a compassionate ally and to lead the fight against infectious diseases that kill millions of people annually.

The cover letter details the skeletal remains of U.S.A.I.D. after the cuts, with most of its funding eliminated, and only 869 of more than 6,000 employees still on active duty.

In all, the administration has decided to continue 898 U.S.A.I.D. awards and to end 5,341, the letter says. It says the remaining programs are worth up to $78 billion. But only $8.3 billion of that is unobligated funds — money still available to disburse. Because that amount covers awards that run several years into the future, the figure suggests a massive reduction in the $40 billion that U.S.A.I.D. used to spend annually.

A spokesperson for the State Department, which now runs what is left of U.S.A.I.D., confirmed the terminations on the list were accurate and said that “each award terminated was reviewed individually for alignment with agency and administration priorities, and terminations were executed where Secretary Rubio determined the award was inconsistent with the national interest or agency policy priorities.”

The memo to Congress presents the plan for foreign assistance as a unilateral decision. However because spending on individual health programs such as H.I.V. or vaccination is congressionally allocated, it is not clear that the administration has legal power to end those programs. This issue is currently being litigated in multiple court challenges.

Among the programs terminated is funding for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which conducts surveillance for diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans, including bird flu, in 49 countries. Some major programs to track and fight malaria, one of the world’s top killers of children, have also been ended.

Dr. Austin Demby, the health minister of Sierra Leone, which relies on Gavi’s support to help purchase vaccines, said he was “shocked and perturbed” by the decision to terminate U.S. funding and warned that the ramifications would be felt worldwide.

“This is not just a bureaucratic decision, there are children’s lives at stake, global health security will be at stake,” he said. “Supporting Gavi in Sierra Leone is not just a Sierra Leone issue, it’s something the region, the world, benefits from.”

In addition to trying to reach all children with routine immunizations, Sierra Leone is currently battling an mpox outbreak, for which Gavi has provided both vaccines and critical support to deliver them, he said.

“We hope the U.S. government will continue to be the global leader it always been — putting money in Gavi is not an expenditure, it’s an investment,” Dr. Demby said

Gavi is estimated to have saved the lives of 19 million children since it was set up 25 years ago. The United States contributes 13 percent of its budget.

The terminated grant to Gavi was worth $2.6 billion through 2030. Gavi was counting on a pledge made last year by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for its next funding cycle.

New vaccines with the promise to save millions of lives in low-income countries, such as one to protect children from severe malaria and another to protect teenage girls against the virus that causes cervical cancer, have recently become available, and Gavi was expanding the portfolio of support it could give those countries.

The loss of U.S. funds will set back the organization’s ability to continue to provide its basic range of services — such as immunization for measles and polio — to a growing population of children in the poorest countries, let alone expand to include new vaccines.

By Gavi’s own estimate, the loss of U.S. support may mean 75 million children do not receive routine vaccinations in the next five years, with more than 1.2 million children dying as a result.

The U.S. has been among the top donors to the organization since its creation, and became the largest during the Covid-19 pandemic. While European countries have historically provided significant funding, many are now reducing foreign aid spending as they grapple with the change in U.S. policy on Ukraine and the U.S. demand that they increase their defense spending. Japan, another major Gavi donor, is struggling with a depreciating currency.

Dr. Sania Nishtar, Gavi’s chief executive, said that she hoped the Trump administration would reconsider the decision to end its support. Gavi’s work keeps people everywhere, including Americans, safe, she said. In addition to protecting individual children, vaccination reduces the possibility of large outbreaks. The organization maintains global stockpiles for vaccines against diseases such as Ebola and cholera, deploying them in rapid response efforts for epidemics.

Gavi’s structure requires countries to pay part of the cost of vaccines, with their share growing as income levels rise; middle-income countries are weaned from support.

The memo says that 869 U.S.A.I.D. personnel were working as of last Friday, while 3,848 were on administrative leave and 1,602 are in the process of being laid off. Of 300 probationary employees who were initially fired, 270 have returned to work following a court order prohibiting their dismissal.

 

 

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Posted
2 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

"About to."  Gosh, you're adorable sometimes.

We are going to bring back fucking polio, man.  Long COVID is the mildest box of shit we're unsealing these days.

with all due respect, long covid is a fucking miserable cunt. and in some cases people have it long term and are only well enough to not be dead. hundreds of thousands of people are so debilitated by it they can't work or function and their only hope was NIH funded research. 

Posted
23 hours ago, bolverk said:

Glancing at the map, it looks like a new West Texas county popped up: Lamb County (Littlefield). 15 of the 18 new cases were reported in Gaines County, which I guess is kinda, sorta good news, I guess.
https://www.fox4news.com/news/texas-measles-outbreak-2025-18-new-cases-reported-west-texas

image.png.f19a4dbb912f5c5a83d60c9b65a4d38d.png
image.png.0bdfb699cfc2f2f8b7741f4cad62e500.png

Well, at least its growth is linear and not exponential?

Posted
1 minute ago, troph said:

with all due respect, long covid is a fucking miserable cunt. and in some cases people have it long term and are only well enough to not be dead. hundreds of thousands of people are so debilitated by it they can't work or function and their only hope was NIH funded research. 

Oh, I'm not downplaying long COVID at all.  I'm just noting that we're headed for MUCH worse than merely "fucking awful and horrific."

We are intent on setting back all progress by at least 70-100 years.  Disease and health management is but one facet of that, but man, we're going all-in on it FAST.

Posted

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/health/trump-state-health-grants-cuts.html

Quote

 

The Department of Health and Human Services has abruptly canceled more than $12 billion in federal grants to states that were being used for tracking infectious diseases, mental health services, addiction treatment and other urgent health issues.

The cuts are likely to further hamstring state health departments, which are already underfunded and struggling with competing demands from chronic diseases, resurgent infections like syphilis and emerging threats like bird flu.

State health departments began receiving notices on Monday evening that the funds, which were allocated during the Covid-19 pandemic, were being terminated, effective immediately.

“No additional activities can be conducted, and no additional costs may be incurred, as it relates to these funds,” the notices said.

For some, the effect was immediate.

In Lubbock, Texas, public health officials have received orders to stop work supported by three grants that helped fund the response to the widening measles outbreak there, according to Katherine Wells, the city’s director of public health.

On Tuesday, some state health departments were preparing to lay off dozens of epidemiologists and data scientists. Others, including Texas, Maine and Rhode Island, were still scrambling to understand the impact of the cuts before taking any action.

In interviews, state health officials predicted that thousands of health department employees and contract workers could lose their jobs nationwide. Some predicted the loss of as much as 90 percent of staff from some infectious disease teams.

“The reality is that, when we take funding away from public health systems, the systems just do not have the capacity, because they’re chronically underfunded over the decades,” said Dr. Umair Shah, who served as Washington State’s health secretary until January.

The news of the cuts was first reported by NBC.

The discontinued grants include about $11.4 billion from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as around $1 billion from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, known as S.A.M.H.S.A.

Congress authorized the money for state public health programs as part of Covid relief bills. The funds were indeed initially used for testing for and vaccination against the coronavirus, as well as to address health disparities in high-risk populations.

But last year,  the money was also allowed to be put toward other pressing public health concerns, including testing and surveillance of other respiratory viruses, an array of vaccines for children or uninsured adults and preparedness for health emergencies.

On Tuesday, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the federal Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement: “The Covid-19 pandemic is over, and H.H.S. will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a nonexistent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago.”

The Trump administration’s cancellations of grants and contracts throughout the government has led to numerous lawsuits from states and nonprofit groups, which are still in their early stages. The health grants in question were authorized and appropriated by Congress, and their termination may lead to new lawsuits. Several states said they were exploring legal options.

“We will continue to assess the full impacts and are in touch with the Attorney General’s Office and the 49 other states facing similar challenges,” Governor Maura Healey of Massachusetts said in a statement.

The surplus funds had been a boon for cash-strapped public health departments seeking to modernize their creaky systems.

For example, Alaska had been applying some of the funds toward purchasing lab equipment and updating electronic records, so that state epidemiologists would no longer need to fill in patient details manually. Other states were building systems to link surveillance data from hospitals and labs to health departments.

Antiquated data systems hampered the response in many states to the Covid and mpox outbreaks.

“We had the opportunity to update some of these things that desperately needed to be updated to have a more efficient public health response,” said Dr. Anne Zink, who stepped down as Alaska’s chief medical officer in August.

But now, with grants cut, the project will remain unfinished, and the tax dollars invested so far may go to waste, she said.

In some states, the funds have also helped study chronic diseases, whose presence increases the risk of severe outcomes and death from the coronavirus.

The funds from S.A.M.H.S.A. were not earmarked for Covid programs, and they were intended to address mental health and substance use issues. The pandemic led to widespread loneliness, boredom and anxiety, factors that contributed to a surge in overdose deaths that reached just over 111,000 in 2022, up from about 70,000 in 2019.

The peak overdose numbers dropped to about 87,000 in the 12-month period that ended in October, according to the most recent federal data. Some of the sharpest declines were in states such as West Virginia, Michigan and Tennessee, all of which strongly supported President Trump in the presidential election.

Brian Hepburn, the executive director of the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors, said many states had also applied their funds to build out their 988 suicide lifelines and other crisis services. But states understood the funding was subject to time constraints, so few used it to fund ongoing services, he said.

In Colorado, Covid-era supplemental funds supported about 60 programs, including those for crisis response teams; services for adults with severe mental illness and for young adults with early onset of psychotic disorders; and peer support counselors for people in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. Colorado had committed its remaining $31.5 million in grant money to support the providers of these services.

“In so many cases, these are lifesaving programs and services, and we worry for the well-being of those who have come to count on this support,” said Dannette R. Smith, the commissioner of Colorado’s Behavioral Health Administration.

The grants from S.A.M.H.S.A. were scheduled to expire in September, but some Covid grants from the C.D.C. were meant to last until 2026 and 2027.

States were preparing for the grants to expire then, but “to have it happen early and with no notice is obviously extremely disruptive,” said one state public health official, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Some states, like Kentucky and South Carolina, rely heavily on federal funding to run their health programs, while others, such as New Jersey and California, depend on it less. Still, most of the people and data systems that track disease outbreaks are funded by the C.D.C.

The abruptness of the decision left “no opportunities to transition people into other means, no opportunities even for a state government to say, ‘In our next budget cycle, we’re going to add X number of positions,’” said one official with close knowledge of the impact, who asked not to be named because they feared retaliation from the Trump administration.

“There’s millions of dollars that have been spent that essentially, the projects will never be able to be finished,” the official said. “This is just like throwing money out the window; it’s a total waste.”

 

 

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