“There is a lot of H5N1 virus on these farms,” says Seema Lakdawala, an associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the Emory University School of Medicine and senior author of the new study, which has yet to go through scientific peer review. “It is everywhere. We need to be expanding biosafety measures, biosecurity measures and trying to control where the virus is.”
The finding—that the virus is “everywhere”—fits with what has been seen in previously published work, says Richard Webby, who studies host-microbe interactions at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. “It’s a ridiculously contaminated environment,” Webby says.
So far no human-adapted mutation has taken off, but "with so much virus on affected farms, there’s a chance that future human-oriented mutations could arise"
We don't need another pandemic while malicious, anti-science lunatics are in charge of U.S. public health. #H5N1 #HPAI #BirdFlu #dairy
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird-flu-could-be-spreading-through-the-air-on-dairy-farms-preliminary-study/
@Nonya_Bidniss@infosec.exchange see, I was wondering how exclusively indoor cats were sometimes getting it, and here is potentially the answer.
@kimlockhartga@beige.party 🤷
Hard to say, this research was restricted to dairy farms but yeah it's commonly held that the wild type virus is spread through close contact with the waterfowl natural reservoir, their feces, etc. and maybe it's more than that. Maybe the cats' owners are in environments where they can get it on fomites and bring it into the house...the human isn't particularly susceptible but the cat is, that sort of thing. Of course, cats on or near dairy farms are going to be inundated with the cow-adapted virus.
@Nonya_Bidniss@infosec.exchange I agree with everything you've said here. And I know that indoor cats can contract all kinds of things from their humans tracking stuff in. It's so sad. I hate that so many species have been affected.
@kimlockhartga@beige.party I just really hope this virus doesn't adapt to humans until we have competent scientific leadership where it needs to be. I've been watching H5N1 since being a biothreats analyst in the mid-aughts. If it becomes human-transmissible with its historical mortality rate, the people who raged about wearing a mask & getting a vax during COVID will die by the truckload. That problem will rapidly end.
@Nonya_Bidniss@infosec.exchange
I just talked with someone about this very thing today!
We were discussing how people would at least have some minimal protection from bird flu if they just got a seasonal flu shot, let alone follow mitigation measures. Those who have not prepared to protect themselves from the next pandemic (and we will have another one, and soon) are in for a shock. The mortality rate for COVID was low compared to what other viruses can do.
My big concern right now is that a surprising number of people in the medical profession "don't believe in COVID." Like 2 million people didn't die. It's the most amazing mass delusion I've ever seen. The very folks you might need to care for you at the hospital might not believe in science. I don't think we solve that problem easily or quickly.
That Nimbus variant has taken Florida by storm.
@kimlockhartga@beige.party I've heard a lot of that COVID denialism resides in nurses in particular. Not great.
@Nonya_Bidniss@infosec.exchange YES! I don't like to get anyone in trouble, but in 2021, while we were losing so many lives to COVID, the lab tech for my Rheumatologist refused to wear a mask. I had to tell my doctor, and he let her go after talking to her twice.
She said that she went without a mask to "toughen up her immune system." This was not only absurd, but highly ironic, as I was, of course, being treated for a hyperactive immune system. That's what autoimmune disease is. It's not a good thing. She should have thought about protecting everyone else. Every single patient there was on an immunosuppressant.
Makes me mad even now.
@kimlockhartga@beige.party Which goes to show that many people in med-adjacent fields are trained to perform *processes,* not to understand underlying theory. They absorb mis- and disinformation just as well as people in non-med-adjacent work. We shouldn't make assumptions about their actual understanding of things.
Nonya "Fucking Bitch" Bidniss