Well, this is scarey. 60 Minutes on the bird flu.

[Swede]

Dr. Angela Rasmussen is an American virologist working in Canada. Rasmussen told us it's not just the number of human cases that is alarming, but that the virus is jumping to more mammals. Every new spillover gives the virus another chance to evolve and potentially spread person to person.

Bill Whitaker: So we are now seeing the virus has spread from birds to cattle, and now to foxes, goats, pigs, rats, cats, raccoons–

Dr. Angela Rasmussen: The fact that this virus can infect so many different types of mammals is a huge concern in terms of its ability to infect people.

Bill Whitaker: One of your colleagues told us that if this should spiral into a pandemic, this flu could make Covid look like a walk in the park.

Dr. Angela Rasmussen: I agree.

Bill Whitaker: You're scaring me.

Dr. Angela Rasmussen: I'm scared about it myself. I don't sleep very much these days, Bill.

Bill Whitaker: Has the Trump Administration gotten its arms around this problem?

Dr. Angela Rasmussen: No, I would say is the short answer. But the other-- the longer answer is that I don't actually entirely know what is –what is going on.

Bill Whitaker: Why is that?

Dr. Angela Rasmussen: Many of the people who were working on this, at least at CDC, have--have been fired from the federal government. So the influenza division at CDC has been decimated, and in fact, there is a communications ban that has been put on these federal workers.

Bill Whitaker: -- what do you think of that?

Dr. Angela Rasmussen: I think it's insane, actually, that I have to have conversations on encrypted messaging apps with my colleagues, who I would normally just send emails to.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bird-flu-risk-as-pathogen-spreads-60-minutes-transcript/

[Irish_Dem]

1. Yes it was a scary story.

Fingers crossed we will all be OK.

[dchill]

3. I think it's obvious that the official intent...

...is that we all will NOT be OK. The only logical conclusion to all their efforts is that as many as possible will die, one way or another.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Yes of course that is the GOP goal.

Cull the herd of useless eaters.

[dchill]

8. I think we're going to have to...

...consider that to be completely unacceptable. I mean, that's not politics. That's mass murder.

[Irish_Dem]

10. Yes it is.

Trump let 1 million people die during Covid. Didn't lift a finger to help them.
Kushner sold desperately needed tax payer funded medical supplies to foreign billionaires.
Pocketed the cash.

Putin funded the NRA to facilitate the mass murder of US citizens, including 6 yr olds sitting in school.

Musk and Trump have cut the federal safety net.
People will suffer and die.

To the GOP the American people are completely disposable.
Just collateral damage in their quest for money and power.

[womanofthehills]

15. CDC - does not spread person to person

“CDC A(H5N1) Bird Flu Response Update March 19, 2025”

“Since April 2024, 70 human cases of avian influenza A(H5) virus infection have been reported in the United States. Of these, 41 cases were associated with exposure to sick dairy cows and 26 were associated with exposure to avian influenza A(H5N1) virus-infected poultry. The source of the exposure in 3 cases, could not be determined. To date, human-to-human transmission of influenza A(H5) virus has not been identified in the United States. The immediate risk to the general public from H5 bird flu remains low.”

https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/spotlights/h5n1-response-03192025.html

(0f the 70 cases in US - one died. All cases were people working with cattle or birds. )

[mellow]

18. ... yet.

Viruses can evolve quickly, especially with larger numbers.

[Irish_Dem]

19. The experts are concerned about the constant mutation of the virus to humans.

If you can watch he 60 minutes clip you will see they are worried about a pandemic
that will make Covid look tame.

As it goes from one animal species to another it is significantly mutating and adapting.
It can go to humans according to the experts.

[womanofthehills]

24. Univ of Wisconsin thru gain of function

Passed this virus onto mammals.

https://www.wpr.org/science-and-technology/research/under-scrutiny-uw-madison-virus-lab-opens-its-doors

[Irish_Dem]

27. Like Wuhan Lab.

[patphil]

29. I think that's a very narrow viewpoint for them to take.

If it can transfer from mammal to mammal, and from cows or birds to people, then it stands to reason it will eventually be able to transfer from human to human.
After all, it transfers from cows to cows, and from birds to birds.
Just because they have no hard evidence yet is not a reason to judge that the risk to the general public is low.
This is a very adaptive virus, and, given it's history of species jumping, could easily mutate to a people to people virus.

Of course the CDC is not what it used to be, thanks to Trump. He could be the only president to hold office during two major epidemics. And we know how well he handled covid-19.

[wnylib]

32. SARS was around for a couple years before we got SARS-2, aka covid.

Viruses mutate -- frequently. Then the mutations mutate, etc., etc., etc. That's how virus-based epidemics and pandemics develop. They jump from species to species until a mutation allows them to spread within the species. Example: bird flu has crossed into cows. Cows at this point might not be getting it directly from exposure to each other, but from contaminated equipment being used from cow to cow. People who work with cows get it. So far, it is not spreading from person to person, but that's likely to change after the virus mutates often enough. Once that happens, there will be regional epidemics first, then a world wide pandemic.

People shrug it off when it's "only the flu." But the 1918 flu pandemic (aka Spanish flu) killed millions around the world, most of them young people, who seemed to be the most vulnerable.

In 1957-58 there was a world wide pandemic known as Asian flu. Travel was not as wide spread and frequent then as it is today so it took a while to spread. It reached the US in the late spring of 1957 and seemed to diminish by summer. But, in the fall, when flu season started up again, Asian flu came back with a powerful wham. I was in grade school then (3d grade). My 3 siblings and I all had it at the same time. They recovered within a couple days. I was sick for a week. On the third day, my temp rose to 105.6. Scared my mother so much that she dropped the thermometer, spilling mercury onto the floor when it broke. The doctor ordered aspirin and an ice bath, which brought the temp down gradually, but I developed a kidney infection and needed antibiotics and fluids for it.

Estimated deaths world wide were between 1 to 4 million. A recession followed that pandemic so that the plant where my father worked cut back employee hours to 3 days a week, sometimes only 2. He took on odd jobs to keep us afloat financially.

A couple decades later, an offshoot of the Asian flu virus caused the Hong Kong flu.

Even the flu can be dangerous.

[Passages]

2. Enough where she doesn't sleep much these days.

Great, just great.

[womanofthehills]

22. What's scary- gain of function bird flu and ferrets

(At Univ of Wisconsin - I didn’t know UW had been working on gain of function too. I lived there for a few yrs when my ex taught there)

“‘Gain-of-function’ was used to transmit bird flu between ferrets
In 2011, Kawaoka submitted research to the National Science Advisory Board for Biosecurity and the journal Nature that showed he had adapted the H5N1 bird flu so that it could infect a mammal. He said he used ferrets because they show flu-like symptoms similarly to humans.
On the tour, Halfmann showed side-by-side “isolator units” where the ferrets were kept. HEPA filters are sealed on each side of the cages.
“So when (Kawaoka) was talking about airborne transmission, we had the infected ferret here,” Halfmann said, pointing to one cage. “And then it can transmit virus, potentially, to the contact here.”

“While this sort of pathogen research has long been controversial, the COVID-19 pandemic only worsened the political atmosphere, Halfmann said. “

https://www.wpr.org/science-and-technology/research/under-scrutiny-uw-madison-virus-lab-opens-its-doors

[SheltieLover]

5. Sounds like a mass extinction event incoming.

Just great with wormbrain & kraznov at the helm.

[True Dough]

7. No need for alarmist thinking, SheltieLover!

There will surely be a simple solution, like injecting bleach and raking the forests.

[SheltieLover]

9. Exactly!

[True Dough]

11. Did I forget nuking hurricanes?

Foolish me!

[SheltieLover]

12. Ah, yes! And Vit A to protect against measles!

[True Dough]

13. So much common sense!

How did we possibly overlook it???

[SheltieLover]

14. Not sure, but I keep trying to ignore the ruskie assets

[progressoid]

21. If the Nuke doesn't work, just change its path with a sharpie in the map!

[True Dough]

26. Who knew

life could be so easy, right? If there's a Sharpie, there's a way!

[Xavier Breath]

16. Don't forget shoving a light up your ass.

Actually, we'll probably want to lead with that

[True Dough]

17. Don't know about you, Xavier

but I got my inner glow on already!

[SheltieLover]

30. Magats first. Slobby, fleaon & beardo should lead by example!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. No, it does not sound like that. . . . . nt

[erronis]

23. I saw where they are making reusable LEDs that can be shoved in places to get rid of these viruses.

And just wash them with bleach after.

MAHA "Secretary" also has a side hustle to sell special vitamin supplements that ward off evil spirits and defend against voodoo.

[Initech]

6. This administration is pure fucking evil.

[womanofthehills]

25. We should all be scared with over100 BSL labs around the world

60 BSL labs are doing BSL 3 & 4 research. How many of these labs are currently working on gain of function with bird flu?

Lab accidents- from Wiki

“List of laboratory biosecurity incidents”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_laboratory_biosecurity_incidents

[Iamscrewed]

28. Apocalyptic attitudes

To many idiots seem to be hunting the end times.

[Kid Berwyn]

31. Not to worry. The rich will be OK.

And, after all, the rich really are the only ones who matter.

[k_buddy762]

33. Gain of function work should be illegal