<
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/bird-flu-has-spread-out-of-control-after-mistakes-by-u-s-government-and/>
"Keith Poulsen’s jaw dropped when farmers showed him images on their cellphones
at the World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin in October. A livestock veterinarian at
the University of Wisconsin, Poulsen had seen sick cows before, with their
noses dripping and udders slack.
But the scale of the farmers’ efforts to treat the sick cows stunned him. They
showed videos of systems they built to hydrate hundreds of cattle at once. In
14-hour shifts, dairy workers pumped gallons of electrolyte-rich fluids into
ailing cows through metal tubes inserted into the esophagus.
“It was like watching a field hospital on an active battlefront treating
hundreds of wounded soldiers,” he said.
Nearly a year into the first outbreak of the bird flu among cattle, the virus
shows no sign of slowing. The U.S. government failed to eliminate the virus on
dairy farms when it was confined to a handful of states, by quickly identifying
infected cows and taking measures to keep their infections from spreading. Now
at least 860 herds across 16 states have tested positive.
Experts say they have lost faith in the government’s ability to contain the
outbreak.
“We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation," said Angela
Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. “I don’t
know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.”
To understand how the bird flu got out of hand, KFF Health News interviewed
nearly 70 government officials, farmers and farmworkers, and researchers with
expertise in virology, pandemics, veterinary medicine, and more.
Together with emails obtained from local health departments through public
records requests, this investigation revealed key problems, including deference
to the farm industry, eroded public health budgets, neglect for the safety of
agriculture workers, and the sluggish pace of federal interventions."
Via Violet Blue’s
Cybersecurity Roundup: December 24, 2024
https://www.patreon.com/posts/cybersecurity-24-118516160
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
