Current & Future Pandemics (not COVID)

[DanMcQ]

…including vaccine disinformation.

[hoyarooter]

Apr 28, 2024 10:20:10 GMT -5 DanMcQ said:

…including vaccine disinformation.

Excuse my ignorance (could ask Dr. Rooter, I guess) - H5N1 is measles? And it has a 58% mortality rate for unvaccinated children?

When was the measles vaccine developed? I recall having measles and German measles when I was a kid, but that was more than a few decades ago.

[bicentennial]

H5N1 is Bird Flu. Over the last 25 years or so there have been periods in other countries where it has crossed from birds to humans and the 58% mortality rate is from confirmed cases investigated by the WHO in foreign countries and it is unknown whether that number has any relevance as the only people tested for bird flu in those countries were people sick enough to be hospitalized. H5N1 Bird Flu in our country has been crossing from birds to cows and is causing some cattle to get sick. News this week that in the ballpark of 20 percent of milk samples tested both by government labs and private labs show particles of this virus in milk samples. It appears routine pasteurization of milk is inactivating the virus so it is not infectious to people drinking milk (unless they were to get it from a farm before it is pasteurized.) There have been two cases of humans in this country getting it from cattle they worked with one this year and one in 2022. Both had mild illness and recovered quickly. There have been no cases reported from drinking unpasteurized milk.

Separate issue is surging measles in many countries. Outbreaks are starting in the unvaccinated and sometimes passing to people who's vaccination protection has dropped off. Some states in the United States only required one dose of MMR to be considered fully vaccinated so some people who only received one dose of measles vaccine as a child may not be immune and may be at risk. As another example in Illinois there have been 64 cases already this year which is more cases than were seen in a whole year in more than 30 years in my state.

[SSHoya]

Why we shouldn’t panic if bird flu becomes the next pandemic

It’s true that the recent spread of bird flu among dairy cows is an “enormous concern,” as Jeremy Farrar, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, described it last week. While only two people in the United States have contracted this H5N1 strain of the avian flu (one last year and one this month), wider spread could be catastrophic, given that, in past outbreaks, the disease has killed one of every two people who are infected.

But before anyone panics, let’s take a step back and look at the facts. Health officials have a plan in the event avian flu becomes the next pandemic. In fact, as Dawn O’Connell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told me, the federal government is much better prepared to respond to pandemic influenza than it was for covid-19.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/23/bird-flu-h5n1-plan-pandemic/

[hoyajinx]

Apr 29, 2024 5:55:45 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

Why we shouldn’t panic if bird flu becomes the next pandemic

It’s true that the recent spread of bird flu among dairy cows is an “enormous concern,” as Jeremy Farrar, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, described it last week. While only two people in the United States have contracted this H5N1 strain of the avian flu (one last year and one this month), wider spread could be catastrophic, given that, in past outbreaks, the disease has killed one of every two people who are infected.

But before anyone panics, let’s take a step back and look at the facts. Health officials have a plan in the event avian flu becomes the next pandemic. In fact, as Dawn O’Connell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told me, the federal government is much better prepared to respond to pandemic influenza than it was for covid-19.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/23/bird-flu-h5n1-plan-pandemic/

I’m not sure how much government preparedness will matter when there is an entire cohort of MAGA morons who will do everything to undermine it because of “freedom”.

[SSHoya]

Apr 29, 2024 6:13:34 GMT -5 hoyajinx said:

Apr 29, 2024 5:55:45 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

Why we shouldn’t panic if bird flu becomes the next pandemic

It’s true that the recent spread of bird flu among dairy cows is an “enormous concern,” as Jeremy Farrar, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, described it last week. While only two people in the United States have contracted this H5N1 strain of the avian flu (one last year and one this month), wider spread could be catastrophic, given that, in past outbreaks, the disease has killed one of every two people who are infected.

But before anyone panics, let’s take a step back and look at the facts. Health officials have a plan in the event avian flu becomes the next pandemic. In fact, as Dawn O’Connell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told me, the federal government is much better prepared to respond to pandemic influenza than it was for covid-19.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/23/bird-flu-h5n1-plan-pandemic/

I’m not sure how much government preparedness will matter when there is an entire cohort of MAGA morons who will do everything to undermine it because of “freedom”.

If only the cultists could limit the adverse health consequences to themselves and fellow cultists, but sadly it only transfers health care costs to all of us. They are morons.

[DanMcQ]

Apr 29, 2024 5:55:45 GMT -5 SSHoya said:

Why we shouldn’t panic if bird flu becomes the next pandemic

It’s true that the recent spread of bird flu among dairy cows is an “enormous concern,” as Jeremy Farrar, the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, described it last week. While only two people in the United States have contracted this H5N1 strain of the avian flu (one last year and one this month), wider spread could be catastrophic, given that, in past outbreaks, the disease has killed one of every two people who are infected.

But before anyone panics, let’s take a step back and look at the facts. Health officials have a plan in the event avian flu becomes the next pandemic. In fact, as Dawn O’Connell, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, told me, the federal government is much better prepared to respond to pandemic influenza than it was for covid-19.

www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/04/23/bird-flu-h5n1-plan-pandemic/

This is correct, but the scale up of enough H5N1 vaccine to properly confront a pandemic is not entirely there yet. We are still stuck in old timey flu vaccine production methods that I hope will soon fall by the wayside.

At least in the US, public health infrastructure on the local level is still woefully underfunded and understaffed. We're making progress but we have a long way to go.

[hoyarooter]

Apr 28, 2024 19:32:22 GMT -5 bicentennial said:

H5N1 is Bird Flu. Over the last 25 years or so there have been periods in other countries where it has crossed from birds to humans and the 58% mortality rate is from confirmed cases investigated by the WHO in foreign countries and it is unknown whether that number has any relevance as the only people tested for bird flu in those countries were people sick enough to be hospitalized. H5N1 Bird Flu in our country has been crossing from birds to cows and is causing some cattle to get sick. News this week that in the ballpark of 20 percent of milk samples tested both by government labs and private labs show particles of this virus in milk samples. It appears routine pasteurization of milk is inactivating the virus so it is not infectious to people drinking milk (unless they were to get it from a farm before it is pasteurized.) There have been two cases of humans in this country getting it from cattle they worked with one this year and one in 2022. Both had mild illness and recovered quickly. There have been no cases reported from drinking unpasteurized milk.

Separate issue is surging measles in many countries. Outbreaks are starting in the unvaccinated and sometimes passing to people who's vaccination protection has dropped off. Some states in the United States only required one dose of MMR to be considered fully vaccinated so some people who only received one dose of measles vaccine as a child may not be immune and may be at risk. As another example in Illinois there have been 64 cases already this year which is more cases than were seen in a whole year in more than 30 years in my state.

Thanks for this info.

[DanMcQ]

[DanMcQ]

[DanMcQ]

[hoyarooter]

Apr 29, 2024 19:26:49 GMT -5 DanMcQ said:

Sounds like just a cold to me. Take bleach.

[bicentennial]

Apr 30, 2024 20:53:43 GMT -5 hoyarooter said:

Apr 29, 2024 19:26:49 GMT -5 DanMcQ said:

Sounds like just a cold to me. Take bleach.

On a much more practical note, does anyone know if our government bothered to restock the supply of masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) in case of another pandemic. As anyone in health care will remember there is a national stockpile of PPE which had not been replenished by congress since about 2005 which meant that when the pandemic started the PPE was unusable. As we no longer make any PPE in the US it could not be rapidly replaced in case of another international crisis.
So does anyone know if the government has restocked a supply for the next pandemic.