I follow a lot of people. 1,878 as of this morning. I also don't engage in any other social media. Never have, never intend to. Pretty much every other social media domain is blocked at our firewall level. I only looked at twitter(as it was called at the time) in December of 2019, for the first time in my life, to try to get fast breaking COVID news, and have access to scientists who would be ahead of the knowledge curve.
I'm only really here for one reason. To get good info, synthesize it, and redistribute it, often in different words, when I think it'll be helpful. Despite some truly "delightful" DMs I've received recently, I have no ulterior motive. No one's forcing you to believe that, and I take it as a badge of honor to be blocked, so, knock yourself out if you're so inclined.
I'm asking everyone, particularly scientists, to be careful with your words. There's been palatable rising tensions here in 2024. Some of it has to do with science(H5N1, WHO airborne) some of it doesn't(politics), but it's real.
I have seen some truly awful H5N1 takes as things ramp up. Particularly this morning. Nuance matters. If you want to be a prognosticator, be clear. "I think" or "I believe" instead of launching into what you want to say.
Here's a few things I've seen that should be discussed carefully:
- Pasteurization is completely effective against H5N1.
Here's what the FDA says about that:
The FDA believes the pasteurization process is “very likely” to inactivate H5N1, though they acknowledged that no studies have been done to test that.
Here's someone who knows better:
“Daniel Perez, an influenza researcher at the University of Georgia, is doing his own test tube study of pasteurization of milk spiked with a different avian influenza virus. The fragile lipid envelope surrounding influenza viruses should make them vulnerable, he says. Still, he wonders whether the commonly used “high temperature, short time” pasteurization, which heats milk to about 72°C for 15 or 20 seconds, is enough to inactivate all the virus in a sample.”
- It's already spreading person to person across the US.
The only reference I can find that would lead to that conclusion would be this:
"Only one human case linked to cattle has been confirmed to date, and symptoms were limited to conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye. But Russo and many other vets have heard anecdotes about workers who have pink eye and other symptoms—including fever, cough, and lethargy—and do not want to be tested or seen by doctors. James Lowe, a researcher who specializes in pig influenza viruses, says policies for monitoring exposed people vary greatly between states. “I believe there are probably lots of human cases,” he says, noting that most likely are asymptomatic."
Or, perhaps in conjunction with this:
"The genetic sequence from the human case, which occurred on an unidentified farm in Texas, is sufficiently different from the cattle sequences that it can’t be easily linked to them, he said. The differences suggest that the individual was either infected in a separate event — maybe not via a cow, but through contact with infected wild birds — or that there might have been another line of viruses in cattle early on and it has since died out."
I don't want to belabor the point, and I don't want to call out anyone. I just felt the need, after scrolling through my timeline this morning, to point out that language matters. Be careful. Don't spread misinformation. If you want to prognosticate, go ahead, but be clear it's your opinion. Your magic internet points don't matter.
Who am I following on this? @HelenBranswell has a string of great articles at statnews.com.
https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/05/bird-flu-cdc-urges-doctors-watch-for-h5n1-in-farm-workers/
https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/18/h5n1-bird-flu-scientists-want-usda-genetic-data-faster/
https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/23/h5n1-bird-flu-genetic-analysis/
https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/23/h5n1-bird-flu-virus-particles-in-pasteurized-milk-fda/
https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/24/h5n1-bird-flu-vaccine-preparedness/
@HelenBranswell on top of it again today. Lots of good tidbits in this one.
https://www.statnews.com/2024/04/24/h5n1-bird-flu-usda-orders-dairy-cow-testing/
"an animal to test negative for the virus before it can be moved across state lines"
"farms that move cattle across state lines and have animals that test positive for H5N1 or any influenza A virus will be required to open their books to investigators, so they can trace movement of cattle from infected herds"
"The order currently applies to lactating dairy cows but could be expanded if necessary"
"He sidestepped questions about where the positive milk samples were purchased and what percentage of samples contained traces of the virus when tested by PCR — polymerase chain reaction testing — saying that the agency has an analysis of its work that will be made public “very shortly.”"
"There was some support offered for the oft-repeated claim that pasteurization would kill the virus in milk from by Jeanne Marrazzo, the new NIAID director. She said that some NIAID-funded researchers had also found PCR-positive milk in samples bought from stores, but that when the researchers tried to grow virus from those samples, they could not.
“The results that those investigators got indicated that the PCR-positive material was not alive,” Marrazzo said, though she warned that work was done on a small number of samples and needs to be confirmed by the larger FDA effort."
"Watson confirmed that USDA has met some resistance from farmers who they’ve suspected of having infected cows. Farmers have been told they must discard any milk produced by cows that are infected with H5N1 virus, though it’s not clear if or how that recommendation is being enforced."
An article from today about the possibility of this H5N1 spread being similar to the spread of contagious mastitis in cows. It's from the perspective of the industry.
https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/20994-usda-working-to-provide-answers-on-h5n1-in-dairy
I also read way more about contagious mastitis than I ever wanted to, but, if anyone is interested this article was a good review.
