9mo ago

An ounce of prevention: Now is the time to take action on H5N1 avian flu, because the stakes are enormous

theconversation.com An ounce of prevention: Now is the time to take action on H5N1 avian flu, because the stakes are enormous

Our approach to combating pandemics must shift to one that prioritizes prevention of human infections with zoonotic viruses, rather than focusing on rapid response once human infection is widespread.

I really don't want to do this again

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I worry that if mass graves due to covid weren't enough to jolt near-unanimous support for protective measures, little else will. Would of course love to be proven wrong :(
edit: for the sake of clarity / not accidentally misrepresenting things, graves would be dug up there (as per the article) with/without covid, but the number of bodies being buried in that manner went to ~7x the amount during non-covid according to the article.
- There were even those temporary structures/tents outside of hospitals in Australia. Saw them locally, none of the behaviours changed though.
  I really really hope that this virus doesn't also jump to humans and force us to deal with strollouts and noncompliant people again...
  
  Bit late to worry about it jumping to humans.
  https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/avian-flu-summary.htm
- It feels like our public health systems have gone backwards since covid. Not because we don't have the skills and resources, but because of ideology.
- I think the frequency of deaths after infection would need to be an order of magnitude higher to move the needle on preventative measures. People just assume it won't effect them when 199 out of 200 people survive.
  
  This measure of 199 out of 200 is the US population equivalent of 1,650,000 people.
  Guess is time to start investing in the business of death and funerals.

I hate to say it but I think they will attempt to shut the gate after the horse has bolted. I hope it's just my GenX cynicism talking. I don't want to do this again either. The last time didn't exactly fill me with confidence, with all the politicking and social and mainstream media misinformation, and people just openly breaching the guidelines because they didn't care enough, the antimaskers and antivaxers and sovereign citizens. After all we went through, I still see people not washing their hands when they should and coughing all over people in public places. It wasn't that long ago, not long enough to have forgotten so easily, and it makes me angry and sad.
- I agree. Probably going to be a repeat of the last time. It worries me because of my immune system and also avian flu can be fatal to cats.

Narrator: In fact the human race did not take an preventive measures

Unless the human mortality rate is much higher than COVID, this is just going to be the same thing all over again. Vaccines take time to prepare and even though this is a flu strain (which should give us a headstart), there doesn't seem to be much happening with this yet (even the US has only just started getting organised with an order of 4.8 million doses, which is a drop in the ocean if their burgeoning outbreak amongst livestock manages to jump to humans). Waiting until we have rampant human-to-human transmission to order vaccines will be too late.

Time to sit at home again and watch humanity cull itself by millions... 🤦

If you want to keep farming animals frequent pandemics are the price 🤷‍♀️

I remember thinking how "lucky" we were that COVID-19 was relatively mild, compared to say the original SARS which had a 10%+ mortality rate. This is a two edged sword though, because we shot our load on COVID-19 and too many people aren't going to accept restrictions again. There's a fair segment of society who will work against any efforts at public health now.

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