(OPINION) Do you remember the nightmares that we experienced in 2020 and 2021? Nobody wants to go through anything like that again, but right now, multiple pestilences are raging all over the planet, and one or more of them could potentially spiral completely out of control.
For a long time, I have warned my readers that we have entered an era of great pestilences. Humanity’s ability to manipulate diseases greatly exceeds humanity’s ability to control diseases.
As you read this article, scientists all over the world are playing with some of the most dangerous bugs humanity has ever known. That is a recipe for disaster, and it is only a matter of time before we experience a crisis far worse than anything we went through in 2020 and 2021.
In recent months, I have been keeping a very close eye on bird flu. It has already killed hundreds of millions of birds around the globe and is now infecting mammals on a widespread basis.
One expert who has been monitoring the bird flu for decades says that what we are witnessing right now is “extremely worrying.”… MacIntyre describes the spiraling infections in animals as being “unprecedented” and says that urgent surveillance is needed to monitor whether H5N1 begins spreading between pigs or ferrets, animals that have a similar receptor profile to humans.
“I have been following H5N1 since 1997, and the current situation is extremely worrying,” MacIntyre says. “In the past, H5N1 epidemics in birds were sporadic and would die down after culling of infected poultry.
Since 2021, the pattern has changed, and it has not gone away but steadily increased.” During this time, many new mammalian species have been infected. “Some may be suitable genetic mixing vessels to create a human pandemic strain,” she says.
As long as it was just spreading among birds, H5N1 was not a major threat to humans. But now cattle all over the U.S. have been catching it. In fact, cases have been confirmed in 21 herds in 7 different states…
State Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler said on Wednesday that the H5N1 bird flu virus has been found in a dairy herd in North Carolina. This makes North Carolina the seventh state in a little over two weeks to report infected cattle.
“We have spent years developing ways to handle HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] in poultry, but this is new, and we are working with our state and federal partners to develop protocols to handle this situation,” he said.
So far, USDA scientists have confirmed bird flu in 21 herds in seven states. Texas has the most, nine, and Barron’s magazine said Texas officials believe the number of infected herds is much higher.
The Texas Agriculture Department said on March 25 that “a mysterious disease [that] has been working its way through the Texas Panhandle” had been identified as HPAI. Texas state epidemiologist Dr. Jessie Monday said that 40 dairy farms had reported cows with symptoms of the mystery disease, said Barron’s.
Now that H5N1 has jumped from birds to cows, will it also jump from cows to humans? One dairy worker in Texas has already been infected, and the CDC is telling state health officials “to prepare for more human cases of bird flu”…
State health officials have been told to prepare for more human cases of bird flu amid fears the virus could jump to people. CDC officials issued the warning on Friday, urging state leaders to have ‘up-to-date operational plans’ in place if more farm workers test positive for H5N1. (READ MORE)
