22
May
Vaccine for Covid-19
Happy Friday and happy Memorial Day.
First of all, thanks to all those out there who serve or served. I appreciate your sacrifice and willingness to protect everyone else.
My anxiety level is rising as I approach my upcoming flight to Nashville to move our son into a new condo. Work trip. He and Natalia drove down earlier this week. I am flying Southwest and their communications about their protocols have been comforting, but I can’t help but be nervous. I’ll let you know how it goes. I have all the PPE imaginable. I have my ski goggles. I stopped drinking water a few hours ago!!
I wanted to make a quick comment about vaccination, since it has been in the press incessantly.
Vaccines are vital but they do NOT prevent you from getting infected.
AGAIN, they do NOT prevent you from getting infected.
Only not getting exposed to the bug does that.
What a vaccine might do is prime your immune system to identify the bug sooner, attack it and hopefully eliminate it before it has a chance to take hold and make you sick.
It also does not make you non-contagious if you have been exposed. You might be contagious for a shorter period of time, but you can still spread the infection.
We need to stop hoping for a fix. It ain’t commin’ soon.
Your best plan is to continue to strive to become healthier which will help you overall and might minimize your potential to get sick if and when you get exposed. I’m convinced the majority of people will eventually become exposed.
I’m going off line for a bit. Have a great weekend.
Stay safe and be well.
AC 😎✌️🌱❤🐖🏃🏻🧘🏻♂️🌎😷
19
May
Andrew Chuma 😎doctorchuma.com
“Eat well, Move more, Love more & Stress less” Dean Ornish MD
“Do the best you can, until you know better. Then when you know better, do better” Maya Angelou
Begin forwarded message:
From: Sentient Media <newsletter@sentientmedia.org>
Date: May 19, 2020 at 8:44:39 AM EDT
To: andrewchuma@gmail.com
Subject: COVID-19: Agribusiness Reaches New Lows
Reply-To: Sentient Media <newsletter@sentientmedia.org>
COVID-19: Agribusiness Reaches New LowsAs our food system shuts down, workers and animals continue to suffer.
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| Jo-Anne McArthur / WeAnimals |
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COVID-19 Revealing Inherent Cruelty of Agribusiness
Reading Time: 3 minutes
“I know many industries are experiencing hardship right now. This is just the story of ours,” Ryan Elbe shares as he watches milk gush from a pipe at his Wisconsin dairy farm. Elbe is one of many farmers across the U.S. and Canada who started dumping thousands of gallons of milk in early April as a consequence of COVID-19 closures.
According to the USDA, processed milk products make up the majority of dairy consumption in the United States, with cheese accounting for over half of milk fat consumption in 2018. But as consumers trade restaurant dining for eating at home, the demand for dairy products has dropped drastically.
Food banks across the U.S. are reporting supply shortages due to the spike in unemployment. Some argue that the excess milk could be donated to food pantries, but processing milk for human consumption would significantly cut into the dairy industry’s profits. Instead, it is more cost-effective for farmers to dump the raw product.
As dairy farms continue to operate despite decreased demand, many farm owners are bracing themselves for the repercussions of dwindling milk prices. As the food supply suffers, so do millions of animals stuck within the meat and dairy industries.
COVID-19 closures have already resulted in the culling of millions of animals within the meat and dairy industries in the U.S. and Canada. Inside the dairy industry, cows are kept in confined, unsanitary spaces where they are hooked up to machines and milked multiple times per day. In modern dairy, calves are removed from their mothers so cows will produce more milk for human consumption. Only now, the their suffering is in vain as their milk is being flushed down the drain. |
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| The Reality of Agribusiness
Victims of the dairy industry are not the only ones suffering as a result of COVID-19:
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| The current crisis within the milk and meat industries starkly contrasts with the image agribusiness has attempted to create for itself. On the outside, the dairy industry paints a bucolic picture of rolling hills and happy cows, but recent investigations have unveiled immense cruelty shuttered behind closed doors. The meat industry paints a similar picture, only with the addition of rugged, intrepid ranchers. Countless investigations have shown that the promises on the outside of the package are often far from reality—that 99 percent of farmed animals in America reside within factory farms.
The meat and dairy industries are largely controlled by major corporations prioritizing profit over the health and safety of workers and animals. Workers within the meat and dairy industries have little control over their working conditions. Hundreds have fallen ill after showing up to work in fear of losing their jobs during this uncertain time. As COVID-19 continues to surge through processing plants, some workers are striking in hopes of inciting change within our current food system’s procedures.
COVID-19 has the potential to spark significant changes in the agricultural industry, giving citizens an opportunity to influence its direction. Animal rights advocates and concerned voters can lobby elected officials to limit the use of government funds to support industries that engage in animal cruelty and mistreat their employees.
Read the full story |
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Covering COVID-19
With the worst global pandemic we’ve seen in over a century, it’s more important than ever to make sure the truth is reported in its entirety, not just what’s convenient.
Help us share the facts during these uncertain times and make sure the world knows our species cannot survive if we continue our exploitation of the planet and nonhuman animals. |
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