Hello everyone,
I’ve been focusing my “off-time” on doing 5 minute spots on a weekly Ukrainian radio show. I try to make a recording every 2 weeks or so on various health-related topics. Obviously, my focus is on healthy living and good lifestyle habits. I have been posting the transcripts of the show on my blog also.
This is not one of the recordings, just a regular post.
Infectious disease update!
COVID-19
Covid continues to decline worldwide, including here in North America, with the latest numbers in the US approximating 500 deaths a week, the lowest since the pandemic started. Hospitalizations also continue to decline. We no longer have any detailed community information and no one seems to even be testing anymore so who knows what is going on out there. I am seeing a lot of sick people though! Not necessarily Covid, just lots of viral infections.
Even though Covid deaths are dropping, 500 a week still translates into 26,000 deaths a year so it is certainly not irrelevant.
Remember that this is an airborne disease, meaning that it can be spread by simply breathing. Just like smoke. You don’t have to cough or sneeze. Our CDC is failing the community by recently introducing confusing definitions of how this disease spreads.
The most dominant new variant is KP2 and it is still unclear what will happen this summer.
I just got my latest booster this week. My arm is a little sore, but that’s it. I think it’s my 7th one. Vaccination and responsible careful behavior is still your best bet against contracting this disease. Remember that there is still an 8% long covid rate.
MONKEYPOX.
There is a new, more aggressive monkeypox variant popping up in the Congo. It spreads from primates to people, either by direct contact or by consuming infected meat from monkeys, referred to locally as bushmeat. Once a person is infected, it spreads from person to person sexually or body fluids. The last outbreak spread to the US so this one easily could as well, especially given the increased world travel. There is a vaccine for the last version, but it’s not clear if it is effective against this newer strain.
H5N1 BIRD FLU
The latest concern is how the H5N1 bird flu virus has become widespread in the dairy/cow herds. We know for sure that it was identified in at least 9 states. This is the same number I mentioned on my last post about H5N1 but the problem is that most dairy/beef farms are not cooperating with testing and reporting for fear of losing money so we don’t have a good handle on how many more herds and states are affected. Since the known infected herds have many herds between them, it is a guarantee that there is a lot more H5N1 in cattle than we appreciate.
The CDC has now resorted to testing wastewater downstream from cattle farms to look for the virus.
Dairy farmers are also not cooperating with employee testing requirements. For one, they do not want their undocumented workers to be identified and potentially deported and secondly, if more disease is identified, they lose money since less milk is gathered and cows are destroyed. As of now, there has still only been one documented case of H5N1 conjunctivitis in a farm worker but around 300 are being monitored. There are many more who are likely exposed and potentially infected. The reason that one worker got it in his eyes is that humans have receptors for this strain of H5N1 in the conjunctiva of the eyes but not in the lungs. At least not yet!
This indifferent attitude by the cattle industry is similar to what happened during the Mad Cow outbreak many years ago. This disease, technically called Jakob Creutzfeldt Disease, is 100% lethal and is caused by protein particles called prions, which are indestructible. They slowly eat away at brain tissue until a person dies. At that time, there was a “Shoot, Shovel and Shut Up” policy promoted by the industry, supporting the practice of killing “down” cows, likely infected with the disease, burying them and being quiet about it so no one finds out so the farm stays open. Pretty sad. Although the numbers of humans who died after contracting this disease by eating contaminated meat was not great (only a few hundred), Britain was particularly affected.
Today, more than 20% of pasteurized milk samples in grocery stores are contaminated with H5N1. Despite the government mandating that sick cows not be milked, most dairy farmers are ignoring this rule and the government is turning a blind eye.
This is a disease which is a direct result of overcrowding on farms and intermixing of various animal species. These conditions allow viruses to mutate and then spread from one species to another very rapidly. It is thought that the actual source of infection of the cow herds is feces (poop) from chickens. Chickens are the main infected animal species with over 90 millions birds estimated to be infected. Their bedding is often collected and then fed to livestock!
This virus is primarily found in bird populations, but now has jumped to cattle and various other species like deer and even some cats. As yet, pigs have not yet been involved with H5N1 as they were with H1N1, but if that were to happen, we’re next since the transmission receptors for the virus are the same in humans and pigs.
These animals on factory farms live miserable and tortured lives. There is no “humane” killing. All this just to satisfy humans’ craving for meat. 90 BILLION land animals are killed annually and that does not count the TRILLIONS of fish we kill annually.
Eating fewer animal products and more plants not only is healthier for you, it is more compassionate for the animals and is the best and fastest way to reverse climate change.
Have a great weekend.
Stay safe and be well.
AC