Thank you! Another crazy town thing to add... It has been reported that a few of the healthcare workers in Missouri were exposed to the H5N1 patient hospitalized BEFORE droplet protection protocols were initiated. But... 'why' weren't infection prevention protocols initiated just as a matter of normal hospital operation? That's a tragedy and horribly shameful. One thing I also want to know... when those healthcare workers came down with "respiratory" symptoms after exposure to "the sick guy", did or didn't they 'stay home when sick' and start wearing an N95 mask to protect others? My guess is a confident NO, considering how the masses are behaving. And what is taking CDC so long with the tests of the healthcare workers? It's criminal really.
They're taking their orders directly from Zients at this point. I think minimizing and denial is their default stance now, unfortunately. Yes, criminal.
And it’s wild because they don’t know if those healthcare workers got H5N1 because they refused to test them. The “lesser evil” says if you don’t count it it’ll disappear. And the “resistance” cheered.
Literally every day of the Biden presidency makes me hate him more and more.
Yeah, I actually can’t even process the gravity of what we’re doing to Gaza because I am so messed up in the head over what he’s been doing to the medically vulnerable here in the US.
And the thing about people that say it would be worse with Trump, Gaza probably, but when Chump was in charge people resisted the atrocities. They tried not to spread Covid. More people would be protesting Gaza if trump was doing it, but the police would be even more violent so you’re right, it probably would be worse.
People still think that washing their hands will protect them from covid. Seriously. I hear it all the time. The few people who wear masks to work are still wearing cloth masks.
State public heath could act. If the governors would allow them to act. If they have any workers left after being killed, threatened and harassed during Covid.
County public health could act, if they had any leadership or budget.
City public health could do something- if the mayors gave them some of the police budget- which will never happen.
I worked in state public health from 2019-21. The few apt workers we had, left. Since 2020, the department I worked in had 100% turnover, twice.
We are on our own, again. And since we can’t inject ourselves with bleach, we need to figure out how to protect ourselves and our families.
Reddit has a zero covid community. Individuals are exhausted. It’s hard to take care of yourself, by yourself, in a public health crisis.
I will start a new community, if it doesn’t exist already. Zero Bird Flu. 😷
I live up in New England and one thing I have noticed that is drastically different from the prior years is that medical providers are actually asking me if I would like them to wear a mask when they see me in mine. This is a new thing. They haven’t been doing this for years and all of a sudden they are doing it again. It makes me wonder if they’re actually starting to understand.
I went to pain management last week and there’s a sign that asks us to tell them if we have symptoms. I have MECFS so I pretty much always have a sore throat, fatigue, and there’s usually a headache and some muscle and joint pain along with that.
On this day this sore throat and headache were extra so I figured I should tell them like they asked.
The nurse just looks at me and she says “Well, you’re wearing a mask. We just don’t want to get sick.”
I said “Have you considered wearing a mask? They actually work.”
She completely ignored me and started talking to me about my appointment instead.
The only specialist I see that wears a mask unprompted is my young female neurologist who suffers from migraines.
My new favorite thing to do when I see yet another specialist who has nothing at all to offer me for the MECFS issues is to draw a direct parallel between my post viral damage & covid damage.
“Interesting, so if there’s nothing for this disease that has been known for decades do people know if they get long covid there’s nothing for them?”
They either change the subject or they tell me those people go to a long Covid clinic.
The one time I asked my PCP what the long Covid clinic is doing for people he said he didn’t know (which means they’re doing nothing Because if they were doing something they would be sending updates to the patient’s PCP.)
The avian flu minimization is on, full force, just like covid!! Full force. My prediction: Missouri test results come back positive, "experts" currently minimizing it backtrack and form a new way to minimize it further.
They didn’t test the healthcare workers who got sick after taking care of someone who was sick with the virus.
They’re pretending they just have no idea how that man got sick after having no contact with farm animals at all. I would bet $$ he got it from eating diseased meat. They will never tell us that though, Tyson chicken factory profits matter more than people.
Jessica - did you see the Washington Post crap from a couple of days ago titled, "Why fears of human-to-human bird flu spread in Missouri are overblown"? Prepare to be annoyed. But along the lines of them grasping for some rationalization other than the most probable (patient got it from food products or airborne H2H), the Missouri state epidemiologist is actually speculating that perhaps the patient's sample got contaminated! I mean, sure maybe. The main thing they're ALL missing is that the problem is infection prevention protocols, a carry over from the covid minimization era.
Contaminated by what? Are they processing so many H5N1 samples that some may have got on his?
How about when they were saying they didn’t want to test people because they were afraid it would pick up residual virus in their nose?
I’m not an epidemiologist or a scientist of any kind but wouldn’t them having the virus in their nose mean they have the virus? Which is why the test should turn up positive?
Remember when there was an albuterol shortage, way back in 2022/23 ? Children were using inhalers in the hospital cause there wasn’t enough albuterol for nebulizers. This was during a Covid and rsv wave. When children’s wards were overflowing and babies were dying.
Get ready for a rough winter.
Helene has caused major disruptions in the supply chains. I expect “elective” surgeries and procedures to be put on hold. Colonoscopies too. They all use IV’s. No doubt there are other supply chain disruptions.
We shouldn’t hoard what we need to survive- but what other choice is there, when our leaders don’t care who dies, or how many of us die.
The only true answer to this is to revert back to personal Covid protocols. Masks on everywhere and disinfect everything when it comes in the house, including spraying disinfectant on your clothes when coming home from any public places. I have
I have always made sure my meat is thoroughly cooked but that comes from my childhood when we ate a lot of wild game. I recently had to chide my wife about eating rare cooked meat for just that reason. We don't eat a lot of meat here but it is necessary for the protein needs. I know there are other edibles that offer protein but they are generally more expensive.
The bottom line, if you want to survive what's coming, take good care of yourself and your household as pointed out here, because no one else will. I have a strong survival instinct so I have no issue with that, no matter who may take offense.
Unless the CDC comes out with convincing evidence that the man who got sick without having any contact with farms or other sick people did not get it from eating infected animal products, I’m gonna go ahead and assume that that man got it from food. Prove me wrong CDC, please! They won’t though.
I suppose I should be grateful that our government is so inept that this is what has finally made me vegan. I’ve wanted to give up animal products for years, It’s just that I didn’t think I ate enough varieties of foods to be able to do that. This has forced me to figure out how to make sure I get the protein and calcium I need another way because I’m not eating sick animals.
The local market near me is having a “meat truck sale” they do this a couple times a year lately when some “meat truck” has too much product. When the food pantry was giving out $20 pot roasts They claimed they got them because the delivery truck couldn’t deliver where they were trying to go and they had to get rid of the product.
I actually don’t believe that at all. I assume those are culled diseased animals they couldn’t sell but can “donate” for a tax break.
Back in 2018 I remember them trying to give me mystery meat in home vacuum sealed packages. No labels, no expiration date, My boyfriend at the time was an experienced meat cutter and a lover of beef, he wouldn’t eat it because he couldn’t even identify it.
It was probably dear or moose, but it could’ve been human or dog, I had no way of knowing so I wasn’t going to eat it.
Anyway I’m off topic now. My point is that they will sell us food that will infect us because profits matter more than people. And if they legally can’t sell it they’ll be donating it to poor people because we don’t matter. They prefer us dead.
Questions: cheeses are made by heating whole milk to at least 86f, adding an acid, then separating curds and whey. Aged cheeses make sense being safe. But is it safe to have soft cheeses like cream cheese or fresh cheeses like queso fresco or paneer? I can’t find anywhere they’ve been tested - at least, not by anyone I’d trust.
What about yogurt?
I keep seeing that UHT milk “is not appropriate” for making soft cheeses - is that because it won’t work or is it a flavor issue? I can make our own damn cheeses - takes like ten minutes. But I don’t want to risk the milk in my house if it won’t matter anyway.
We have given up beef, as we don’t like it once it’s been cooked enough to be safe. Chicken we cook thoroughly anyway. We only use eggs for baking.
But as my son’s allergic to many legumes including soy and chickpeas, getting enough protein is tricky. We are risking having more fish in our diet - I know, Mercury, etc are the risk there. But at a certain point, we run out of options.
We never stopped wearing the best masks we could manage - currently P100 respies. We wear them 100% of the time around anyone not in our pod, and always in spaces where people have been. We’ve all been in spaces with smokers. That’s the best analogy I have. It lingers, so we just don’t take respies off. We eat in our car, if we are out.
We never stopped washing groceries - produce gets washed with soap and water. Plastic containers get sprayed with isopropyl alcohol. Everything gets thoroughly cooked.
Mail stays in quarantine in the garage for a few days. If something comes that needs to be opened immediately, we do so in the garage and then isopropyl spray our hands after.
We have a UVC light and HEPA filters and use them every time a tradie has to come, to make the safe space after, even though we require masks for them to even enter.
It’s not even annoying anymore. It’s just normal. It’s just how we get our deliveries in, put our groceries away, cook our food, clean our home after strangers are here. We’ve been doing it for five years now, and I see no reason to ever stop. It’s been amazing, not being sick every few months, not needing inhalers or antibiotics or all the things we used to struggle with.
Unfortunately the abuse, pathologisatio, and exploitation of neurodivergent people continues outside of institutions.
I have been marginalised most of my life for being different and was diagnosed with "Autistic Spectrum Disorder" a few years ago, I will be 60 next year.
The disorder manifests around injustice and patronising projections of disability that causes people to ignore and dehumanise those who have trouble communicating, or who are clearly communicating something the "normal" person does not want to know.
The Autistic Collaboration network has a lot of information on that and on how we could create a world fit for humans.
I am a pariah from my culture and I feed the local wild birds.
I wear a mask when I go to town and will take whatever precautions
I can if - or when, my bird friends get sick.
One is sitting on the arm of my chair as I type.
When the wildlife is gone we are doomed, and there will be no reason for me to hang around except for the sake of the few who care.
Thanks for writing. From my perspective as an old person I see where we are now as the cumulation of a path. Reagan's election in 1980 was a sharp turn to individualism and away from collective responsibility. The HIV/AIDS pandemic established the acceptance that some people in our society are disposable. The US has had decades of increasing inequality and marginalization. Now here we are, with the 'economy' as the paramount concern and collective action is discouraged in the extreme.
Maybe H. sapiens is naturally less affected by the highly pathogenic avian influenza than many other mammalian species. But wow, the arrogance and recklessness of assuming that and acting on it is truly amazing, matched only by the arrogance and recklessness of our response to SARS-2.
This is great to bring attention to. The alarming rise of bird flu cases in dairy cows points to a much bigger issue—our institutions are unprepared, distort information, and capitalize on the problems, and the public is left without clear answers. We see infection rates and mortality far beyond what was initially communicated, yet the response remains mainly passive. This isn't just about the virus; it’s about how disconnected our systems are from real accountability and the likelihood that they don't even care that they treat us like NPCS.
Other countries, like Finland, are actively vaccinating vulnerable populations; the U.S. needs to track infections and prepare for the potential human impact. Worse still, the minimal testing on farms and lack of updated safety standards for food show how much we’re being left in the dark. But we can probably predict how half of Americans, and most southern/rural Americans, would react, in addition to how the offensive-line half of the bipartisan political machine would politicize and blockade those kinds of efforts.
We must ask more challenging questions, demand transparency, and take proactive steps to avoid repeating past mistakes. Institutions aren't stepping up, so we must pay attention and prepare for what’s to come.
Thank you! Another crazy town thing to add... It has been reported that a few of the healthcare workers in Missouri were exposed to the H5N1 patient hospitalized BEFORE droplet protection protocols were initiated. But... 'why' weren't infection prevention protocols initiated just as a matter of normal hospital operation? That's a tragedy and horribly shameful. One thing I also want to know... when those healthcare workers came down with "respiratory" symptoms after exposure to "the sick guy", did or didn't they 'stay home when sick' and start wearing an N95 mask to protect others? My guess is a confident NO, considering how the masses are behaving. And what is taking CDC so long with the tests of the healthcare workers? It's criminal really.
They're taking their orders directly from Zients at this point. I think minimizing and denial is their default stance now, unfortunately. Yes, criminal.
And it’s wild because they don’t know if those healthcare workers got H5N1 because they refused to test them. The “lesser evil” says if you don’t count it it’ll disappear. And the “resistance” cheered.
Literally every day of the Biden presidency makes me hate him more and more.
Gaza's done that for me. He's been made an total fool by the Israelis (Yes I know Trump would be much worse. But that doesn't make Biden OK)
Yeah, I actually can’t even process the gravity of what we’re doing to Gaza because I am so messed up in the head over what he’s been doing to the medically vulnerable here in the US.
And the thing about people that say it would be worse with Trump, Gaza probably, but when Chump was in charge people resisted the atrocities. They tried not to spread Covid. More people would be protesting Gaza if trump was doing it, but the police would be even more violent so you’re right, it probably would be worse.
The cdc?
They have done nothing right for covid. Nothing.
People still think that washing their hands will protect them from covid. Seriously. I hear it all the time. The few people who wear masks to work are still wearing cloth masks.
State public heath could act. If the governors would allow them to act. If they have any workers left after being killed, threatened and harassed during Covid.
County public health could act, if they had any leadership or budget.
City public health could do something- if the mayors gave them some of the police budget- which will never happen.
I worked in state public health from 2019-21. The few apt workers we had, left. Since 2020, the department I worked in had 100% turnover, twice.
We are on our own, again. And since we can’t inject ourselves with bleach, we need to figure out how to protect ourselves and our families.
Reddit has a zero covid community. Individuals are exhausted. It’s hard to take care of yourself, by yourself, in a public health crisis.
I will start a new community, if it doesn’t exist already. Zero Bird Flu. 😷
Peace 🕊️
I live up in New England and one thing I have noticed that is drastically different from the prior years is that medical providers are actually asking me if I would like them to wear a mask when they see me in mine. This is a new thing. They haven’t been doing this for years and all of a sudden they are doing it again. It makes me wonder if they’re actually starting to understand.
I went to pain management last week and there’s a sign that asks us to tell them if we have symptoms. I have MECFS so I pretty much always have a sore throat, fatigue, and there’s usually a headache and some muscle and joint pain along with that.
On this day this sore throat and headache were extra so I figured I should tell them like they asked.
The nurse just looks at me and she says “Well, you’re wearing a mask. We just don’t want to get sick.”
I said “Have you considered wearing a mask? They actually work.”
She completely ignored me and started talking to me about my appointment instead.
The only specialist I see that wears a mask unprompted is my young female neurologist who suffers from migraines.
My new favorite thing to do when I see yet another specialist who has nothing at all to offer me for the MECFS issues is to draw a direct parallel between my post viral damage & covid damage.
“Interesting, so if there’s nothing for this disease that has been known for decades do people know if they get long covid there’s nothing for them?”
They either change the subject or they tell me those people go to a long Covid clinic.
The one time I asked my PCP what the long Covid clinic is doing for people he said he didn’t know (which means they’re doing nothing Because if they were doing something they would be sending updates to the patient’s PCP.)
It takes a lot of energy just to process all the denial we see.
The avian flu minimization is on, full force, just like covid!! Full force. My prediction: Missouri test results come back positive, "experts" currently minimizing it backtrack and form a new way to minimize it further.
They didn’t test the healthcare workers who got sick after taking care of someone who was sick with the virus.
They’re pretending they just have no idea how that man got sick after having no contact with farm animals at all. I would bet $$ he got it from eating diseased meat. They will never tell us that though, Tyson chicken factory profits matter more than people.
Yep, infected meat/dairy product or airborne H2H transmission. Neither one good.
Jessica - did you see the Washington Post crap from a couple of days ago titled, "Why fears of human-to-human bird flu spread in Missouri are overblown"? Prepare to be annoyed. But along the lines of them grasping for some rationalization other than the most probable (patient got it from food products or airborne H2H), the Missouri state epidemiologist is actually speculating that perhaps the patient's sample got contaminated! I mean, sure maybe. The main thing they're ALL missing is that the problem is infection prevention protocols, a carry over from the covid minimization era.
Contaminated by what? Are they processing so many H5N1 samples that some may have got on his?
How about when they were saying they didn’t want to test people because they were afraid it would pick up residual virus in their nose?
I’m not an epidemiologist or a scientist of any kind but wouldn’t them having the virus in their nose mean they have the virus? Which is why the test should turn up positive?
It’s literally crazy making.
Sarscov2
Bird flu
Rsv
Good old regular flu
Mysterious dog virus (wonder if it’s bird flu?)
A collapsed health care system
A fragile healthcare supply chain
Remember when there was an albuterol shortage, way back in 2022/23 ? Children were using inhalers in the hospital cause there wasn’t enough albuterol for nebulizers. This was during a Covid and rsv wave. When children’s wards were overflowing and babies were dying.
Get ready for a rough winter.
Helene has caused major disruptions in the supply chains. I expect “elective” surgeries and procedures to be put on hold. Colonoscopies too. They all use IV’s. No doubt there are other supply chain disruptions.
We shouldn’t hoard what we need to survive- but what other choice is there, when our leaders don’t care who dies, or how many of us die.
USA- where no lives matter
The only true answer to this is to revert back to personal Covid protocols. Masks on everywhere and disinfect everything when it comes in the house, including spraying disinfectant on your clothes when coming home from any public places. I have
I have always made sure my meat is thoroughly cooked but that comes from my childhood when we ate a lot of wild game. I recently had to chide my wife about eating rare cooked meat for just that reason. We don't eat a lot of meat here but it is necessary for the protein needs. I know there are other edibles that offer protein but they are generally more expensive.
The bottom line, if you want to survive what's coming, take good care of yourself and your household as pointed out here, because no one else will. I have a strong survival instinct so I have no issue with that, no matter who may take offense.
Agreed, we're taking all the precautions. This thing could take off at any point.
Thank you. Now that's real intelligence -- useful, scientific, timely -- and responds to the questions which are not asked.
Bravo, Jessica
Thank you! I knew my stock of n95 masks would never go to waste.
How can we get vaccinated?
Unless the CDC comes out with convincing evidence that the man who got sick without having any contact with farms or other sick people did not get it from eating infected animal products, I’m gonna go ahead and assume that that man got it from food. Prove me wrong CDC, please! They won’t though.
I suppose I should be grateful that our government is so inept that this is what has finally made me vegan. I’ve wanted to give up animal products for years, It’s just that I didn’t think I ate enough varieties of foods to be able to do that. This has forced me to figure out how to make sure I get the protein and calcium I need another way because I’m not eating sick animals.
The local market near me is having a “meat truck sale” they do this a couple times a year lately when some “meat truck” has too much product. When the food pantry was giving out $20 pot roasts They claimed they got them because the delivery truck couldn’t deliver where they were trying to go and they had to get rid of the product.
I actually don’t believe that at all. I assume those are culled diseased animals they couldn’t sell but can “donate” for a tax break.
Back in 2018 I remember them trying to give me mystery meat in home vacuum sealed packages. No labels, no expiration date, My boyfriend at the time was an experienced meat cutter and a lover of beef, he wouldn’t eat it because he couldn’t even identify it.
It was probably dear or moose, but it could’ve been human or dog, I had no way of knowing so I wasn’t going to eat it.
Anyway I’m off topic now. My point is that they will sell us food that will infect us because profits matter more than people. And if they legally can’t sell it they’ll be donating it to poor people because we don’t matter. They prefer us dead.
Questions: cheeses are made by heating whole milk to at least 86f, adding an acid, then separating curds and whey. Aged cheeses make sense being safe. But is it safe to have soft cheeses like cream cheese or fresh cheeses like queso fresco or paneer? I can’t find anywhere they’ve been tested - at least, not by anyone I’d trust.
What about yogurt?
I keep seeing that UHT milk “is not appropriate” for making soft cheeses - is that because it won’t work or is it a flavor issue? I can make our own damn cheeses - takes like ten minutes. But I don’t want to risk the milk in my house if it won’t matter anyway.
We have given up beef, as we don’t like it once it’s been cooked enough to be safe. Chicken we cook thoroughly anyway. We only use eggs for baking.
But as my son’s allergic to many legumes including soy and chickpeas, getting enough protein is tricky. We are risking having more fish in our diet - I know, Mercury, etc are the risk there. But at a certain point, we run out of options.
We never stopped wearing the best masks we could manage - currently P100 respies. We wear them 100% of the time around anyone not in our pod, and always in spaces where people have been. We’ve all been in spaces with smokers. That’s the best analogy I have. It lingers, so we just don’t take respies off. We eat in our car, if we are out.
We never stopped washing groceries - produce gets washed with soap and water. Plastic containers get sprayed with isopropyl alcohol. Everything gets thoroughly cooked.
Mail stays in quarantine in the garage for a few days. If something comes that needs to be opened immediately, we do so in the garage and then isopropyl spray our hands after.
We have a UVC light and HEPA filters and use them every time a tradie has to come, to make the safe space after, even though we require masks for them to even enter.
It’s not even annoying anymore. It’s just normal. It’s just how we get our deliveries in, put our groceries away, cook our food, clean our home after strangers are here. We’ve been doing it for five years now, and I see no reason to ever stop. It’s been amazing, not being sick every few months, not needing inhalers or antibiotics or all the things we used to struggle with.
I live in one of the big Dairy counties of Upstate New York. Waiting for it to get here, if it hasn't already.
Thank you Jessica.
Unfortunately the abuse, pathologisatio, and exploitation of neurodivergent people continues outside of institutions.
I have been marginalised most of my life for being different and was diagnosed with "Autistic Spectrum Disorder" a few years ago, I will be 60 next year.
The disorder manifests around injustice and patronising projections of disability that causes people to ignore and dehumanise those who have trouble communicating, or who are clearly communicating something the "normal" person does not want to know.
The Autistic Collaboration network has a lot of information on that and on how we could create a world fit for humans.
I am a pariah from my culture and I feed the local wild birds.
I wear a mask when I go to town and will take whatever precautions
I can if - or when, my bird friends get sick.
One is sitting on the arm of my chair as I type.
When the wildlife is gone we are doomed, and there will be no reason for me to hang around except for the sake of the few who care.
Thank you
Canary in a global mind wipe. It happens. Ever notice the difference between awakening sensory perceptions and sleep walking. We are here…
Thanks for writing. From my perspective as an old person I see where we are now as the cumulation of a path. Reagan's election in 1980 was a sharp turn to individualism and away from collective responsibility. The HIV/AIDS pandemic established the acceptance that some people in our society are disposable. The US has had decades of increasing inequality and marginalization. Now here we are, with the 'economy' as the paramount concern and collective action is discouraged in the extreme.
Maybe H. sapiens is naturally less affected by the highly pathogenic avian influenza than many other mammalian species. But wow, the arrogance and recklessness of assuming that and acting on it is truly amazing, matched only by the arrogance and recklessness of our response to SARS-2.
Thank you!
I love that song, Lost by Lost Sky, btw. IDK if that's a stock photo but that's the cover art for sure.
This is great to bring attention to. The alarming rise of bird flu cases in dairy cows points to a much bigger issue—our institutions are unprepared, distort information, and capitalize on the problems, and the public is left without clear answers. We see infection rates and mortality far beyond what was initially communicated, yet the response remains mainly passive. This isn't just about the virus; it’s about how disconnected our systems are from real accountability and the likelihood that they don't even care that they treat us like NPCS.
Other countries, like Finland, are actively vaccinating vulnerable populations; the U.S. needs to track infections and prepare for the potential human impact. Worse still, the minimal testing on farms and lack of updated safety standards for food show how much we’re being left in the dark. But we can probably predict how half of Americans, and most southern/rural Americans, would react, in addition to how the offensive-line half of the bipartisan political machine would politicize and blockade those kinds of efforts.
We must ask more challenging questions, demand transparency, and take proactive steps to avoid repeating past mistakes. Institutions aren't stepping up, so we must pay attention and prepare for what’s to come.
Thanks so much for this update and for all the valuable work you do