A controversial proposal from U.S Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to let bird flu naturally spread through poultry farms is raising alarms among scientists – who say the move could be inhumane and dangerous.

  • Cid Vicious@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    edit-2
    4 hours ago

    Let’s not use the word “controversial” when “nobody with any qualifications would ever fucking agree with this” is more accurate. Controversial suggests a lack of consensus.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    ·
    3 hours ago

    The Secretary of HEALTH recommends letting a pandemic spread. Think about that for a second.

  • ᕙ(⇀‸↼‶)ᕗ@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    3 hours ago

    stand with rfk. americans voted trump twice into office and shows now sign of stopping their brain rott. bird flu is best that can happen. last time the facist leader was in office we had corona globally - lets just hope for a very localised (to the USA) bird flu outbreak to help the imbeciles remember 2020.

  • DicJacobus@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    7 hours ago

    Who would have known. The russian mafia puppet government that’s doing it’s best impression of the New world order stereotype… is suggesting a population cull

  • MTK@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    9 hours ago

    Inhumane is ironic considering that the mere existence of poultry farms is inhumane. But yeah, it would be stupid, cruel and it will raise the chance of mutations that spread to other species including us.

    • jaemo@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      6 hours ago

      I think they really mean it would be inhumane if you consider the problem vis-a-vis the yardstick most Americant capitalists measure their “humanity” by, ie: less dollary-doos for them.

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    2
    ·
    7 hours ago

    “The way we raise birds now, there’s not a lot of genetic variability,” Hansen said. “They’re all the same bird, basically.”

  • froh42@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    26
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    13 hours ago

    BND: There’s a high probability that the last pandemic was caused by negligence in China.

    US: Last Pandemic? Wait, hold my pisswater.

  • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    14 hours ago

    For the unaware, this bird flu variant has about a 50/50 survival rate. It won’t be like Covid.

    • robbinhood@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      8 hours ago

      It’s a bit complicated. That survival rate primarily includes people who become severely ill and seek medical attention. Since it’s the most severe cases, the case fatality rate (CFR) will appear higher.

      HOWEVER, what also needs to be emphasized is that a disease with like a 10% CFR is probably a civilization (as we know it) ending disease. I believe covid 19 was between like 1-2% and we saw how it nearly broke our health care system, and that was with people more competent than RFK in charge.

      If a disease emerges that spreads as easily as COVID did and with a CFR rate 3 to 4X as worse, it’d obliterate the health care system very, very quickly. Then people are going to start dying en masse from preventable diseases, like common infections, moderate injuries (e.g. broken leg) etc.

      If a disease emerges that spreads as fast and far as COVID and has a 50% CFR, yeah that’d collapse most societies completely. Maybe some societies that can truly lock down and enforce social distancing, like China, could survive long enough for a vaccine or other solution to become available.

    • Early_Insurance_3334@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      13 hours ago

      From what I’ve read i think it will be worse than 50/50 if lots get it because the recovery stories I’ve seen involved weeks in the ICU and required those machines that help with organ functions like pumping blood.

      There will be a massive shortage of ICU beds and machines to save the people.

      • ZoopZeZoop@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        8 hours ago

        And no Medicaid/Medicare to pay for it. So, even if they get the care, they’ll be crushed by massive debt afterward.

        • robbinhood@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          7 hours ago

          If a disease with anything close to a 50% case fatality rate spreads far and wide, it’ll collapse human civilization. There won’t be anyone to collect the debt afterward. Those who survive would have to rebuild society from the ground up.

          If it doesn’t spread far and wide and it’s only a small number of people who end in ICU, yeah they’ll need to hire a bankrupcty lawyer once they recover.

  • ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    21
    ·
    13 hours ago

    I remember when people laughed at the concept of the immune system being like a muscle, that needs frequent excercise, and with same excercise it could be built back.

    Good times.

    Nowadays I wonder when will people shoot each other with increasingly higher caliber bullets to build up immunity to bullets.

  • canajac@lemmy.ca
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    17 hours ago

    What a fucking disgrace he is to the Kennedy legacy. I hope he gets swallowed by a whale or gets eaten by a bear or a worm eating his brain.

    • Ledericas@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      14 hours ago

      his own family more or less disowned a while ago, and also hes not all there because the way he speaks is like someone got a stroke, he was a known heroin addict.