Pasteurized milk includes remnants of H5N1 bird flu, U.S. officials say

girlfreddy@lemmy.ca to News@lemmy.world – 121 points –
cbc.ca

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that samples of pasteurized milk have tested positive for remnants of the bird flu virus that has infected dairy cows.

The agency stressed that the material is inactivated and that the findings "do not represent actual virus that may be a risk to consumers." Officials added that they're continuing to study the issue.

"To date, we have seen nothing that would change our assessment that the commercial milk supply is safe," the FDA said in a statement on Tuesday.

The announcement comes nearly a month after an avian influenza virus that has sickened millions of wild and commercial birds in recent years was detected in dairy cows in at least eight states. The Agriculture Department (USDA) says 33 herds have been affected to date.

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So basically “pasteurisation was found to have worked”.

What I heard is "the cow farmers who said they weren't milking sick cows are lying." And "our workers are still touching these diseased cows to hook them up to the milking machines, which has already led to one human contracting the virus by rubbing his eyes."

Also, unfortunately, raw milk is still sold. It's a very small margin, but it happens.

Yes. I was wondering about the raw milk issue - if there is an upsurge of H5N1 in cows, possibly without farmers sometimes realising, other times fully knowing but ignoring it for whatever reason, then there will be a surge of H5N1 infections among those drinking unpasteurised milk.

Antivax crowd no longer drinking milk I guess

Isn't there overlap between anti-vax and anti-pasteurization?

Not on the conservative side; but yes, there is on the crunchy, granola-mom woo woo crystals side.

Actually yes its 100% on the conservative side now too. I know this because I know an insane die-hard MAGA Christian nationalist who ONLY drinks raw milk, they see pasteurization as weakening their manhoods and virility and shit.

You make fun but I boner hardest when suckling milk straight from the cows teet...........in the dark............naked.

Not on the conservative side; but yes

As someone with parents who talk about aliens, culture-war BS, and that the problem with Trump is that he isn't antivax enough? I assure you you're wrong. I mean they aren't buying raw milk but they definitely picked up on the idea from the rightosphere, and have talked about it a few times too.


I should be clear there is a background of "REGULATION BAD" here (government bad, corporation/money good). Also republican lawmakers changing laws on raw milk (and then getting sick after drinking it in celebration, cause not confirmed either way but the excuses are onion-esque particularly the lawmaker sick on his office couch)

The woo woo isn't owned by either side either, though I would say it may be more of a case of weak political alignment that may shift to better suit their agenda (this is the case for my parents who voted for Obama and now express their regret for that in relation to who they are now) and/or a change of views they now see as acceptable to publicly have.

Jenny McCowthy strikes again

I will never know how or why that woman went from MTV comedian who makes fart jokes in a bikini to definitely scientifically trained medical expert within a few short years.

She had a baby.

So did my wife, but she stayed in her lane as a librarian because that's what she's an expert at. If Jenny McCarthy wanted to talk about how to make children laugh by making fart jokes while wearing a bikini and, for some reason people let her talk about that on TV, it would at least kind of make sense a little?

Agreed. It would’ve benefited the world had she followed Hardwick over to The Talking Dead instead of writing mom books. Just as long as she didn’t touch The Nerdist.

Maybe these morons will do something good for once and drop milk prices for the rest of us

I didn't get an answer when this was posted this morning: If you drink it, are you vaccinated against it? Serious question.

Not likely. Your stomach acid probably destroys what's left of the virus before it enters the bloodstream, meaning there's nothing for your immune system to train against. There's a reason we don't drink vaccines.

Got it, so we have to inject the milk.

Hang on, I've been injecting bleach on Trump's recommendation. Do I need to switch to milk or add it to my usual system cleaning routine?

Obviously the bleach destroys the virus, you have to alternate treatment: one week bleach, one week virus.

(please don't)

I think the most commonly used polio vaccine is administered orally

It was partially live, which was why they stopped using it in developed countries; the risk of developing polio after taking it is small but not nonexistent.

I thought the risk of developing polio wasn't to the person receiving the vaccine, but to other, unvaccinated people in an area with poor sanitation.

That’s also a concern, but about 1 in 2 million people who get the oral vaccine become paralyzed from it. It being a live vaccine instead of a an inactive one means there’s going to be those risks.

Thanks. I really appreciate the response, especially with the reference!

It is more common than you think. Unfortunately, a large part of global public health policy focuses on sacrificing the safety of the poor in order to protect the rich. So, we will continue to use the cheaper oral vaccines that paralyze children instead of developing the infrastructure to administer attenuated vaccines that we know are safe.

https://apnews.com/article/health-united-nations-ap-top-news-pakistan-international-news-7d8b0e32efd0480fbd12acf27729f6a5

There are some oral vaccines. The polio vaccine had an oral version that was widely used.

I didn't actually realize that, but I would still argue they're not very common for a reason.

And the partial remnants of the virus are inactive, meaning they can't affect people in any way, shape or form.

The agency stressed that the material is inactivated and that the findings "do not represent actual virus that may be a risk to consumers." Officials added that they're continuing to study the issue.

And the partial remnants of the virus are inactive, meaning they can’t affect people in any way, shape or form.

The warning, unspoken, was to the idiots drinking Raw Milk. I give it less than 90 days before one of them dies from H5N1.

I give it less than 90 days before one of the stupid ass "Raw Milk" people dies of H5N1.

Ooof. I feel like the FDA needs to step up its game in the US. Many things we shouldn't be eating