Raw-milk fans plan to drink up as experts warn of high levels of H5N1 virus

Null User Object@programming.dev to News@lemmy.world – 104 points –
Raw-milk fans plan to drink up as experts warn of high levels of H5N1 virus
arstechnica.com
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Drinking "raw milk" puts everyone at risk and should be illegal.

It's mostly illegal to sell it. I think just for processing/cooking (cheesemaking) is it legally sold for. But idiots have no qualms about breaking the law by lying.

Not in Oklahoma they fought hard to make it legal here. Remember the fight over it years ago.

...why?

It supposedly tastes much better. I'm sure there's also a few conspiracy nuts who think pasteurization makes you weaker for the jewish takeover or something.

It's also a personal liberty issue. People don't like being told they can't do something, and while I agree with bans on consumption of raw milk, we should critically analyze any law where the government tells private citizens what to do or not do. Especially when there isn't clear harm being done to another person.

Especially when there isn’t clear harm being done to another person.

We have lots of laws to protect people from themselves and from the lies of corporations and such. Seatbelt and helmet laws are the most obvious. We can't, as a society, expect people to be an expert on every subject. So people make laws to enforce certain actions to protect people from ignorance and misinformation. Hopefully these laws get passed after a lot of scientific evidence shows they are necessary and not political bigotry like cannabis bans and such.

That's actually exactly my point. We should carefully examine whether the infringement is worth the benefit before blindly letting the government do whatever.

In the case of seatbelt laws, it is worth it because people are really bad at understanding inertia, and wearing a seatbelt isn't a burden to anyone. In the case of raw milk, it's worth it because tuberculosis is fucking horrifying and very contagious.

How so?

They’re are essentially trying to catch the disease and spread it via misunderstood science. Their stupidity puts us all at risk. It’s the same reason as any other law - stupidity and ignorance is not an excuse to fuck over the rest of us.

Pasteurization kills viruses. So no. Not really.

Right. Raw milk is not pasteurized. Thats the whole point - they are drinking milk that has the live virus on purpose. Viruses can then spread from person to person. So while I wont drink unpasteurized milk, those who do will still put the rest of us at risk.

How many people have access to raw milk? I certainly don’t. All milk sold in the US is pasteurized.

As far as I am concerned this is just fear mongering. Which is par for the course because that is what the media does. They drum up hysteria and fear to gain viewer attention.

Hopefully not many, but this has been a thing for awhile before the whole bird flu problem. It’s a little weird, I cant say I understand why, but there’s been a movement of people fighting for their right to drink raw milk for awhile now. I think it’s normally a small group who circumvents the stores and goes straight to the source, so it goes mostly unnoticed, but this situation is putting them in the spotlight. So, yes and no. Agreed that the media is likely blowing it out of proportion, but it is definitely a thing in some areas.

Drinking cows milk is exploitative and should be illegal

I'm petty sure a lump of moldy cheese has better critical thinking skills than these nuggets

Didn’t we just confirm the first animal-to-human transmission of H5N1?

It's happened a handful of times around the world, passing from livestock to human. It hasn't yet ever passed from human to human, fortunately, but contact with infected livestock (or, potentially, drinking infected milk) is how a virus might evolve to better infect humans.

Handful of cases only in the US. Globally there were around 900 cases to date (starting 2003).

The folks behind The Great Barrington Declaration who believed in herd immunity for COVID now get to reap what they sow.

Sounds like natural selection

If only this would remain within the idiot population. The increased risk of them getting infected and allowing the virus to mutate in a way that makes it more virulent/transmissible in humans is bad for everyone.

It may be but we will all pay the price. It's jumped from Avians to Mammals (cows) it probably has jumped to cats, and in one case may have jumped to humans already.

Babe wake up, the new stupid thing has dropped