Researchers also say more sampling is needed. Almost 50 herds of dairy cattle across 9 US states have had confirmed cases of H5N1, and one infected person has been linked to the outbreak. But the actual numbers are probably much higher, scientists say. “There’s almost certainly been a lot more human cases than just the one,” says Peacock.
After seeing what covid did… I don’t get why people aren’t more worried about this. Zoonotic diseases can and do jump species and this one could/will be REALLY bad if it mutates and starts spreading between humans. H5N1 doesn’t care if we just had a pandemic and are still recovering.
I had H1N1 back in the early 2000’s and thought I was going to die. 106 fever almost melted my brain. I have no intention of trying my luck with this variation if it can be helped.
Have you forgotten the amount of identity politics, dental, indifference, and insane pseudoscience that circulated during Covid? All of which mostly boiled down to “I’m scared and confused but can’t admit it even to myself, so I’m gonna blame science and the government and just do whatever the hell I want.”
Seriously, there were people swearing - while fucking dying of COVID I’m the hospital - that they have no regrets about refusing the the vaccine. Absolute fucking insanity.
I havent forgotten about it at all and I’m equally afraid of the extreme and downright bizarre manifestations of denial happening all over again with a potentially deadlier virus.
I guess I didn’t want to get into the social effects because I find it to be even more mentally draining. I deleted Facebook because seeing the proliferation of pseudo science and antivax stuff was equal parts depressing and disturbing.
I had the “swine flu” too. I’ve had covid twice, and on the surface* I’d rather have covid any day vs that flu again. 4-5 of serious body and joint pains, many days of fever, severe fatigue, headache, cough…and then it hits your lungs. It took months for my lungs to recover and the cought to finally go away. I can’t remember the last time I felt so bad for so long. And yeah, I did get the flu shot, unfortunately that year they didn’t get the H1N1 in the shot by the time it was released.
*yeah, covid has the potential for far worse problems, and no, I wouldn’t really rather risk that than the H1N1, just that my personal covid symptoms were nothing compared to the flu.
I think we should take serious action to make sure that it doesn’t, because if it does, it will be horrific. But, if it does, we also need to prepare for that possibility sooner rather than later.
