A new type of avian influenza is spreading rapidly.
It began in Asia in 2020, reached Canada in 2021 and the United States a year later, killing
tens of millions
of birds and tens of thousands of marine mammals.
Until now, avian
influenza (which has
a reported human
mortality rate of
50%) has only
been transmitted from
animals to humans.
However, avian influenza
DNA is found in 20% of all milk sold in the United States, so human-to-human
transmission could occur
if a mutation
occurs.
Why the biggest threat of bird flu is government disinformation
Currently, avian influenza is not the only threat to global health.
Monkeypox has returned,
ravaging the Democratic
Republic of the
Congo with a strain far more deadly than the one that hit in 2022.
Public health officials
may be worried
about these viruses,
but Americans should
be worried about
our own health
officials.
Because if health
officials treat this
outbreak the same
way they treated
the last one,
the response to
the new pandemic
could be worse
than the virus
itself.
The problem starts
with officials’ tendency
to distort risk.
During the 2009
swine flu pandemic,
for example, health
officials predicted up
to 120 million
deaths. Governments stockpiled
vaccines. But as
quickly as the
pandemic began, it
ended again.
The vaccines had
expired.
The death toll was due to mild seasonal flu.
When the new coronavirus emerged a decade later, things got even worse. The media bombarded America with images of devastation.This dire distortion had the desired effect: In March 2020, the University of Southern California's Understanding Coronaviruses in America survey reported that the average American had a 25% risk of dying from COVID-19, comparable to the Ebola virus.
It doesn't matter that just a month earlier, NIAID
Director Anthony Fauci
and CDC Director
Robert Redfield had
written that the
true mortality rate
of COVID-19 was
less than 1%.
But when then-President
Donald Trump tried
to correct the
figure, describing it
as "a fraction
of 1%" in
a March 2020 interview, he was accused of "spreading
misinformation."
Months later, Americans
still believed the
COVID-19 mortality rate
was 20%. Fauci's
response: the public
needed to be "more afraid."
Lockdowns and school
closures soon followed,
pitched as something
every country had
to do.
But not everyone
agreed. In March
2020, nearly 1,000
experts, including future
CDC Director Rochelle
Walensky, warned about
the uncertain benefits
of lockdowns in
an open letter
to Mike Pence.
When a vaccine
came on the market the following
year, CDC Director
Walensky said it
would completely stop
the virus from
spreading and "end
the pandemic," despite
clear evidence to
the contrary, things
just got worse.
Vaccine side effects
were ignored. Masks
were made mandatory,
even though science
knew they didn't
work. The results
have been shocking.
Lockdowns have likely
caused millions of
deaths and massive
economic disruption. School closures have
affected children's development.
Vaccine mandates and
misinformation have increased
vaccine skepticism and
undermined trust in
public health.
The short-lived monkeypox
pandemic in 2022
followed a similar
pattern. Gay and
bisexual men made
up 96% of all cases, but health officials insisted
that "anyone can
get monkeypox" to
avoid potential stigma.
Ultimately, the CDC
prioritized emotion over
disease prevention, and
the number of
cases rose.
During the COVID-19 and monkeypox epidemics,
politics were made
first, then data
was distorted to
justify them.
A recent House
of Representatives report
said prominent scientists
who questioned the
approach were denounced
and punished, while
tech giants censored
dissenting voices.
We are already seeing the media follow the same strategy with bird flu.
Fewer than 1% of infected cattle die from the disease. And according to scientific experts, the actual risk of death for people is almost certainly much lower than that grim 50% figure.The CDC continues to act strangely, too. Earlier this month, they recommended N95 masks and goggles for dairy workers. But N95 masks are ineffective against seasonal influenza, whose viral structure is the same as bird flu.
Professor Michael Osterholm of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota points out that safety glasses are prone to fogging up, increasing the risk of injury to workers.
As for vaccines, the Ministry of Health recently assured journalists that stocks of bird flu vaccines are ready for immediate use.
However, the clinical trials carried out were for an older version of the vaccine, from the 2020 version. To bring science back into the system, we must first hold it accountable. Some progress has been made. NIH leaders face bipartisan criticism and disciplinary action over the origins of COVID-19.
Otherwise, those in charge of fighting the pandemic continue to receive praise, pensions and prestigious new jobs. The Biden Justice Department continues to block criminal investigations into COVID-19 mismanagement.
But change can only come so quickly if we are to combat avian flu, both the disease and the misinformation that accompanies it.
Earlier this month, the CDC found elevated levels of influenza A, a subtype of avian influenza, in US wastewater.
What goes unreported
is that these
levels are still
lower than average.
Falsifying data just to get a story – sounds familiar?
Meanwhile, just last week, a second case of milk-borne avian influenza was reported in Michigan. It also reports that rapid progress is being made in developing an mRNA vaccine against avian influenza. Anticipating a potential windfall, shares of mRNA vaccine pioneer Moderna surged 50% in May alone. Again, does this sound familiar?
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