H5N1 Bird Flu Isn’t a Human Pandemic—Yet
www.scientificamerican.com
Americans don’t like being told what to do, and many don’t trust government. These stubborn attitudes might turn H5N1 bird flu into a pandemic

When H5N1 avian influenza started spreading among dairy cattle across the U.S. this year, regulators warned against consuming unpasteurized milk. What happened? Raw milk sales went up.

Distributors of this unsafe-for-human-consumption product deny H5N1—which has the potential to sicken millions of people—is a danger. Dairy farmers decline to allow disease detectives onto their properties.

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
    1412·
    3 months ago

    “It not that people are stupid or ignorant or that they don’t know what the science is,” he said. “They’re motivated to reject it on the basis of partisanship, their political ideology, their religion, their cultural values.”

    I wonder why he doesn’t figure “The government has provided misinformation recently on health topics” into his list of reasons people don’t trust government health information.

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
      13·
      3 months ago

      I’m pretty sure rejecting facts based on partisanship, political ideology, religion, of cultural values can easily qualify you for being stupid.

      On the other hand, the us has done idiotic things to tarnish it’s reputation in the past.

      • cheesepotatoes@lemmy.world
        101·
        3 months ago

        It absolutely does. If you’re rejecting basic, verifiable scientific facts based on your politics or religion, you’re fucking stupid.

          • intensely_human@lemm.ee
            11·
            3 months ago

            I’m sorry what? How am I anti-vax and a covid denier? Did you just make that up for no reason,

            • cheesepotatoes@lemmy.world
              3·
              3 months ago

              Regardless of intention, the US government put its stamp of approval on a lot of misinformation during the pandemic. Whether that was an attempt to deceive or just incompetence, it doesn’t inspire trust at all.

              This is just blatant dog-whistling. What misinformation, bruh. Share your crazy conspiracy theories so I can dismiss them out of hand.

        • buddascrayon@lemmy.world
          1·
          3 months ago

          Our fuckery with other countries is well documented. Right now we’re talking about the things that our government tells us. Quite frankly, if one wanted to make a decent argument about our government lying to us they should point to Snowden. He is a much better example than the covid conspiracy theory garbage that OP has spewed forth.

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
      93·
      3 months ago

      They should have their fucking farms shut down until they comply with the FDA. Telling them they can’t investigate on their farms then you lose all farm subsidies.

      • intensely_human@lemm.ee
        43·
        3 months ago

        Why did you post this as a reply to my comment? It doesn’t seem to actually respond to anything I said.