A controversial proposal from U.S Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to let bird flu naturally spread through poultry farms is raising alarms among scientists – who say the move could be inhumane and dangerous.
not paywalled for me: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/18/health/kennedy-bird-flu.html
preserve the birds, that are immune to it
I still don’t like the everyone get measles version of this.
willing to really try this on a pilot as we build the safe perimeter around them to see if there is a way forward with immunity
“pilot with safe perimeter” seems reasonable, as long as safe perimeter works. Bird flu is endemic already, afaik. = “will remain a constant presence”. It only makes sense for domestic chickens/fowls. It is not endemic yet in other animals/humans, and maximum quick containment seems like only approach to keep it that way.
Bird flu not being a problem in countries that have smaller flocks, seems a transformative solution.
I didn’t like the rebuttals in my link above. One of them says that the best thing for you/chickens is “to have a central authority decide to cull you minimizing for a balance of cost and your pain, instead of giving you the chance/choice of either surviving, or far more likely, suffering before death.” I would choose the 2nd option, but can only do so under central authority that has already decided what it prefers.
I can’t read this because fuck nyt, but wtf @
I didn’t like the rebuttals in my link above. One of them says that the best thing for you/chickens is “to have a central authority decide to cull you minimizing for a balance of cost and your pain, instead of giving you the chance/choice of either surviving, or far more likely, suffering before death.” I would choose the 2nd option, but can only do so under central authority that has already decided what it prefers.
Like what? Who is saying this to the person that is “you” in this scenario? Wtf? Absolute fucking non starter. I’m not choosing shit, fuck that we’re not doing that.
The rebuttals for a pilot included that if you cull the whole flock, when signs of avian flu in part of the flock, then you are killing all of the chickens humanely instead of the large majority dying in pain from likely getting the flu. You are the chicken whose death is being decided from above.
Holy fuck that’s grim. I didn’t pick up what you meant at first my bad but I get it now. You’re saying if this is their tactic for the birds, and “let 'er rip” is policy for covid for humans then it’s going to be somewhere between “many if not most folks have multiple nontraumatic brain injuries now and autoimmune conditions that are [as I understand it] equivalent to developing AIDS in much shorter time and more” and “we will forcibly cull the herd to protect the future of the project”.
to be clear, I don’t like the argument that “culling chickens is best for the chickens, from an animal cruelty perspective”. I understand that culling chickens is best to not have chickens that survive or have no symptoms but still spread bird flu to other animals and humans. Be honest about necessary murders, is a pet peeve of mine.
are poultry prices going up like egg prices are in the states?
No, they’re different chickens and the virus has been spreading more through egg laying chickens. In part because they’re in different locations.
thanks!
You go first Mr RFK Jr
Let him visit one of these farms for a good few days.
From what I know it’s mostly the trucks transporting between farms. They’re not being cleaned frequently enough or well enough. Though, there is I think some cases of it being transmitted in migrating wildlife.
What is wrong with the man ?
Well for one, a worm ate his brain.
I knew he was just a huge shill for the reptile egg shadow industry. Before you know it, all US omelets will be made from factory-farmed sea turtle eggs.
the worm egg industry, he needs everyone to have worms.
He can go first. Go ahead Bobby, show us how easy it is.
For the unaware, this bird flu variant has about a 50/50 survival rate. It won’t be like Covid.
From what I’ve read i think it will be worse than 50/50 if lots get it because the recovery stories I’ve seen involved weeks in the ICU and required those machines that help with organ functions like pumping blood.
There will be a massive shortage of ICU beds and machines to save the people.
And no Medicaid/Medicare to pay for it. So, even if they get the care, they’ll be crushed by massive debt afterward.
If a disease with anything close to a 50% case fatality rate spreads far and wide, it’ll collapse human civilization. There won’t be anyone to collect the debt afterward. Those who survive would have to rebuild society from the ground up.
If it doesn’t spread far and wide and it’s only a small number of people who end in ICU, yeah they’ll need to hire a bankrupcty lawyer once they recover.
It’s a bit complicated. That survival rate primarily includes people who become severely ill and seek medical attention. Since it’s the most severe cases, the case fatality rate (CFR) will appear higher.
HOWEVER, what also needs to be emphasized is that a disease with like a 10% CFR is probably a civilization (as we know it) ending disease. I believe covid 19 was between like 1-2% and we saw how it nearly broke our health care system, and that was with people more competent than RFK in charge.
If a disease emerges that spreads as easily as COVID did and with a CFR rate 3 to 4X as worse, it’d obliterate the health care system very, very quickly. Then people are going to start dying en masse from preventable diseases, like common infections, moderate injuries (e.g. broken leg) etc.
If a disease emerges that spreads as fast and far as COVID and has a 50% CFR, yeah that’d collapse most societies completely. Maybe some societies that can truly lock down and enforce social distancing, like China, could survive long enough for a vaccine or other solution to become available.
Who would have known. The russian mafia puppet government that’s doing it’s best impression of the New world order stereotype… is suggesting a population cull
Let’s not use the word “controversial” when “nobody with any qualifications would ever fucking agree with this” is more accurate. Controversial suggests a lack of consensus.
I think just saying dumb shit to cause drama and distract from other shit they’re doing
I am reminded of the quote “some of you may die, but that is a sacrifice I’m willing to make”.
Genius.
That’s just about got the whole zeitgeist sewn up.
Isn’t he worried one of his falcons will catch it?
They’re wearing masks.
probably gave himself worms from the carcasses he ate.
The Secretary of HEALTH recommends letting a pandemic spread. Think about that for a second.
stand with rfk. americans voted trump twice into office and shows now sign of stopping their brain rott. bird flu is best that can happen. last time the facist leader was in office we had corona globally - lets just hope for a very localised (to the USA) bird flu outbreak to help the imbeciles remember 2020.