Been single for a decade now. If the sad is okay to bury, reading or video games. If something has to be said, I talk to (& pet) the cats. Or to people I’ve lost if I am okay with maybe crying. If it’s just too quiet and lonesome, I hop on Discord; some server will have a conversation to join.
Once again in human history, the mother of the next pandemic will be hunger.
It might get cats killed though, if the public is told they’re carriers. So maybe let’s not draw that connection unless it’s actually present or at least reasonably likely based on what we see. Right now humans pose an exposure risk to cats. Let’s not add a risk of culling by claiming the converse.
“But what if?”
Yeah we have to watch for evidence of airborne mammal to mammal spread, absolutely. Fabricating it for clicks does not in any universe improve monitoring on that front.
Cats, on the other hand, put their faces in everything. Groom humans. Walk in whatever humans track inside and groom themselves. Which tracks with what we’ve seen in feline cases so far; there’s been a connection to consuming contaminated material, not inhaling it
For a human to catch H5N1 from a cat, that would almost necessitate airborne mammal to mammal transmission. We haven’t seen that yet. It will be a big deal when we do. But most humans aren’t licking their cats or eating out of pet bowls so excepting toddlers, cat-to-human would be a major alarm
“But if human can transmit to cat maybe cat can transmit to human?”
We don’t even know that human transmitted to cat. Human shoes may have transmitted to cat. Other fomite spread. The key here is that humans are exposed to cats differently than cats sre exposed to humans.
Two *indoor only cats* in dairy workers’ homes tested H5N1+. The dairy workers refused testing. For an indoor cat to be exposed to a pathogen, the pathogen has to be brought in to their environment. Sorry but the alternative is bringing back spontaneous generation theory and we’re not gonna do that.
I’ve seen multiple articles now framing this report around risk of feline to human spread. So can we just be clear that there’s no reasonable reading of the situation to support that feline to human transmission occurred, and it’s dangerous?
One of the questions after my talk today was about scientists refusing to buck the administration because they fear losing their jobs.
I said that a lot of self-styled apolitical scientists lost their jobs this week, so silence will not save them. Respond and keep your values and dignity.
I want these thoughts to be anxiety-lies, but…yeah
i am going to put a finer point on this: executive orders are not laws. and they certainly are not royal decrees. they are interpretations of existing law for the purposes of enforcement. the fact that so many people are treating them as laws is actually driving me a bit insane.
We have FluView. Flu season still going strong, no new human detections of avian influenza (but one swine flu? Sure why not it’s 2025). I’m so relieved when we get any useful CDC updates anymore, appreciate everyone doing this critical work with no assurance that it will even be seen.
Rage enlightenment is maybe useful right now.
Sent
Oh. Oh no.
I will see if I can find somewhere to host it this evening. (There is way too much for an email)
Did you find this? I downloaded everything from data.pepfar.gov that I could last month, I can find a way to get it to you after work today if you still need it.
I don’t suppose anyone happened to snag the data when it was available? Would be good to have.
Image with text that reads: It's happening now: I know it's totally overwhelming but here are just a handful of things happening in US Science & public health RIGHT NOW. I need you to know, so you can realise how you are being defrauded from a healthy, disease free future, with thriving science. I need you to know, so you can tell others.
Huge thanks to my sister for helping put these together.
This unfortunately doesn’t get easier. I’m 39 with a masters degree and 12 years experience in my field (which is currently being dismantled, thisisfine.gif). I don’t make much as a public servant, but without connections or turning myself into a brand, finding other options hasn’t gone well.
If you’re in the US and you’d like to know what projects and vital services federal grants currently fund in your state, you can search here: www.usaspending.gov
And you can find the contact information for your elected representatives here: www.usa.gov/elected-offi...
They need to hear from you.
All of this is devastating. Some of it will be challenged, maybe even successfully, but even short interruptions and the anxiety generated are interrupting care, halting research, causing civil servants to leave the field. The consequences will last far beyond this administration.
(…which, it’s their body; they shouldn’t need my input. But so interesting that doesn’t work for AFAB folks). So then, post divorce, they’ve had a vasectomy that limits an option they may want, I was stuck without the same option despite knowing what I wanted. Who the heck does this serve?
The extra messed up part, was after the 3rd Dr told me and my spouse that we couldn’t even discuss it until I was 30, my spouse (who would have been open to kids! But figured it was moot bc I wasn’t) went to get a vasectomy. Procedure same day as consultation, no one asked them for my permission…
It took me six years and four gynecologists to get a referral for surgical sterilization. One—when I was still married—actually pushed abstinence. The others were handwringing about “what if you change your mind, what if your spouse changes their mind, just keep using BC you react badly to”
uhm. So MMWR. Any HAN advisories. Public health law news. Preventing Chronic Diseases. What else are we going to be missing?
I’m going to try to stay in my lane and focus on public health nightmare decisions. Which I see they wasted no time with. [insert cursing here]
Georgia suspends all poultry sales and activities after highly pathogenic avian influenza detected on a commercial farm in Elbert County.
Georgia is the nation’s second largest producer of poultry and eggs. Statement for Georgia Ag Dept: agr.georgia.gov/pr/highly-pathogenic-avi...
