Summary
Oregon confirmed its first human case of avian influenza, linked to a poultry operation in Clackamas County.
The H5N1 strain has infected millions of birds and other animals, but poses a low risk to the public with mild symptoms and no evidence of person-to-person transmission
On the plus side, COVID drastically cut our carbon emissions for a year or two.
Imagine what bird flu would accomplish.
That was because of mitigation efforts also mitigated emissions.
2020: Please stay home and stop the spread of COVID-19.
2028: Please report to your local mandatory bird flu super spreader rally or be subject to a daily fine of 250 TrumpBux or 3,000,000 USD or 2 dozen eggs.
The early COVID pandemic response was largely voluntary, as people bunkered down out of terror. I knew a few people who caught the disease early on, during an international flight, and they were stuck overseas for months simply because the US didn’t want to let them back in.
And the death toll for COVID wasn’t anywhere near the potential of an avian flu. We’re talking high double digits - 50% of the historical sampling holds. People only get to go to the super spreader rally once before they either get smart or stop mattering. And Trump’s a fucking hypochondriac, ffs. The anti-ax shit was far more a consequence of corporate media trying to bully people back to work than anything Trump personally believed. That’s half the joke of the #NeverTrump movement. Most of the shit they hated about Trump was the silver-lining break from neoconservative dogma.
Look on the positive side, a large portion of the population dying of bird flu will also significantly reduce emissions.