Bird Flu Fears Worsen: US Provides $200M To Combat Threat And Increase Testing, Recommends PPE, Monitoring More Sick Americans

These last few months have seen the U.S. government increase testing measures in states where Highly-Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has been detected, requiring PCR tests to test for a strain of H5N1.

Mainstream media has also been on a blitz campaign to warn about bird flu and the strong potential for it to become the ‘next pandemic.’

In April, a veterinary company PetVet Dx announced they would make available avian influenza PCR test to poultry and people in the U.S. and Canada, the first company to do so. David Kutrucz, chief executive officer of PetVet Dx said in a statement: “Farmers can test their entire houses, so the next day, birds can go through their lifecycle and be transported to commercial packing plants.”

We can also test other livestock, including those on cattle and swine farms, as this outbreak extends to other species. Our FarmVet Dx telehealth services support rapid medical services for both humans and livestock. FarmVet Dx’s veterinary experts can save farms, lives and your annual bottom line. We promise you to ‘never say never’ in treating ailments that may be causing pets’ pain.

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) openly endorsed making PPE equipment available to workers who are in near proximity to livestock, like dairy and poultry farmers, slaughterhouses, and others who may be at higher risk of infection.

They said in their notice: “CDC asked that jurisdictions make PPE available to workers on dairy farms, poultry farms, and in slaughterhouses. Specifically, the CDC asked state health departments to work with their state agriculture department counterparts and partners in communities, such as farmworker organizations, that can help coordinate and facilitate PPE distributions.”

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also revealed they are closely monitoring the spread and impact of HPAI. Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf raised concerns during a Senate Appropriations hearing.

This virus, like all viruses, is mutating … So we’ve got to have testing, got to have antivirals, and we need to have a vaccine ready to go … if the virus does mutate in a way that jumps into humans on a larger level.

The real worry is that [the virus] will jump to the human lungs, where when that has happened in other parts of the world for brief outbreaks, the mortality rates have been 25%.

So, we have to be ready. And we have to do everything we can to limit the spread of the virus, which has gone around the world multiple times now in many different species.

We’re in an enviable position compared to any time in the history of the world. Viruses are relatively simple, so coming up with a matching vaccine is entirely possible in a short period of time.

Calif said, warning that this world be ten times worse than Covid-19

He also discussed the potential of ‘a mutation [that] could occur that would make the receptors in the lining of human lungs susceptible to the virus is “a mathematical probabilistic thing,” he added, but transmission through the airways “would be really bad,”‘ Medpage Today reported.

When asked how the FDA can implement “a barrier” to stop the spread from animals or dairy to people, Calif said “There is no absolute barrier that can be created, but there are elements of protection that are important.”

Moreover, the World Health Organization (WHO) provided a fresh warning as well this past week. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a media briefing that they are monitoring what’s happening, and once again used the opportunity to urge nations to come to a sound agreement on an updated pandemic treaty.

In response to the outbreak the Biden administration has now allocated nearly $200 million to beef-up security measures to mitigate the spread, via the Health and Human Services (HHS) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) combined.

“The U.S. government is addressing this situation with urgency and through a whole-of-government approach,” the agencies said in a press release. “Since the detection of H5N1 in dairy cattle, the Federal response has leveraged the latest available scientific data, field epidemiology, and risk assessments to mitigate risks to workers and the general public.”

The fees have been divided up to provide money for PPE suppliers, biosecurity planning and implementation at farms and facilities, heat treatment to dispose of milk in a bio secure fashion, reimburse producers for veterinarian costs associated with confirmed positive H5N1 premises, lab testing, compensation for loss of milk production, cattle movement, vaccine production and testing, wastewater surveillance, and much more.

As noted earlier, the mainstream media has continuously been resolute in its push to warn people about fears of bird flu spreading to more livestock and their byproducts, and to people. These reports have persisted, and these are just a sampling of them that are pushing ‘pandemic’ panic (along with some of the salient points):

• “If pigs get bird flu, we could be in for a real nightmare” – (Bloomberg)
  • Scientists can’t stop worrying about a nightmare scenario: that the virus will get into pigs and, from there, spark a human pandemic. Pigs “are the perfect vessels through which an even more virulent strain could emerge,” said Nirav Shah, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a May 2 briefing by the Council on Foreign Relations.
  • Pigs are capable of harboring both human flu and bird flu, allowing the viruses to mix and match parts of their genetic material. A 2009 flu pandemic started with a pig-to-human transmission. That strain, called H1N1, wasn’t deadlier than seasonal flu, but that was just a lucky break.
  • “Everyone is coming off Covid-19 so fatigued and tired they don’t want to hear about another pandemic,” said Osterholm. But just imagine how we’ll feel if we have to live through another deadly outbreak — and another series of public health mistakes.
• “Pork producers urged to be on the lookout for potential threats posed by influenza viruses” – (Meat + Poultry)
• “Bird flu keeps rewriting the textbooks. It’s why scientists are unsettled by the U.S. dairy cattle outbreak” – (STAT)
  • “It seems that these viruses must have some kind of ‘special sauce’ that has allowed them to find ways to persistently spread, evolve, and cause what appear to be increasingly serious problems in both wildlife and domesticated animals,” Cox, who is now retired, told STAT in an email. “There is an element of unexpected robustness and malleability that has surprised even seasoned influenza watchers.”
• “Four reasons to be concerned (but not freak out) about the bird flu” – (USA Today)
• “The bird flu fight is faltering” – (The Week UK)
• “Are milk and ground beef safe from bird flu? What the latest testing tells us.” – (Yahoo)
• “Bird Flu is bad for poultry and cattle. Why it’s not a dire threat for most of us — yet.” – (NBC News)
• “No one wants to think about pandemics. But bird flu doesn’t care.” – (Vox)
  • But if we are truly desperate to prevent the next pandemic — if we feel very viscerally that we can’t do this again, that our normalcy and our unmasked gatherings are among the most precious things we have these days — then that’s reason to prioritize preparedness more highly, not less so.
• “CDC warns bird flu has ‘pandemic potential’” – (Daily Mail)
• “Warning: Backyard Chickens Not Safe from Avian Flu, Signs and Symptoms Could Precede Flock Decimation” – (The Western Journal)
• “Even as bird flu looms, the world is unlearning Covid’s lessons” – (Vox)
• “How to Stop Bird Flu from Becoming the Next Pandemic” – (TIME)
• “Seventy Americans in one state being monitored for bird flu” – (Daily Mail)
• “Bird flu strain found in US cows flown to UK lab for testing” – (The Guardian)
• “New bird flu variant in American cows unlikely to impact Britain, says chief vet” – (The Telegraph)

AUTHOR COMMENTARY

As we have been covering for some time now, I had warned that “bird flu” appeared to be the next darling ruse the elites would use for the “next pandemic” we kept hearing about; namely because it would be used to justify what we are starting to see now: most surveillance and testing, vaccination; and eventually provide an excuse to mass-cull livestock, wildlife and pets, and remove meat and dairy from the store shelves. Prepare and stock up on freeze dried food and other emergency preparedness essentials, visit our store at Packing Heat Co.