Thanks for posting this. I really appreciate it in part because it’s a clear write-up of something important that’s happening that might not be on a lot of people’s radars.
Questions I have after reading this :
How unusual is this situation? (How often is there is there a flu that’s spreading and as pathogenic as H5N1?)
Is there anything people reading this or people in EA can or should do?
To onlookers: These flus are endemic to factory farms, they occur constantly, there is basically always an outbreak in the US or CAD. (Currently there appears to be a major flare up, inferring from the existence of the article.)
I can’t immediately search or show the endemic nature, as I am on mobile, but one can confirm this by using google and using the date range feature.
Note that these diseases are generally not human to human transmissible, that is one reason they don’t attract alarm.
Another reason they don’t get attention, is how normalized or ignored the situation on factory farms are.
The environment in factory farms is so bizarre and so hostile to animals, to the degree, it is emotionally upsetting to receive factual descriptions of the situation, and so the situation is self-censoring. Relevant to the OP, to enter certain kids of factory farms requires full suiting in bio hazard suits, for the very reason of preventing these outbreaks. This vulnerability isn’t normal. The is the because animals are essentially very physically unhealthy and vulnerable throughout their lives.
Vox’s most recent Future Perfect newsletter linked to this piece of investigative journalism by the Intercept on the use of VSD: https://theintercept.com/2022/04/14/killing-chickens-bird-flu-vsd/ [EDIT: warning that the article includes a video that shows a chicken suffering as it dies]
Thanks for linking this Matthew!
Thanks for posting this. I really appreciate it in part because it’s a clear write-up of something important that’s happening that might not be on a lot of people’s radars.
Questions I have after reading this :
How unusual is this situation? (How often is there is there a flu that’s spreading and as pathogenic as H5N1?)
Is there anything people reading this or people in EA can or should do?
To onlookers: These flus are endemic to factory farms, they occur constantly, there is basically always an outbreak in the US or CAD. (Currently there appears to be a major flare up, inferring from the existence of the article.)
I can’t immediately search or show the endemic nature, as I am on mobile, but one can confirm this by using google and using the date range feature.
Note that these diseases are generally not human to human transmissible, that is one reason they don’t attract alarm.
Another reason they don’t get attention, is how normalized or ignored the situation on factory farms are.
The environment in factory farms is so bizarre and so hostile to animals, to the degree, it is emotionally upsetting to receive factual descriptions of the situation, and so the situation is self-censoring. Relevant to the OP, to enter certain kids of factory farms requires full suiting in bio hazard suits, for the very reason of preventing these outbreaks. This vulnerability isn’t normal. The is the because animals are essentially very physically unhealthy and vulnerable throughout their lives.
I put a prediction market up on Manifold Markets to track the likelihood of this year’s outbreak being worse that 2015 as counted by commercial bird deaths: https://manifold.markets/dglid/will-the-2022-bird-flu-outbreak-be
This is a pretty interesting read: https://ec.europa.eu/food/animals/animal-welfare/animal-welfare-practice/slaughter-stunning_en