Health officials maintain — and experts agree — that pasteurized milk is safe to drink. The FDA detected small pieces of the virus in milk, not live, infectious virus.
“Right now, all indication is that pasteurization is effective,” said Dr. Andrew Bowman, a veterinary epidemiologist at Ohio State University.
Yeah, any DNA or RNA in there is going to be completely denatured because of the pasteurization. But that doesn't mean the physical components of the genes just goes away. It is made ineffective and harmless, but it serves as a useful measure on how many cows are infected.
The virus, a strain of bird flu called H5N1, is concerning to public health officials because of its high fatality rate: More than half of the people who have contracted the illness have died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There’s a certain crowd of people who are absolutely determined to consume raw milk. You can’t get it across state lines, because the FDA bans it, but some states permit it internally.
Could the consumption of raw milk from these states impact human health?
FDA’s longstanding position is that unpasteurized, raw milk can harbor dangerous microorganisms that can pose serious health risks to consumers, and FDA is reminding consumers of the risks associated with raw milk consumption in light of the H5N1 detections.
The raw milk people are wild to me, because raw milk is disgusting even without the bird flu, and they’re so committed to it. The more people point out that it’s gross and unsafe, the more they want it. Drinking pus to own the libs, I guess?
I will say I’m a huge fan of having it around for cooking.
It think its as good or better than pasteurized in a sauce, and then when it starts to sour, the coolest thing is I can separate it and turn the cream into butter and get buttermilk leftover.
I can then keep using both for cooking and baking.
I think raw milk has a place with understanding of what you are buying, but I don’t know if other people are like me and actually just gulping it down.
I was going to express a similar sentiment: having the milk be unpasteurized can be an important difference when it’s a base ingredient that’s being further processed (e.g. to make fancy French-style cheese or something), but you’re not really supposed to just straight-up drink the stuff.
There’s a certain crowd of people who are absolutely determined to consume raw milk. You can’t get it across state lines, because the FDA bans it, but some states permit it.
While McGeehan admitted that there were “some other colleagues that have similar symptoms that I’ve been experiencing,” he doesn’t think that milk is the cause. And even if it was the cause, McGeehan doesn’t regret voting for the bill.
“There definitely shouldn’t be a law against allowing people to do what they want within the framework of the rule of law,” he said.
They are using “rule of law” to mean “whatever I want”. Rest assured that if their child was sickened, they would sue immediately. And probably blame trans immigrants or something.
If Cleetus McNumbnuts becomes Patient Zero in another global pandemic, this time with a mortality rate of over 50%, it won’t be something to cheer about.
Wear recommended personal protective equipment (PPE) when working directly or closely with sick or dead animals, animal feces, litter, raw milk, and other materials that might have the virus.
Wash hands with soap and water, then put on PPE in this order:
Fluid-resistant overalls.
Waterproof apron, if needed for job task.
NIOSH-approved respirator
Properly-fitted unvented or indirectly-vented safety goggles or face shield
Head cover or hair cover.
Gloves
Boots
Avoid touching your eyes, mouth, or nose after touching any contaminated material.
Meanwhile, Cleetus has purchased his jug of active virus and is happily drinking it.
EDIT: Probably more like Cleetus giving said jug to his kids.
It should be noted that this is just a method to determine the amount of infected cows. The milk itself isn't a threat to anyone. Virus fragments in themselves can't do anything, they're just a sign of the original cow problem.
Call out anyone that tries to fearmonger about the milk being dangerous.
The bigger concern, that not many people are taking about, is wildlife. This bird flu is spreading out in the wild and has been taking out all sorts of endangered birds and mammals in mass quantities.
And if something jumps into humans, it’s more likely to happen from the massive spread happening in local wildlife.
From what I’ve read it doesn’t seem to be a particularly severe disease for cows anyway. The hubbub is mostly about the potential for farm and dairy workers to catch it directly from a cow, which still seems like an incredibly rare occurrence
There’s still people using livestock dewormer as a cure all when they can’t get their doc to write a script… so not drinking raw milk is just a libtard “suggestion” to them or the person saying it is just “in the pocket of big dairy” …
weee!!! oh what a fun & exciting dystopia we’re in!! /s
Concerning infrastructure investment, we should really put a lot into waste measurement everywhere for issues that affect health. It's the best alarm for growing problems at a large scale sampling that can't be fudged or missed. Many areas have all but stopped constant monitoring because of budget.
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