H5N1 Bird Flu Isn’t a Human Pandemic—Yet
www.scientificamerican.com
Americans don’t like being told what to do, and many don’t trust government. These stubborn attitudes might turn H5N1 bird flu into a pandemic

When H5N1 avian influenza started spreading among dairy cattle across the U.S. this year, regulators warned against consuming unpasteurized milk. What happened? Raw milk sales went up.

Distributors of this unsafe-for-human-consumption product deny H5N1—which has the potential to sicken millions of people—is a danger. Dairy farmers decline to allow disease detectives onto their properties.

  • intensely_human@lemm.ee
    01·
    21 days ago

    “It not that people are stupid or ignorant or that they don’t know what the science is,” he said. “They’re motivated to reject it on the basis of partisanship, their political ideology, their religion, their cultural values.”

    I wonder why he doesn’t figure “The government has provided misinformation recently on health topics” into his list of reasons people don’t trust government health information.

            • cheesepotatoes@lemmy.world
              1·
              20 days ago

              Regardless of intention, the US government put its stamp of approval on a lot of misinformation during the pandemic. Whether that was an attempt to deceive or just incompetence, it doesn’t inspire trust at all.

              This is just blatant dog-whistling. What misinformation, bruh. Share your crazy conspiracy theories so I can dismiss them out of hand.

    • jjjalljs@ttrpg.network
      1·
      21 days ago

      I’m pretty sure rejecting facts based on partisanship, political ideology, religion, of cultural values can easily qualify you for being stupid.

      On the other hand, the us has done idiotic things to tarnish it’s reputation in the past.