Plague News: First One - 1.31.25

Runaways fleeing from the plague, a woodcut from 'A Looking-glasse for City and Countrey', printed by H. Gosson in 1630

Lil Intro

I created this newsletter in response to the United States' potential withdrawal from the WHO, and whatever the fuck is happening with the CDC.

I feel morally responsible to inform my friends, community and whoever the wandering reader, on how they can protect their health and their rights to safe and accessible medical care. The past five years I have spent working with public health advocates, has been the hardest advocacy work I have ever done.

Writing a Plague Newsletter is not an international health agency but I can try my best. The time to hesitate is through.

The U.S. and the WHO: An Imperfect but Essential Relationship 1/30/25 - John Hopkins/Public Health On Call

Like with everything on the internet, there is a mountain of information (and misinformation) on the topics of infectious disease, and I trust my readers to be able to take what I give and go out into the world educating themselves.

Here's the shitshow:

Bird Flu Brief
SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) Resources
Tuberculosis Outbreak in Kansas

Bird Flu Brief

Bird Flu (aka H5N1) has been infecting and killing millions of birds and other wildlife since 2020. Since then millions of farm animals have been culled, with he vast majority of infections being in the United States. One person has died in the U.S. of H5N1, and a Canadian teenager (with no interaction with infected animals) came very close.

Alarmingly, the Bird Flu virus has jumped to dozens of new species since 2020, particularly to mammals it has never been documented to infect before. Including mice. And house cats. And pigs.

These mutations and infections mean the virus is more likely to jump from an animal and infect a human. Further, the virus has a more likely chance to mutate to be transmittable between humans. Currently, we have no proof of human to human transmission for Bird Flu.

This is still very bad.

H5N1 has an estimated mortality rate of >50%. That means more than half of the people known to been infected with the virus have died from it. Even if this data is skewed (infections not being recorded), Bird Flu is a significant threat to humanity.

I recommend following the journalist Helen Branswell at STAT for updates on Bird Flu. H5N1, H5N9 are different strains of the virus with the latter being more interspecies lethal.

U.S. records first fata bird flu case amid growing concerns about virus - STAT 1/6/2025

The global H5N1 influenza panzootic in mammals -Nature 9/24/2024

For the first time, H5N9 strain of bird flu detected in U.S. poultry - Salon, 1/29/2025

75% of domestic cow herds in California have tested positive since late August 2024. Bird Flu is why eggs have gone up in price or have been removed from the grocery shelves.

Bird Flu in Massachusetts is now predicted to be widespread.

This is really fucking bad. Not only are millions of animals dead, this is a direct threat to human beings' existence. The threat is more than A New Pandemic, the threat is also ecosystem collapse, mass extinction and food shortages.

I would be pleasantly surprised if Bird Flu didn't cause a pandemic in human beings. But it's not looking that way.

SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) Resources

The letters in SARS stand for: Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome. Severe.

COVID never went away. COVID is not seasonal. COVID is SARS. COVID and Long COVID are still killing and disabling millions of people on Earth.

The People's CDC is reporting COVID wastewater trends.

The Sick Times is focused on Long COVID research but also reports on COVID in general and weekly, national trends.

The Clean Air Club helps make art spaces safer with cleaner air (Chicago-based).

The best way to avoid COVID is to wear a high-quality mask, improve air circulation and avoid infected people. With each new infection you run the risk of developing Long COVID, which is widely known now, to not a be a good time and kill you eventually.

Tuberculosis Outbreak in Kansas

If you have ever done a genealogy project, you've probably read a lot of your ancestors' death certificates reading: "consumption" as cause of.

Kansas is experiencing its largest Tuberculosis (TB) outbreak in documented U.S. history. Tuberculosis is caused by a bacteria. In recent years TB has shown a "come back", due to drug-resistant strains of becoming more common. And now we have headlines like this from Forbes:

What Is Tuberculosis And How Does It Spread? 1/29/25 - Forbes

Kansas’ tuberculosis outbreak is one of the largest in the U.S. since the 1950s 1/27/25

I am not going to be coughing up blood into a handkerchief in 2025.

A large variety of high-quality masks and respirators are here at Bona Fide Masks. Oh look, they are having a sale:

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. Good luck out there and I love you.

Animated gif of Lucas from Empire Records saying "The Time to Hesitate is Through"

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Plague News is a round-up of pandemic and infectious disease news focusing on so-called New England and the rest of the so-called United States.