Researchers in California recently warned that just one mutation in H5N1, the bird flu virus, could make the disease transmissible between humans. While the virus was first identified in 1959 (and became globally significant in 1996), they’re also concerned that increasingly damaging effects of climate change could make us more susceptible to such viruses. The same week, California-based raw milk manufacturer, Raw Farm, was forced to recall its products due to third-party testers discovering it contained H5N1.
Derek looks at these converging trends—the wellness-driven fervor over the safety and health benefits of raw milk and the chances of another pandemic—with an investigation into why this matters from a public health perspective. Along the way, he’ll define the three often-confused forms of health in public discourse—individual, population, and public health—and why influencers often confuse them.
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So far this year, 57 Americans have been infected with bird flu, 31 in California alone.
Late last week, researchers in that state warned that just one mutation can make the H5N1 virus a serious threat to humans.
They even fear that widespread infection could lead to a pandemic.
Oh joy.
Meanwhile, on November 21st, officials with California's Department of Food and Agriculture were testing milk for any traces of the virus, and they found it in raw milk products produced by the Fresno-based company Raw Farm.
While there's no indication that these products have resulted in humans getting sick, the company halted production and recalled all of its products manufactured between November 9th and 27th.
Now, this hasn't sat well with the founders of Raw Farm, who wrote on Instagram, in all caps, there are no illnesses associated with H5N1 in our products, but rather, this is a political issue.
There are no food safety issues with our products or consumer safety.
We are working towards resolving this political issue while being cooperative with our government regulatory agencies.
We know that any interruption of our products can lead to panic because our products are vital to your household and health.
Then they followed that up with a comment, and they tagged RFK Jr., Donald Trump, and for some reason Nicole Shanahan, who, like Kennedy, is apparently a raw milk enthusiast.
They wrote, this time in regular text, not all caps, Right about now, we could really use a helping hand to make the corrupt politicians get off their raw milk destruction path.
They are trying all, all caps there, they can before January.
We could use HELP right about now.
So this all happened in the same stretch of days in which raw farm owner Mark McAfee claimed that RFK Jr. asked him to apply for a position with the FDA to oversee raw milk standards.
He was quoted as saying, One of the things that RFK wants to do is have responsibly produced, high standards, tested raw milk like we produce here at Raw Farm.
Be available for more people across the nation as a choice.
That's because he's found tremendous health benefits himself.
The funny thing is that apparently Raw Farm's own testing standards didn't detect the bird flu before shipping its product across California...
But then again, being unqualified for a role doesn't seem to be a barrier to entry in the next administration.
Since 2006, Raw Farm has had 13 recalls for product contamination.
But I don't really want to talk about raw milk today.
Instead, I want to look at two related and interconnected issues around what health actually entails.
I'll start by addressing the conflation that many Maha, Make America Healthy Again activists use between individual and public health before looking at one of the most famous public health cases in history.
In fact, it's one of the main reasons we even have public health at all today.
I'm Derek Barris, and you're listening to a Conspirituality Bonus Episode, The Raw Truth About Health.
Let's get into it.
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