The next pandemic will not originate from a Chinese lab leak, but will come from a virus that is already ravaging American farms, one activist has warned.
Author and environmental journalist Eric Schlosser said in Bill Maher’s Real time The next international health crisis is brewing in Texas, where bird flu has jumped species to infect cows for the first time.
There are now concerns that the infection will infiltrate meat and dairy products on grocery store shelves, and steaks and burgers sold in restaurants.
Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, said on Bill Maher’s Real Time that the next pandemic is brewing in Texas.
Schlosser, who wrote the popular diet article Fast Food Nation, implies that the magnitude of the outbreak is difficult to determine because of the agricultural industry’s secretive tactics.
Mega dairies where the deadly flu was found to be circulating have not allowed inspections by the federal government.
“It’s a perfect example of how public health is threatened by private interests,” Schlosser said.
An outbreak of the H5N1 strain of bird flu is spreading rapidly across the United States, jumping from birds and infecting cows and chickens in several states.
So far, only one person – a Texas farmer – has tested positive for the H5N1 virus during this outbreak, but the CDC fears that many more may be infected and not come forward.
However, there has been no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
Last week it was revealed that 70 people in Colorado were being monitored for bird flu due to the risk of exposure.
And the continued spread has raised concerns within US federal agencies, including the FDA and CDC.
Dr. Robert Califf, chief commissioner of the FDA, told a Senate committee that officials were drawing up plans to deploy testing, antiviral drugs and vaccines in case the virus causes a large-scale outbreak.
But he stressed that the risk of it spreading to people is still low.
However, in a report released earlier this month, the CDC said that bird flu viruses “have pandemic potential” in a section on administering vaccines if there is human contagion.
An independent study by the US Department of Agriculture published genetic data showing that the H5N1 strain had acquired dozens of new mutations.
A total of 36 farms in nine states have detected the virus among their dairy herds.
As the virus spreads, particularly between two different species, it acquires more mutations that could allow it to infect people more easily.
The map above shows states that have reported avian flu infections in dairy herds.
The graph above shows dairy herds that tested positive for bird flu over time. Authorities fear this will bring the virus one step closer to infecting humans.
Only two humans in the US have tested positive for bird flu, and both were in close contact with animals infected with the virus.
Dr Cardiff said: “This virus, like all viruses, is mutating. We need to continue to prepare for the possibility of it reaching humans.
“(The) real concern is that it jumps into the human lungs where, when that has happened in other parts of the world… the mortality rate has been 25 percent.”
Fragments of the virus have already been detected in food products, including one in five milk, cottage cheese and sour cream in grocery stores.
But officials say they are safe to consume because the virus they contain is killed during the pasteurization process.
On Maher’s show, Schlosser also criticized agriculture and the food industry, saying that a handful of “huge corporations” have monopolized the food supply for the past few decades and are now “hiding behind these different brands.”
He added: “You think there is a choice, but in reality it is the illusion of choice.”
Schlosser also warned about the harmful effects of ultra-processed foods, which are full of artificial ingredients and harmful additives that have been linked to cancers, reproductive problems and ADHD.
He mentioned the flavor enhancers, emulsifiers, additives and “chemicals” that people consume when they eat common foods every day: “What will hurt you is that there are all these chemicals that you would never have in your kitchen.”
‘We continue to create problems with technology. It’s better to get (nutrition) from real foods than from supplements and additives.’
