Post Reply - A new pandemic

guaranteed

   https://afludiary.blogspot.com/2025/04/two-surveys-uk-us-illustrating-publics.html or https://afludiary.blogspot.com/2025/04/two-surveys-uk-us-illustrating-publics.html ;
For those of us who loiter in the echo chamber of emerging infectious diseases, emergency preparedness, or who work in certain farming sectors, HPAI H5Nx is a legitimate public health concern; and while not guaranteed to spark the next pandemic, it is plausible contender. 
But for the vast majority of people - even those who watch the news or scroll social media - it is just one of hundreds of annoying threats they are incessantly bombarded with each and every day. 
In a clickbait driven economy - where the `truth' often depends upon the teller's agenda, and headlines are usually either hyperbolic or deceptive - for many it has become preferable to be selective consumers of information, while tuning out everything else. 
If Timothy Leary's "Turn on, tune in, drop out" was the catch-phrase of my youth then `Turn off, tune out, and drop dead!' may well be the anthem for today. 
At least, that might help explain the results of two recent surveys that examine the public's perception of the risks of avian influenza in the United States, and seasonal flu vaccine uptake among poultry workers in the UK.
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The results suggest many respondents were unaware of simple food safety practices that could reduce the risk of HPAI infection. Over half (53.7%) did not know that pasteurized milk is safer than raw milk, although almost three of four respondents (71.3%) did understand that cooking meat at high temperatures could eliminate harmful bacteria and viruses like H5N1.

Over a quarter (27%) of respondents said they were unwilling to modify their diet to reduce the risk of exposure to the virus, and more than one in four respondents (28.7%) expressed reluctance to take a potential vaccine for H5N1, even if advised by the CDC to do so.
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Rural Americans, many of whom are more likely to work or live in or near livestock industries, were less likely to accept public health measures, including vaccination and dietary changes, compared to their urban counterparts.
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In the United States, Canada, the UK, and many European countries it is recommended that those who work with poultry or swine (and cattle in the U.S.) get the seasonal flu vaccine, even though it is not designed to protect against avian or swine influenza viruses.   
Admittedly, we've seen some (slight) evidence that seasonal flu vaccination might provide some degree of protection against a severe or fatal H5Nx infection, including:
Effect of Prior Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 Virus Infection on Pathogenesis and Transmission of Human Influenza A(H5N1) Clade 2.3.4.4b Virus in Ferret Model

Influenza A(H5N1) Immune Response among Ferrets with Influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 Immunity
But the big concern is a farm worker might be exposed to HPAI H5 (or swine flu) while concurrently infected with seasonal flu, setting up the potential for a reassortment event (see Preprint: Intelligent Prediction & Biological Validation of the High Reassortment Potential of Avian H5N1 and Human H3N2 Influenza Viruses).
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Despite the UK government's recommendations, the following survey reveals disappointing levels of seasonal flu vaccine uptake (35%) among poultry workers in the UK. Since this survey was voluntary, there may be some bias to these numbers, so these results should be taken with a grain of salt.

DJ, crazy politicians undermine healthcare...