https://xcancel.com/PeterHotez/status/1873162034201960946
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A Bluesky post
So we are screwed?
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It was ment as a fun post, but as some people are genuinely scared. H5N1 is nasty BUT human infection is EXTREMELY rare. There have been less than 1k cases in 20y. You are 80 times more likely to die from lightning strike. If you don't carry lightning rod around you should not worry.
https://subium.com/profile/volberg.bsky.social/post/3lf5uqfukze2u
Bluesky is funny. The libs are always so excited to shit on Trump - they didn't even shit on the OP and he really deserves it. He's impervious to knowledge and reason.
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Peter Jay Hotez (born May 5, 1958) is an American scientist, pediatrician, and advocate in the fields of global health, vaccinology, and neglected tropical disease control. He serves as founding dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine, Professor of Pediatrics and Molecular Virology & Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine, where he is also Director of the Texas Children's Hospital Center for Vaccine Development and Endowed Chair in Tropical Pediatrics. He also serves as a University Professor of Biology at Baylor University.
There is reason to feel fucking anxiety about this. We will be LUCKY if the mild strain that passed through cows starts spreading and inoculating us against this virus as the strain that tends to infect directly from birds has a FIFTY PERCENT mortality rate. Five Zero Percent. Half of the people who got that shit fucking died and most of the rest had permanent debilitating long-term outcomes.
https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/cumulative-number-of-confirmed-human-cases-for-avian-influenza-a(h5n1)-reported-to-who--2003-2024--20-december-2024
When I think about what steps we would take in America to handle such a disease I get real goddamn nervous. I honestly don't think our government will do more for us than they did for COVID at a 3% mortality rate, which was damned near nothing.
That's also a 50% survival rate when cases are relatively rare, I don't know what the fatality rate would be if it's a widespread pandemic overloading hospitals and streaching resources.
Strong feeling that number drops to 0% as the people saving lives start dropping like flies. I recommend everyone talk to their nurses about their feelings on PPE and how COVID was handled. You'll find a lot wte fucking insane and would cause the hospitals to collapse and die from something like this.
Imagine the US has a surprisingly large number of "isolated" cases of bird flu and the experts are still try to pacify us.
I had a iffy situation like I badly cut my hand slicing a bagel - I'd do self-diagnosis even though I have zero medical training. Instead of me just going to the ER - I'd do my best to answer the tricky question: "Can I avoid going to the ER?" It seems to me any hospital in the US from the smallest to the largest could potentially be ground zero for that plague. And anybody in that hospital from a clueless patient to a doctor who should really know better could be a carrier.