74
Does getting a flu shot do anything for bird flu?
(lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2024
74 points (96.2% liked)
Ask Lemmy
27313 readers
3605 users here now
A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions
Rules: (interactive)
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Partnered Communities:
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
The current flu shot is almost certainly not effective against the current HPAI A(H5N1) strain that is in the news and making life hard for dairy and poultry farms. There likely won't be a vaccine developed for it unless it mutates to become human-to-human transmissible. Currently, people can only contract it from exposure to sick animals or their environment. As long as you avoid contact with sick birds or cattle (or their bodily fluids or feces) you should be safe from contracting it... unless it mutates.
There are vaccines in development already, but mass production is a complete different issue.
There are already lots of H5N1 vaccines for both animals and humans, and the US, for example, has stockpiles of millions. But if at some point the virus mutates to be able to circulate among humans (which it has not), existing vaccines would almost certainly not provide protection against that new virus. Since there is no virus like that yet, there is no vaccine for it yet, but pharmaceutical companies have been creating flu vaccines for many decades and would probably be able to create one and scale it up quickly
Thank you. I was unaware that anyone was working on a new vaccine.
Farmers want to vaccinate their herds. Chickens appearantly don't vaccinate well (i have no idea why). But cows and pigs tend to take well to vaccination.
the us has killed tens of millon chickens over the many years of bird flus - trying to stop it be killing ever bird that might possible been exposed thus ensuring none can spread it. farmers have also enacted extreem bio security measures trying to ensure it doesn't get to their flocks. It is mostly working as chickens are not infected nearly as often as a few years ago. However cows and pigs are now being hit and they have different situations.
It has also killed at least one cat who had eaten infected chicken:
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/oregon-avian-flu-cat-death-prompts-nationwide-raw-pet-food-recall
It's a whole different and horrific issue for cats. It's also killed at least two whose owners them raw milk. It's apparently about 67% lethal for cats.