California well being officers on Sunday introduced a warning and a recall on a batch of uncooked milk that examined optimistic for avian flu. Fortunately, the contaminated batch—produced and packaged by Uncooked Farm—doesn’t appear to have brought about any sicknesses in people but.
Nonetheless, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who claims to “only drink raw milk,” may quickly head up the Division of Well being and Human Providers below Donald Trump’s incoming administration. And he’s promising to hobble the Meals and Drug Administration.
“FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” Kennedy mentioned on Oct. 25. “This includes its aggressive suppression of … raw milk.”
Since March, the nation has been experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of H5N1 avian flu in U.S. dairy cows, with the USDA recording at the least 650 circumstances in cattle throughout 15 states as of Tuesday. California is the largest milk producer within the nation.
If avian flu involves contaminate uncooked milk extra broadly, a Kennedy-run HHS may rapidly jeopardize public well being.
In June, after a second herd of cattle in Iowa got here down with H5N1, the FDA issued a warning for these within the state to keep away from consuming uncooked milk. Uncooked milk is dairy that has not been pasteurized, or heated a federally regulated threshold as a strategy to get rid of dangerous pathogens.
As of Tuesday, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention has recorded 55 confirmed human circumstances of fowl flu within the U.S. Greater than half of these circumstances have been in California. And virtually the entire circumstances have been tied to publicity to contaminated cattle and poultry livestock.
Regardless, the FDA’s warning prompted right-wing charlatans like Turning Factors USA founder Charlie Kirk, joined by QAnon conspiracy influencers, to start selling uncooked milk and accuse the federal authorities of “fearmongering.”
Many raw-milk advocates say it has a lot larger dietary worth. However these claims are largely outdoors of the scientific mainstream.
“[F]ood scientists who study the safety of dairy products said there’s no meaningful difference in the nutritional value of pasteurized milk,” The Washington Submit reported final Thursday.
Ingesting uncooked milk is “a risk that is not necessary,” in response to Dennis D’Amico, an affiliate professor of animal science on the College of Connecticut.
Meghan Davis, an affiliate professor at Johns Hopkins College who research infectious ailments, instructed The New York Instances that the rise in raw-milk consumption may make it simpler for the avian flu to adapt, presumably changing into extra transmissible or extra harmful for people.
“This is a virus that has pandemic potential,” Davis mentioned.
A CDC research launched in early November confirmed that at the least some farmworkers who didn’t report any sickness had H5N1 antibodies from a latest an infection.
Uncooked-milk advocacy is only one a part of Kennedy’s suite of science-adverse beliefs. Maybe most notorious is his promotion of the false hyperlink between childhood vaccines and autism. And the issue along with his well being plans is that they’re these of an ideologue. We will all agree that nobody ought to have a weight-reduction plan of principally processed meals, however because the outdated maxim goes, don’t throw the child out with the bathwater.
