We must face facts - meat is the problem

[SSedan]

How do you feel about Deblasio's 3/11 speech? If you can't condemn that you are a blind partisan back.

On the where did the virus come from.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opin...-issues-wuhan-lab-studying-bat-coronaviruses/

 

[SSedan]

US explores possibility that coronavirus started in Chinese lab, not a market

CNN is slowly starting to allow that there might be something to the lab story. A week from now they will be admitting it is likely an accidental crossover of a natural bat disease to humans and will never admit they were wrong up to this point.

Remember this is the company that can't even let Trump feed fish without twisting the story. They edited footage of him feeding koi with Abe and following Abe's lead on dumping the rest of the box of food to hide the fact Abe does the food and then spent a day or two bashing him for how horrible it was to dump the food even bringing on guests to talk about how extra cleaning of the pond would be needed.

Almost all news has a slant these days be it CNN or Fox, admitting there is bias let's you maybe see how the information has been manipulated. Fox will have a pro-Trump spin to almost everything, CNN will have a pathological sycophantic anti-Trump narrative on everything all the way down to detailing how he can't even feed fish right. In this case they are softening you up to admit the lab source of Covid-19 but won't ever retract all their accusations that anyone who suggested it for the last 3 months is a lunatic.

On the wet markets, there were articles in 2017 about how they would again be a source of a new illness outbreak in the future. Everyone could see that coming, this time though it really looks like it was a convenient scapegoat. The speed with which they reopened should make you open to that idea.

For my part in easing the world burden and risk of factory farms I have gardened for 9 years and kept chickens for just about 5 mostly eggs but some meat. I take good enough care I still have a few of the first chickens I bought almost 5 years ago. They slow down laying substantially and one in particular has completely stopped but she still eats bugs and helps us dispose of food scraps. I am aggressive in rodent control so I am not contributing to that problem that has grown with "backyard chickens".

I am making efforts to improve the world with the things I personally do, rather than telling everyone else what they should do.

If I have Covid-19 symptoms much less a positive test I am not going to go to my still under construction new home across town and get in a pissing match with someone who calls me out for it...........

 

[mspohr]

US explores possibility that coronavirus started in Chinese lab, not a market

CNN is slowly starting to allow that there might be something to the lab story. A week from now they will be admitting it is likely an accidental crossover of a natural bat disease to humans and will never admit they were wrong up to this point.

Remember this is the company that can't even let Trump feed fish without twisting the story. They edited footage of him feeding koi with Abe and following Abe's lead on dumping the rest of the box of food to hide the fact Abe does the food and then spent a day or two bashing him for how horrible it was to dump the food even bringing on guests to talk about how extra cleaning of the pond would be needed.

Almost all news has a slant these days be it CNN or Fox, admitting there is bias let's you maybe see how the information has been manipulated. Fox will have a pro-Trump spin to almost everything, CNN will have a pathological sycophantic anti-Trump narrative on everything all the way down to detailing how he can't even feed fish right. In this case they are softening you up to admit the lab source of Covid-19 but won't ever retract all their accusations that anyone who suggested it for the last 3 months is a lunatic.

On the wet markets, there were articles in 2017 about how they would again be a source of a new illness outbreak in the future. Everyone could see that coming, this time though it really looks like it was a convenient scapegoat. The speed with which they reopened should make you open to that idea.

For my part in easing the world burden and risk of factory farms I have gardened for 9 years and kept chickens for just about 5 mostly eggs but some meat. I take good enough care I still have a few of the first chickens I bought almost 5 years ago. They slow down laying substantially and one in particular has completely stopped but she still eats bugs and helps us dispose of food scraps. I am aggressive in rodent control so I am not contributing to that problem that has grown with "backyard chickens".

I am making efforts to improve the world with the things I personally do, rather than telling everyone else what they should do.

If I have Covid-19 symptoms much less a positive test I am not going to go to my still under construction new home across town and get in a pissing match with someone who calls me out for it...........

The Chinese lab conspiracy rumor has been conclusively debunked by genetic analysis.
It's the animals.

 

[mspohr]

New Yorker Classics

In 2005, Specter published “Nature’s Bioterrorist,” one of the early comprehensive pieces on a deadly strain of the avian flu, known as H5N1, and how scientists and researchers worked together to prevent its spread. His piece is a standout in the growing genre of pandemic nonfiction writing. Specter traces the path of the influenza strain as it emerged in Thailand, in 2004, and visits with the experts struggling to keep it at bay. “Infectious-disease experts talk about pandemics the way geologists talk about earthquakes; the discussion is never about whether ‘the big one’ will hit. Pandemics have recurred in cycles for centuries,” Specter writes. Readers today will register familiar tones as he chronicles how the Thai government was reluctant to take the virus seriously when reports first surfaced. Specter’s narrative follows the health workers and officials who continued to raise the alarm about the need for concerted action against a complex, ever-shifting pathogen.

 

[ladysbff]

Animals Farmed: pig virus, wildlife trade in China, and the 'poultry capital' of Wales

 

[mspohr]

Animals Farmed: pig virus, wildlife trade in China, and the 'poultry capital' of Wales

A group of 40 NGOs have also written to the EU to demand an overhaul of its food and farming system post Covid-19. The pandemic had “brought to light some of the dysfunctions of our current globalised and unsustainable food systems, including the link between the increased emergence of zoonoses and intensive animal farming”, they said. The letter also urged the EU not to delay the launch of its new Farm to Fork strategy any later than this month.

Animal welfare campaigners have expressed concern after China included wildlife such as deer, game birds, mink and foxes on a list of animals that it plans to allow to be farmed. “Rebranding wildlife as livestock doesn’t alter the fact that there are insurmountable challenges to keeping these species in farm environments … some of these species can act as intermediate hosts of viruses, such as Covid-19,” said Peter Li, China policy specialist with Humane Society International, who welcomed additional plans to ban the eating of dogs.

 

[mspohr]

The Chinese lab conspiracy rumor has been conclusively debunked by genetic analysis.
It's the animals.

The coronavirus did not escape from a lab. Here's how we know. | Live Science

The coronavirus did not escape from a lab. Here's how we know.
By Jeanna Bryner - Live Science Editor-in-Chief a month ago

The persistent myth can be put to bed.

A new analysis of SARS-CoV-2 may finally put that latter idea to bed. A group of researchers compared the genome of this novel coronavirus with the seven other coronaviruses known to infect humans: SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2, which can cause severe disease; along with HKU1, NL63, OC43 and 229E, which typically cause just mild symptoms, the researchers wrote March 17 in the journal Nature Medicine.

"Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus," they write in the journal article.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

The coronavirus did not escape from a lab. Here's how we know. | Live Science

The coronavirus did not escape from a lab. Here's how we know.
By Jeanna Bryner - Live Science Editor-in-Chief a month ago

The persistent myth can be put to bed.

A new analysis of SARS-CoV-2 may finally put that latter idea to bed. A group of researchers compared the genome of this novel coronavirus with the seven other coronaviruses known to infect humans: SARS, MERS and SARS-CoV-2, which can cause severe disease; along with HKU1, NL63, OC43 and 229E, which typically cause just mild symptoms, the researchers wrote March 17 in the journal Nature Medicine.

"Our analyses clearly show that SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus," they write in the journal article.

The rational suggestions are not saying that the virus was created or manipulated at a lab, but that the lab was researching _existing_ coronaviruses, and a researcher become infected.

 

[Darmie]

The rational suggestions are not saying that the virus was created or manipulated at a lab, but that the lab was researching _existing_ coronaviruses, and a researcher become infected.

Boy, sure didn't see this coming.

 

[mspohr]

The rational suggestions are not saying that the virus was created or manipulated at a lab, but that the lab was researching _existing_ coronaviruses, and a researcher become infected.

Where did the "existing" Coronaviruses come from?
Perhaps the wet market?

 

[Uncle Paul]

China will spin the story to make them look innocent. Has stopped allowing outsiders into their labs, while the scrub all the literature and forbid scientists and journalists from publishing anything without Party approval. WHO is also under control of China. They are manipulating any information coming out of there as well.

Often the guilty act guilty.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

Where did the "existing" Coronaviruses come from?
Perhaps the wet market?

As the original stories are suggesting, it's bats. Bats are virus carriers. Where _they_ get the virus from, maybe it's because they're voracious consumers of insects and live in large groups?

Article from 1/28/2020, so not jumping on any conspiracy theory, just pointing out that bats are a common source of virus outbreaks:

How Do Bats Live With So Many Viruses?

I also remember watching a TED talk by a researcher talking about vampire bats in the Amazon carrying malaria and causing infections.

If the lab was the source of the infection, the wet market's role would then simply be that it was close to the source, it's somewhere lots of people go to buy food _daily_, and hygiene standards are poor.

Really can't blame China for researching coronaviruses in bats given they're considered to be a source of various virus outbreaks. Swine flu has been a massive problem there.

 

[Uncle Paul]

To avoid looking guilty, they should allow outside independant investigatiors into their facilities and show them the books and computer records of what they were working on and attempting to develop. They have expressly denied those people access.

 

[mspohr]

UK school and hospital caterers vow to cut meat served by 20%

UK school and hospital caterers vow to cut meat served by 20%

People in rich nations, such as Britain, eat more meat than is considered to be healthy. Studies have also shown that meat consumption must be slashed to tackle the climate emergency and other environmental crises such as water pollution arising from the high impact of livestock.

The HCA has signed up to the pledge. Craig Smith, the association’s chair, told Public Sector Catering that the people it served were already moving away from meat. “The biggest rise we are seeing is those demanding a more plant-based diet.”

 

[mspohr]

Covid-19 – a blessing for pangolins?

Covid-19 – a blessing for pangolins?

Covid-19 is a human disaster. However, for one group of animals, there may be a silver lining. Pangolins are one of the most heavily trafficked animals in the world, and as a result they are endangered. But in the past few weeks they have been linked to the initial outbreak of the Covid-19 disease in China. The evidence is inconclusive, but it has already prompted the Chinese government to take action. If more actions against the wildlife trade follow, the incident could prove to be a turning point for pangolin conservation.

However, the Chinese government was already lurching into action. On 24 February, China announced an immediate ban on trading and eating many wild animals, including pangolins. Officials began shutting down wild animal markets across the country.

In the best-case scenario, it will not just be pangolins that benefit. Reducing the demand for illegally traded wildlife will help many species – and protect us all from future pandemics into the bargain.

 

[David_Cary]

De Blasio was wrong. I said that in early March. He was slow to act and foolish. We closed our schools in Raleigh earlier than NYC. Our county as of today has 5 deaths. De Blasio was dead wrong.

Cuomo was also wrong.

Being wrong and slow is non partisan.

Trump just got in front of more people more often saying more ignorant things. Trump also has a history of anti-science policy choices. I have no idea about the mayor of NYC. He might be an idiot too. Plenty of democrats are idiots.

None of this changes that China was culpable too. In a simplistic (ie average American) perspective, it doesn't really matter whether it was a wet market of a lab or a combo of the two.

China bashing is one of Trump's great tools. There is much to like about reducing reliance and trade with China even if Trump also supports it. Even the broken clock....

 

[mspohr]

'No way food safety not compromised': US regulation rollbacks during Covid-19 criticised

'No way food safety not compromised': US regulation rollbacks during Covid-19 criticised

The US government is accelerating controversial regulatory rollbacks to speed up production at meat plants, as companies express growing alarm at the impact of Covid-19 on their operations.

People are getting sick from our poultry production’
The line speed increases come as Guardian data analysis reveals that at least one in 10 US poultry slaughterhouses failed government salmonella tests last year. In some categories, failure rates are as high as 34%.

 

[ladysbff]

'No way food safety not compromised': US regulation rollbacks during Covid-19 criticised

'No way food safety not compromised': US regulation rollbacks during Covid-19 criticised

The US government is accelerating controversial regulatory rollbacks to speed up production at meat plants, as companies express growing alarm at the impact of Covid-19 on their operations.

People are getting sick from our poultry production’
The line speed increases come as Guardian data analysis reveals that at least one in 10 US poultry slaughterhouses failed government salmonella tests last year. In some categories, failure rates are as high as 34%.

Wow. Just wow.

 

[mspohr]

HuffPost: Why Some Farmers Are Ditching Livestock And Growing Plants Instead.
Why Some Farmers Are Ditching Livestock And Growing Plants Instead | HuffPost

“We want to help bring farmers along with the change we think is necessary to tackle climate change and reduce the environmental footprint of farming,” said Schinner. She’s on the hunt for a dairy farm in California that will work with her company to ditch cows and grow plants for vegan products instead.

The Swedish oat-milk brand Oatly was one of the early corporate pioneers of this farmer transition movement when it began supporting a dairy farmer named Adam Arnesson to switch to growing more oats in 2017. Oatly used the oats to make a specially branded line of its milk and other animal-free dairy products. The company monitored the reduction in climate emissions from the farm as it completed the transition: Arnesson decreased his emissions and increased his profits.

 

[mspohr]

Environmental Destruction Brought Us COVID-19. What It Brings Next Could Be Far Worse. | HuffPost

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought global attention to live wild animal markets, which are common throughout Southeast Asia and Africa and which scientists say provide ideal conditions for new pandemics to spawn. The markets, which are often located in dense, urban areas, bring a wide variety of domestic and wild species, living and dead, into contact with humans. They are potential petri dishes for novel pathogens to evolve and spread.

It is at one such “wet market” in Wuhan, a city of 11 million, that the novel coronavirus, labeled SARS-CoV-2, is believed to have first spilled from its original host (thought to be a bat) into an intermediary host species or directly into humans. The crowded market featured dozens of live and dead animals for sale that rarely, if ever, come in contact in the wild, from fish and rats to monkeys and foxes. These markets are poorly regulated, and endangered species are known to end up in them.

This coronavirus crossed over to humans in China, but the spillover of such diseases is occurring all over the world, including in the United States. Walzer points, for instance, to the rise of Lyme disease in North America, where our suburban developments and shopping malls wiped out wild forests, killed native predators, amplified rodent and deer populations, and fueled outbreaks of the tick-borne illness.