The Free

‘Unprecedented’: How bird flu became an animal pandemic

from thefreeonline on April 27, 2024 by India Bourke, at ‘TheExtinctionChronicles and BBC.future

Now in cows Bird Flu is just a few mutations from Humans. We are in danger from hundreds of Bio Labs experimenting for genocidal States.

(Credit: Ben Wallis)

Bird flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading in cows. In the handful of human cases seen so far it has been extremely deadly.

The tips of Lineke Begeman’s fingers are still numb from a gruelling mission. In March, the veterinary pathologist was part of an international expedition to Antarctica’s Northern Weddell Sea, studying the spread of High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), the virus that has now encircled the globe, causing the disease known as bird flu.

Cutting into the frozen bodies of wild birds that the team collected, Begeman was able to help establish whether they had died from the disease. The conditions were harsh and the location remote, far from her usual base at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands. But systematic monitoring like this could provide a vital warning for the rest of the world.

“If we don’t study the extent of its spread now, then we can’t let people know what the consequences are of having let it slip through our fingers when it began,” Begeman tells BBC Future Planet. “I imagine the virus as an explorer going through the world, to new places and bird species, and we’re following it along.”

Relatively few people have caught the virus so far, but it has had a high mortality rate in those that do: more than 50% of people known to become infected have died.

Antonio AlcamíAn expedition to the Antarctic’s Northern Weddell Sea has systematically studied bird flu’s spread in this remote, wildlife-rich region (Credit: Antonio Alcamí)

Moreover, the impact on animals has already been devastating. Since it was first identified, the H5 strain of avian influenza and its variants have led to the slaughter of over half a billion farmed birds. Wild-bird deaths are estimated in the millions, with around 600,000 in South America since 2023 alone – and both numbers potentially far higher due to the difficulties of monitoring. At least 26 species of mammals have also been infected.

In Antarctica’s Northern Weddell Sea, Begeman and her colleagues sampled around 120 carcasses from different species, including several Antarctic fur seals. The virus was detected at four of the 10 sites they visited.

It was not the first time bird flu had been detected on this remote continent. That first case was a month prior, in February 2024. But theirs was the first confirmation from this particular region, and the first time, Begeman believes, that a multidisciplinary team had set out to systematically determine its Antarctic spread.

Matteo LervolinoMillions of wild birds are estimated to have died from the spread of high pathogenic avian influenza (Credit: Matteo Lervolino)

“The moment we found the first evidence of that destructive serial killer virus amidst such a bird-rich, pristine area, we realised what disaster is about to happen and it became sickening indeed,” says Begeman.

Already the worst bird flu outbreak in wildlife on record, scientists like Begeman are now racing to track its journey – and so better understand how its further spread among humans might be stopped.

Where does bird flu come from?

China’s southern Guangdong region is a mosaic of lakes, rivers and wetlands. These watery habitats are well suited to aquatic birds, who are natural hosts for low pathogenic avian flu. And it was here, in 1996, that a farmed goose became the world’s first bird to be diagnosed with a new, highly pathogenic strain of the virus, known as H5N1.

Worse Than You Can Imagine | West plotted with Israel to Starve 2.3m in Gaza! – Craig Murray

from thefreeonline on April 27 ’24 by Craig Murray

It’s impossible the US, Canada, Australia, Germany etc all cancelled UN aid to Gaza within 24 hours of Israel’s false accusations of Hamas

Governments cannot take big decisions extremely quickly except in the most extreme of circumstances. There are mechanisms in all states that consider policy decisions, weigh them up, involve the various departments of the state whose activities are affected by that decision, and arrive at a conclusion, though not necessarily a good one.

The decision to stop aid funding to UNRWA was not taken by numerous Western states in a single day.

In the UK, several different government ministries had to coordinate. Even within only a single ministry, the FCDO, views would have to be coordinated through written submissions and interdepartmental meetings between the departments dealing with the Middle East, with the United Nations, with the United States, with Europe and then of course between the diplomatic and development wings of the ministry.

That process would include seeking the views of British Ambassadors to Tel Aviv, Doha, Cairo, Riyadh, Istanbul and Washington and to the United Nations in Geneva and in New York.

It is not necessarily a lengthy process but it is not a day’s work, and nor would it need to be. There was no practical impact to making the announcement of cutting UNRWA funding a day sooner or a day later.

Consider that the parallel process had to be completed in the United States, in Canada, in Germany, in Australia and in all the other Western powers that contributed to starvation in Gaza by cutting aid to UNRWA.

All of these countries had to go through their procedures, and it could only be by prior coordination – weeks in advance – between these states that they announced all on the same day the destruction of the life support system for Palestinians, then in absolute need.

And then consider that we now know for certain that the Israelis had produced no evidence whatsoever of UNRWA complicity in Hamas resistance, on which these decisions in all those states were allegedly based.

I have no doubt at all that the Western political elite, paid tools of the zionist machine, are complicit in the genocide of Palestinians and ethnic cleansing of Gaza at a much deeper level than the people have yet understood. The refusal by Starmer and Sunak to contemplate ending arms sales and military support to Israel is not due to inertia or concern for the arms industry. It is that they actively support the destruction of the Palestinians.

The coordinated decision of the Western nations to fast track famine by stopping UNRWA funding was announced within an hour, following the ICJ ruling that Gazans were at immediate risk of genocide, and drove from the media headlines the adverse ruling against Israel.

This sent the clearest signal in response that the Western powers would not be stopped from the genocide by international law or institutions.

Verso and other publishers are offering free ebooks in solidarity with pro-Palestine campus protests..

As students organize and resist to demand action and justice for Palestinians, publishers are offering free books on Palestine, protest, and more, in solidarity. Verso has seven ebooks available for download, including a case for sanctions against Israel, a collection on 2011’s Occupy movement, and a compendium of revolt and resistance.

Verso also collected a list last year of free resources, including books, interviews, and podcasts.

Haymarket Books has a series of books available for free, including Light in Gaza, a collection of writing by Gazans on “their dreams, fears, and aspirations.” Haymarket also organized Until Liberation, a series of events at the end of last year that are all available to watch.

Both Verso and Haymarket collaborated on an essay collection released in December, From The River To The Sea, which includes personal testimonials, essays, and interviews for a free Palestine, and “provide[s] important grounding for the urgent discussions taking place across the Palestine solidarity movement.”

Seven Stories Press is also offering a free, two-volume history of student resistance in the last 20 years. The author Mark Boren writes of his collection: “The explosion of protests in the world has shown us that there are millions of people—many of them young and altruistic—who are willing to stand up to forces of oppression, to risk their bodies, their freedom, and their lives to make the future better than the past, and that is humbling, inspiring, and hopeful for the future.”

If you’re looking for more resources and more to read, In These Times has a great list of digital resources for a free Palestine which includes the Palestinian Museum’s digital archives and an expansive list of zines and books from Publishers for Palestine.

There’s lots to read, but even more to do: Jewish Voice for Peace and The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights have lots of ways to take action right now.

free books Haymarket Books Palestine