(CDC Study) Avian Flu Strain Isolated From Michigan Dairy Farmer Capable of Airborne Transmission

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ducationalfall@reddit

Ah yes. Perfect time to cut CDC budget.

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He also just revoked a $500 million federal grant to Moderna for developing an avian flu vaccine. The mortality rate in humans for H5N1 is ~50%. Before the vaccine, Covid was closer to 1-2%. If H5N1 actually spreads through the population it would be unthinkably catastrophic.

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crusoe@reddit

Actually the mortality rate depends on the particular strain of Avian Flu, there are two. One is "Meh, maybe slightly less worse than Spanish Flu and the other "OMG Postapocalyptic Movie"

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sunshineandthecloud@reddit

H5N1 is an HPAI so very pathogenic. However the lethality rate must always be taken with a grain of salt become asymptomatic infections don’t present to hospitals

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A_wandering_rider@reddit

Adjusted for today's population the Spanish flu would kill between 100 and 400 million people. Those are apocalyptic numbers.

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Unique-Sock3366@reddit

gif

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Ravenseye@reddit

I mean... You didn't understand this before?

There is only one resolution to life, and that is death.

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Unique-Sock3366@reddit

Ooohhh… edgy.

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J0E_Blow@reddit

No- just half. Lol

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runawayjimlfc@reddit

Maybe the people in government should do a fucking better job. They are wasting our tax payer dollars. It blows my mind that all of you anti-Trumpers just can’t wrap your head around two ideas at once. The government is extremely wasteful. Hate Trump all you want but if your high level understanding is “cuts bad”, you’re basically being a simpleton. Every organization needs cuts particularly after years of unbridled growth.

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ducationalfall@reddit

Maybe you should report those government wastes to inspector generals. Wait… Trump also fired all of them!

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JMurdock77@reddit

Out with the science, in with the colloidal silver and horse paste!

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Accio_Diet_Coke@reddit

Jokes on them. I hid the space laser bullseyes in the horse paste. Thank me later friends.

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sunshineandthecloud@reddit

At least now there was no lethality. That will change soon tho

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sunshineandthecloud@reddit

Hope taco can figure this out. But prolly we are all going to die. How are those vaccines going?

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sunshineandthecloud@reddit

This is really really bad news. Not for now but for the winter when everyone is inside and airborne transmission occurs in poorly ventilated spaces. We are mega fucked

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platistocrates@reddit

the article does not claim that human-to-human transmission of the H5N1 virus has occurred

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here-i-am-now@reddit

Neither does the headline.

What’s your point?

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Hellchron@reddit

Ferret to ferret! These articles definitely aren't easy to parse though

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icklefluffybunny42@reddit

Especially if you try to read the research letter with Requiem for a Dream (2000) on in the background. Right during the ass to ass scene too. Got confusing.

Ashes to ashes,

Dust to dust

Ass to ass

Ferret to ferret.

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RumpelFrogskin@reddit

This comment doesn't help at all. Nor is it funny.

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DeepyPeePee@reddit

you're a turd

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Present_Figure_4786@reddit

I think they're saying it has progressed to mammal to mammal, including cow to human?

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all-day-pj@reddit

They're saying an isolate from cow -> human transmission infects ferrets, which then demonstrate airborne transmission - but with reduced virulence/lethality.

Still moderate disease, mean max (i.e. avg peak) weight loss = 9.8%. Mostly hits respiratory organs.

Good news: it was a laboratory inoculation and the airborne transmission was ferret -> ferret.

Bad news: a human-isolated phenotype (or w/e) produces airborne transmission in other mammals.

Not the source of the next (human) pandemic. But also a step in the wrong direction if we want to prevent one.

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Relevant-Highlight90@reddit

but with reduced virulence/lethality.

A lot of virologists have speculated that this would be the case based on the mutations that would have to happen for H5N1 to go airborne. It's looking like they are right, and this is very good news.

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all-day-pj@reddit

Maybe. A virus doesn't have many chances to adapt when it's 59% lethal.

Virulence goes down, R0 goes up -> Elevated mutational burden.

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Relevant-Highlight90@reddit

That is incorrect.

There are two extremely different strains of H5N1 called the HPAI (high-pathogenicity) strain which is more commonly found in Asia and is nearly exclusively in birds, and the LPAI (low-pathogenicity) strain more common found in North America that has crossed-over to cows, cats, ferrets, an isolated set of humans and a few other mammalian species

The mortality statistics you are quoting are from the HPAI strain. There has not been a single human death recorded with the LPAI strain, and cows and other mammals seem to survive it also. It produces conjunctivitis and flu-like symptoms in the infected but a lot of infected dairy workers that have tested positive are also asymptomatic.

The strain being discussed in this article is the LPAI strain. There is plenty of wiggle room for mutation in the LPAI strain because it does not kill its hosts.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

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all-day-pj@reddit

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

More like TEDx lol

H5N1 B3.13 (MI90) is an HPAI genotype

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Akanwrath@reddit

Stepping stones, kinda like saying hitler hasnt taken france yet

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Kinkajou_Incarnate@reddit

Yeah that’s not a good title (because it’s wrong)

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Warm-Okra2792@reddit

Correct. But the E627K and M631L genes are the ones we were most worried about. If it gets into people, it is ready to spread, no further adaptation required.

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ItsAllAboutThatDirt@reddit

Even without that, once it gets airborne transmission potential it will be that much easier for it to spread once human to human hits though. And with the amount of mammals it's managed to adapt to humans are practically inevitable at this point. Especially with how it's being treated.

All that remains to be seen is the severity of the virus effects once it happens.

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Disastrous_Bag_7772@reddit

Thank you, CDC.

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WotanSpecialist@reddit

“Although all MI90-infected ferrets survived the 21-day study, we noted moderate disease…”

”Overall, MI90 virus displayed reduced virulence in ferrets compared with another H5N1 virus isolated from a dairy farm worker in Texas…”

Shot in the dark here: neither OP nor most commenters actually read beyond the headline.

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Deganveran@reddit

The severity of the disease is not important in this case. The mutation is. If this becomes another vector, a much worse strain of the virus can become airborne.

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WotanSpecialist@reddit

The strain tested has been circulating in the herds for a while and then transmitted to a human, was isolated and forced upon a ferret. This strain is following the exact projected course of viral evolution. Better transmission, less severity.

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reila_go@reddit (OP)

Yes, I did. See the relevant reply below.

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WotanSpecialist@reddit

Then you understand that the the strain tested is not the one that’s dangerous presumably

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WotanSpecialist@reddit

Oh so you intentionally lied in the headline, nice

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Creative-Cow-5598@reddit

I know what I see in bird populations in my area. It has decimated them. I have not seen a live raccoon, possum, and very few rabbits. That’s highly unusual. The crickets at the river by where I live. They stopped making noise at night in early may. I going to bet. This is aimed straight at us.

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metalreflectslime@reddit

This is bad news.

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AntBeaters@reddit

Not much news actually, all understood, no human or ferret got very sick. Definitely worth looking out for more changes, hopefully that is still funded!

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Relevant-Highlight90@reddit

Oh don't worry, it's not

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easymachtdas@reddit

How can you tell

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metalreflectslime@reddit

It is easier to get infected, if the virus is airborne.

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Relevant-Highlight90@reddit

Here we fucking go

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WhyAreYallFascists@reddit

Tiiiiiiight.

Ok, as a scientist/engineer first, to me there are a couple of headlines from the paper. First, yes, this appears to be an airborne strain, fuck that dog. Second, no ferrets died, from the disease, during the study. Ok, so I don’t know anything about ferrets and their virus like susceptibility? Is the airborne strain less virulent? Is that caused by whatever change allows airborne transfer, I’m thinking shape change?

Lot more work to be done here. If these scientist read this comment, I’ll do free data work, I’m a stay at home dad with a related doctorate. I’m gonna try and email them. This is now my second least favorite thing, and my least favorite is a war.

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randomperson5481643@reddit

I may be wrong, but my understanding is that ferrets are reasonably susceptible to influenza. So the fact that none of them died, suggests that this particular strain, while airborne transmissible, does not appear to pack much of a punch. I think it's also worth pointing out that in general, there is selective pressure for viruses to mutate into more infectious forms, which are also less deadly. So that's a good thing. The caveat with influenza is the genetic recombination, where entire segments of the genome (8 linear fragments) can mix and recombine in cells infected with multiple influenza viruses. This can allow a significant change in the virus capability from a single infected person/animal, but this is the case for all influenza,not just this one.

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BayPM@reddit

Not gonna lie…one of the first farms in michigan that had the influenza virus shares a property line with me. I hope that is not where the farm worker was employed…how does one find the actual location of this farm? All of the publications share no locations, and I understand the reasons. But it is upwind of my location, and the herds are rather large.

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randomperson5481643@reddit

You could probably check with the state vet office, and explain where your property is. They may be willing to disclose some additional information. You may end up with visitors wanting to take samples from your property/animals though.

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BigJSunshine@reddit

Wasn’t there also a recent article on transmission of flus or airborne diseases on airplanes being confirmed as increasing?

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BigJSunshine@reddit

Yep. We know. Please keep your cats inside folks, and your shoes outside! Don’t track bird poop into the home.

Death for a cat by H5N1 is viciously cruel and painful. And utterly preventable.

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AnomalyNexus@reddit

Me and my pile of hoarded toilet rolls are ready!

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unsettlingsammich@reddit

Alright! Let's get this going. Smoke 'em if you got 'em folks.

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all-day-pj@reddit

I'm already kind of high... but if you say so.

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unsettlingsammich@reddit

You can never be too high my friend.

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Big_Fortune_4574@reddit

I respectfully disagree

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kaiwikiclay@reddit

You haven’t had too many edibles before, have you

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surenuff_n_yesido@reddit

I ate 200mg tonight

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unsettlingsammich@reddit

What's another 200? World could end tomorrow!

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all-day-pj@reddit

Skimming through this article, I agree.

Guess I better start rolling.

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Reddit_is_fascist69@reddit

Hey, it's the end of the world, now, haven't you heard, so Smoke em if you got em, boys and girls Say goodbye to the past, now, raise up your glass and Revel while it lasts, it's the end of the world

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Future_Way5516@reddit

Let's get the party started

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Ih8tevery1@reddit

See .I was the crazy guy. Sounding the alarm, about COVID!! I was the conspiracy theorist...I told everyone to stock up on food..they laughed at me.. said I was crazy..they called me when they couldn't buy food and shelves were empty!! I told you so!!!

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TheSleepingNinja@reddit

Weeeeeeeeeeee

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AsyncEntity@reddit

😭

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obsequious_fink@reddit

Hell yeah, a valid excuse to go full recluse again.

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crusoe@reddit

Remember that all of these strains can crossover with each other on farms, and the perfect worst case blend is only a matter of time.

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ProperOperation@reddit

I am so scared about avian flu becoming human to human. I’d sooner have covid 5x over than bird flu once. Not that covid is any laughing matter, but I have cats and avian flu is incredibly fatal to cats. I can handle whatever comes my way but passing something to my cats that kills them? I couldn’t survive that 😞

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ItsAllAboutThatDirt@reddit

Yeah that's the part I'm worried about. Gonna have to figure out how to quarantine from my cats. Maybe I can prep a room for them to spend a week in.

And then... Shower/mask/glove/alcohol-swab to prep food? Just a big dry food dispenser. And water. Triple litter box.

Although this would all presuppose knowing that I'm infected before becoming infectious myself. Damnit... Now I'm sad.

Have to just quarantine worse than with COVID and mask up everywhere 😒 fucking A. I remember some articles mentioning anti-virals used in cats that have picked it up from raw food....

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-Boourns-@reddit

Litter Robot and auto/remote feeders for an isolation room.

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Ornery-Sheepherder74@reddit

I’m ready lmao. Bring on the quarantine!

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Average-Joe-6685@reddit

There will be no quarantine under Orange Chaos.

I will be getting my masks out, though.

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Alarming-Art-3577@reddit

Mask are forbidden unless you work for the federal Gestapo.

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lazertittiesrrad@reddit

No problem. Just rock some gravy seals gear and you're good to go 😉👍

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Confident-Poetry6985@reddit

Literally been doing that since 2020. I guess my dorky ass has been doing that my whole life but when people would tell me it's all a conspiracy I would pull my mask down and say "yes it is, but the cameras can't recognize you with the masks" and snap it back into place and stay quiet until I found my exit lol.

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boomrostad@reddit

I mean... he started the first one.

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inchling_prince@reddit

And he'll never do it again unless it becomes politically advantageous, and by then it'll be too late.

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Wandering_By_@reddit

Dont worry, he will flip flop around a few times until his messaging alings with whatever lunatic fringe he's hanging out with most that month

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SurpriseIsopod@reddit

lol quarantine. Nah homie, we’re gonna raw dog this one.

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biggesthumb@reddit

Non fatal and ferret to ferret

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Kinkajou_Incarnate@reddit

Yeah OP’s title is inaccurate. Still a cause for concern and I’m glad they’re bringing it up because it’s important

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Warm-Okra2792@reddit

This is it. This is the mutation combination we were warned about.

Thread from over a year ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PrepperIntel/comments/1d3kffi/pb2_m631l_and_pb_e627k_if_we_see_these_together/

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Dangerous-Echo8901@reddit

It's capable of transmission in ferrets (the animal model used)

It's also capable of airborne transmission already in cows and birds (and from those creatures to people, but not people to people)

This isn't really anything new.

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Jimimninn@reddit

gif

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J0E_Blow@reddit

“Awwww sheeeet, here we go again.”

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kymmmb@reddit

Oh no. :/ I farm ducks and chickens and have a large spring-fed pond visited regularly by wild birds. Dooooooooom.

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Future_Way5516@reddit

About time

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RedditAddict6942O@reddit

Good thing Taco just cancelled the 700 million dollar contract for bird flu vaccine.

So GOP could fund billionaire tax breaks.

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meissoboredto@reddit

Here is the NEXT pandemic and we have the SAME IMBECILE with even bigger imbeciles under him!!! Our nation, as a whole, may not survive. How much of the WORLD will be affected?? If the ORANGE “KRASNOV” TURD and his imbeciles handle this like COVID-19, then the world may be truly fucked!!!!!

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therapistofcats@reddit

Results show this virus caused airborne transmission with moderate pathogenicity, including limited extrapulmonary spread, without lethality.

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ItsAllAboutThatDirt@reddit

Throwing this into GPT to query it a bit:

Yes—and that’s the core red flag.

This study directly demonstrates that:

A human-isolated strain of H5N1, even one taken from an eye swab (not the lungs), can:

Replicate efficiently in mammalian respiratory tissue

Cause illness in ferrets

Transmit via the air to nearby animals

Why this is a big deal:

It’s not just a bird virus anymore This H5N1 strain infected a cow (a mammal), then a human, and now shows airborne spread in a mammalian model. That’s three major host jumps, and each one typically selects for mutations that help it infect the next host type better.
Airborne transmission = pandemic potential Avian influenza strains have often been “dead ends” in humans—dangerous, but not contagious between people. But airborne spread in ferrets is one of the strongest indicators of human-to-human transmission potential.
It wasn’t even a lung infection This virus didn’t come from a human’s deep lung infection or severe pneumonia case—it was isolated from the eye, a mucosal surface. And yet it still readily infected and spread in the respiratory system of ferrets.

So, in short:

Yes—once it hits a human, at least this particular strain (MI90), it already shows the potential for airborne transmission between mammals.

This is why researchers and public health authorities are deeply concerned. It's not a hypothetical anymore—it’s a demonstrated risk, not just a theoretical one.

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