Bird Flu News:
- Beef tissue from a dairy cow sick with the bird flu tested positive for H5N1, though the beef didn’t enter the food supply. (NY Times)
- Two chickens at a live bird market tested positive for H5N1 in San Francisco, which has now begun wastewater testing for H5 influenza. (SF Chronicle)
- Bird flu struck over 100,000 turkeys at an Iowa facility, just a week after an outbreak at an Iowa egg facility with 4.2 million hens. (Des Moines Register)
- Despite the spread of bird flu and increased risk for humans, lawmakers in Louisiana and Delaware are pushing to legalize raw milk for commercial sale. (LA Times)
Health News:
- Fresh cucumbers were recalled due to possible Salmonella contamination; it’s still unconfirmed if this is linked to the 140+ Salmonella Africana cases that the FDA are investigating. (NBC)
- Children at a California elementary school were sickened by chemical weapons from a nearby police training exercise. (SF Chronicle)
- Using 6 feet as the gap for social distancing during the pandemic wasn’t based on scientific evidence. (Washington Post)
- N95 masks were “nearly perfect” at blocking COVID when worn by the sick person, a new University of Maryland study found. (Maryland Today)
- Whooping cough cases are on the rise and already nearly 3x higher than last year. (ABC)
- COVID can cause permanent eye damage if not treated. (KBIA)
- There is a small rise in COVID rates across the US right now, though overall numbers are still low. (CIDRAP)
- Mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus were found in LA county. (LA Times)
- The FDA is considering whether new seasonal COVID shots should target the dominant JN.1 variants, including the latest subvariant KP.2. (Reuters)
Mental Health & Substance Use News:
- Placebos can help with certain mental health symptoms, which is exciting both as a treatment and in terms of the ethics of future clinical studies. (CNN)
- One county sheriff is patching in virtual clinicians to support people in acute mental health crises. (CBS)
- The FDA will soon consider MDMA for use in treating PTSD. (STAT)
If you or someone you know may be considering suicide or need help, call 988 or message the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
Best Questions:
How unsafe is raw milk, really?
Short answer: pretty unsafe, even before bird flu came into the picture. Just this past year, there was an E. coli outbreak caused by raw cheddar cheese made from unpasteurized milk that sickened 11 people and left two with severe complications. There are farmers who have fed their families raw milk for decades without any negative consequences, or at most, a mild upset stomach, who question the need for regulation on this. And we get the appeal - apparently it tastes great! Like getting into a car crash without a seatbelt, severe illness from raw milk is rare - you could drive hundreds of times without your seatbelt and have no issues at all…until you do. Right now, the risk is even higher because there is evidence that cats and mice who consume raw milk from dairy cows infected with bird flu get sick, and many die. We don’t know exactly how that would translate to a human, but the risk is definitely higher, especially given that we have evidence that there’s asymptomatic transmission between cows, so a farmer might not know that they’re collecting milk from an infected cow. In short, we don’t recommend drinking raw milk, especially right now when there are so many unknowns about how bird flu could spread to humans.
Sources: LA Times, FDA
We have an employee whose child has hand, foot and mouth disease. Can they work?
Yes, as long as the employee is symptom-free themself, they can continue to work, though they should self-monitor for symptoms for a week or so and take extra care with hand washing. Many adults whose children have HFMD don’t actually end up getting it, and it can really run rampant in childcare centers, so it’s a relief to know that adult caregivers can continue to work if they aren’t sick. If the employee does happen to develop symptoms, they should be excluded until the telltale rash is completely healed, usually about seven to ten days. They don’t need a doctor’s note to return to work in most cases.
Source: CDC
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