When H5N1 avian influenza started spreading among dairy cattle across the U.S. this year, regulators warned against consuming unpasteurized milk. What happened? Raw milk sales went up.
Distributors of this unsafe-for-human-consumption product deny H5N1—which has the potential to sicken millions of people—is a danger. Dairy farmers decline to allow disease detectives onto their properties.
So, when this finally jumps species, will we continue the tradition of naming a virus after its origin?
MAGA Influenza or maybe the Florida Flu?
That’s enough alliteration for today
The White Death
The Lactonic Plague
The Culling of the Contrarians
American people
Texas Moo Flu
Nah, we’ll do like we did with the Spanish flu where we put our heads in the sand about a new flu strain from a farm in Kansas and name it after the first place to publicly acknowledge it exists.