[HN Gopher] "It has been determined" that infected dairy herd se...
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       "It has been determined" that infected dairy herd serology can be
       disclosed
        
       Author : ctoth
       Score  : 43 points
       Date   : 2025-03-11 19:53 UTC (3 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (hogvet51.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (hogvet51.substack.com)
        
       | ggm wrote:
       | The fact that indicators of decision-making have to be indirect,
       | speaks to the risk environment of public health officials. Post
       | Fauci, it's huge.
       | 
       | Is this problem also a function of both devolution of power to
       | states and the environment post animal activism? Or just the
       | "don't ask don't tell" of US policy these days? A bunch of laws
       | got passed about revealing inner truths of animal husbandry in
       | the wake of activist filming in chicken houses and piggeries.
       | 
       | We depend on the massive herds of food animals. We depend on
       | clear information sharing about their health. They aren't just
       | tasty beef and cheese, they are disease vectors and storage
       | grounds of infection. This information policy nightmare isn't
       | good.
        
         | CrossVR wrote:
         | > Post Fauci, it's huge.
         | 
         | How is Anthony Fauci related to this? He headed the NIAID, not
         | the USDA.
        
           | Blackthorn wrote:
           | Are you really going to try to say that the absurd levels of
           | bile, vitriol, and threats that he received for doing his job
           | during a pandemic has zero knock-on effect for other public
           | health officials?
        
             | CrossVR wrote:
             | Woah, I'm not sure how you got that from my comment. It was
             | a genuine question since OP made it seem as if Dr. Fauci
             | had played some role in the USDA's handling of the H5N1
             | epidemic. In fact I was concerned OP was trying to pin yet
             | another conspiracy on him.
        
           | guhidalg wrote:
           | I remember in 2020 how a career public servant, colleague to
           | those in USDA, was contradicted by the president because it
           | made the administration's COVID response look bad.
           | 
           | Recently, the US president has decided he doesn't want to
           | protect his public servant's lives anymore
           | https://apnews.com/article/fauci-trump-security-
           | detail-4b2e3...
        
           | ggm wrote:
           | As others note, its the public health aspect of being a voice
           | for science and reason, against the political backlash and
           | death threats. I did not mean to imply USDA and NIAD related,
           | except in needing public health policy people making
           | decisions and statements in the public eye.
        
         | JohnTHaller wrote:
         | On a related note, "Trump ends Fauci's security detail and says
         | he'd feel no responsibility if harm befell him":
         | https://apnews.com/article/fauci-trump-security-detail-4b2e3...
        
       | knowaveragejoe wrote:
       | > In a Breitbart article, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins blithely
       | assures us that increased biosecurity supported by the Trump
       | Administration will negate the need for vaccines. I have to
       | wonder how that's going to work out for poultry flocks next to
       | dairy (or feedlot) H5N1 B3.13 or D1.1 outbreaks, especially when
       | she is also taking cattle vaccines off the table in the same
       | conversation? I'll give Secretary Rollins credit for one thing -
       | she definitely does not hide her intentions in 3rd person
       | language anonymity! She will own these comments!
       | 
       | That'll be something to keep in mind.
        
         | mlinhares wrote:
         | "negate the need for vaccines" i guess we should start to buy
         | only imported powdered milk as US milk won't be safe for human
         | consumption anymore. what is wrong with these people, go be
         | corrupt and steal government money but leave this shit alone.
        
           | DrillShopper wrote:
           | Breitbart is a neo-Nazi site so that tells you where her
           | allegiances lie
        
             | superq wrote:
             | Is this hyperbole, or are you seriously claiming that the
             | Jewish men who run Breitbart, or Jewish founders like Ben
             | Shapiro or Andrew Breitbart, are neo-Nazis?
        
               | watwut wrote:
               | Andrew Breitbart is dead and not running anything right
               | now. Also, antisemitism was not the only thing wrong with
               | nazi.
        
           | leptons wrote:
           | >what is wrong with these people
           | 
           | A whole lot of things.
           | 
           | None of the actions of this administration are designed to
           | improve the country, they are specifically designed to
           | destabilize the country. _They want collapse._ They seriously
           | are trying to destroy America so they can rule over the
           | ashes. I wish I could call this hyperbole, but the affirm
           | this every single day with every single crooked action they
           | take, even in defiance of the law.
        
           | Hikikomori wrote:
           | I hear raw milk is good for you.
        
             | Sabinus wrote:
             | I hear that too. But I also hear of the occasional death
             | when the unpasteurized milk has a pathogen in it. It's
             | rolling the dice.
        
             | p1necone wrote:
             | You just have to boil it first ;)
        
           | hypeatei wrote:
           | > what is wrong with these people
           | 
           | Brain worms, eating road kill, the usual.
        
         | neuronexmachina wrote:
         | Worth noting that Rollins is the same USDA Secretary who
         | advocated for Americans to keep chickens in their yards to
         | counter rising egg prices. Besides that not making financial
         | sense, it also creates even more vectors for H5N1 to spread.
        
       | timewizard wrote:
       | This isn't my field but I always feel it's disingenuous to show
       | PCR results without telling me how many cycles of PCR you did.
       | PCR is effectively a magnifying glass and you're obscuring the
       | level of magnification you used to get a detection. It doesn't
       | seem, on it's own, to ever be a useful piece of information.
        
         | stonogo wrote:
         | For a diagnostic application, the cycle count doesn't really
         | matter. Either the DNA your primers are targeting is present or
         | it is not. That's why they talk about a "positive" or
         | "negative" PCR test -- the presence or absense of the viral DNA
         | is a binary.
         | 
         | For diagnostic use like this, the standard is 30+-10 cycles,
         | but it doesn't really matter if it's ten or a hundred, since
         | all you're really doing is verifying the presence of the target
         | genome.
        
         | blackguardx wrote:
         | PCR is a basic tool. It amplifies, much like your car stereo.
         | If you can hear music when tuning in an AM station, you don't
         | question the automatic gain correction the stereo is doing
         | internally. PCR is the same way. If the target is present, it
         | is detectable. If it isn't then it isn't. There are so many
         | variables at play that the number of cycles isn't very
         | meaningful.
        
           | tanseydavid wrote:
           | Kary Mullis, inventor of PCR does not agree with your
           | analogy.
        
             | churchturing wrote:
             | He also
             | 
             | * believed in astrology
             | 
             | * denied Avogadro's number (???)
             | 
             | * practiced telepathy
             | 
             | * didn't believe in HIV causing AIDs
             | 
             | * didn't believe in climate change
             | 
             | * didn't believe in the ozone hole
             | 
             | While he certainly had incredible intelligence, clearly him
             | believing something isn't a hugely convincing reasoning.
             | 
             | disclaimer: i am a person who believes in Avogadro's number
             | and not astrology. truly an intellectual outcast and rebel
        
           | aftbit wrote:
           | Is sample contamination more impactful (likely to lead to a
           | false positive) at 100 or 200 cycles than at 20? I remember
           | some distrust of high PCR cycle counts during COVID but I
           | never quite understood the fear.
        
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       (page generated 2025-03-11 23:01 UTC)