Three diseases you need to "panic" about
The playbook is obvious. Our so-called public health officials are warning about new diseases waiting to take you down. We suggest you keep calm and carry on.
If ‘deadly’ viruses scare you, consider this a trigger warning.
There are at least three diseases the powers-that-be want you to be afraid of — not just run-of-the-mill afraid, but VERY afraid.
Bird flu, monkey pox, and rabbit fever.
The Guardian reports that “the World Health Organization has raised concerns about the spread of H5N1 bird flu, which has an ‘extraordinarily high’ mortality rate in humans.”
(If you kept reading past the words “the Guardian reports” and then made it through “the World Health Organization” we thank you for sticking with us and praise you for your intestinal fortitude!)
Basically what you need to know is there’s an avian flu that has been circulating for many years. Many birds have died, though we don’t know how many actually fell prey to the disease and how many were put to death because health regulators demanded it.
The virus now appears to have jumped to domesticated cattle in the United States. Again, the real danger to cattle is hard to discern. Maybe a handful of herds were affected. One human was infected after contact with a sick cow. He apparently developed pink eye. So if bloodshot, itchy eyes send shivers down your spine, it’s probably best if you hunker down at home for the foreseeable future.
Next up on the wheel of fear: monkey pox. A headline in The Telegraph reads: “Mutated strain of mpox with ‘pandemic potential’ found in DRC mining town.” The paper goes on to say “researchers call for ‘swift action’ to halt the outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo as experts warn virus is ‘not over’.”
Are you suitably scared yet?
Swift action! Virus not over! Pandemic potential!
The details are as follows: firstly, the Telegraph article is based on an unpublished research paper that has not been peer-reviewed. That means the details have not been scrutinized by experts. Using surveillance data and hospital records collected over a period of four months between October 2023 and January 2024, the researchers found 108 confirmed cases, 29% of which were among sex workers.
This “outbreak” occurred in the town of Kamituga, with a population of about 250,000. Many of the town’s inhabitants are children and teenagers who are exploited and pressed into work to support the large-scale informal mining operations there. While the fact that 100 people fell ill under those conditions is worthy of attention, especially for those children needlessly suffering (in more ways than one), it does not appear to be of major concern for the rest of us.
One last spin of the wheel brings us to rabbit fever, also known as Tularemia. It’s a bacterial disease that the CDC says generally spreads by “handling infected sick or dead animals, by eating or drinking contaminated food or water, or by inhaling airborne bacteria.” No known human-to-human transmission has been detected. Symptoms (skin ulcers, swollen and painful lymph glands, inflamed eyes, sore throat, mouth sores, diarrhea, or pneumonia) can be successfully treated with antibiotics.
Doesn’t sound all that terrifying, does it? A few beavers in Utah have succumbed to the disease and we mourn their loss, but we find it hard to comprehend why this “outbreak” warranted the level of news coverage it received last week, with stories in Fox, Newsweek, USA Today, and Axios.
Interestingly, the CDC lists the disease under ‘Bioterrorism’ on its website:
Can Tularemia Be Used As a Weapon?
Francisella tularensis is very infectious. A small number (10-50 or so organisms) can cause disease. If F. tularensis were used as a weapon, the bacteria would likely be made airborne for exposure by inhalation. People who inhale an infectious aerosol would generally experience severe respiratory illness, including life-threatening pneumonia and systemic infection, if they are not treated. The bacteria that cause tularemia occur widely in nature and could be isolated and grown in quantity in a laboratory, although manufacturing an effective aerosol weapon would require considerable sophistication.
Remember that the CDC is very much on board with the One Health approach pushed by the World Health Organization. For One Health to succeed, they need the public to buy into the core belief that humans are coming into increasing contact with animals, both wild and domesticated, raising the potential threat of new or emerging diseases that spread between animals and people.
The foundational tenets of One Health are communication, coordination, and collaboration, according to the CDC:
Other relevant players in a One Health approach could include law enforcement, policymakers, agriculture, communities, and even pet owners. No one person, organization, or sector can address issues at the animal-human-environment interface alone.
It’s the perfect plan: a pathogen of pandemic concern emerges, threatening the lives of humans and the animals we rely on for our food security. A coordinated response is obviously warranted, in the name of safety — this is an emergency after all. Lockdowns are instituted, to keep the vulnerable safe, and police can arrest those who violate the orders. To be able to track and trace efficiently, we all need digital IDs to keep a record of where we go and who we meet. Our pets are a threat, not just to ourselves, but to our community so veterinarians must euthanize them, along with our backyard chickens. Vaccines are rolled out and mandated across society. Doctors and nurses enforce this. Information about the pandemic is tightly controlled by the government and any dissenting opinions are swiftly and harshly censored in the interest of curbing ‘misinformation’.
Hmmmm, sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Question is: Are you afraid? And if you’re not, what obscure animal-to-human disease is it going to take to get you to comply? All our eyes should be wide open by now because the playbook is obvious. As is the end goal.
Do. Not. Comply.
Thank you SO much for presenting this 'keep calm and carry on' story in the way that you do. It is a tone of voice and a way of presenting information that is so hugely absent from mainstream media these days. And I love your signoff: Do. Not. Comply.
I'll share with you a bit of levity in response, by way of an Australian news item I saw, that attempted its own brand of, "What ELSE can we make people afraid of?"
So there had been a new kind of shark attack in Tasmania - this time a young boy had been harmed. Poor chap had been sitting on the front of his Dad's fishing boat when out of nowhere, a shark leapt out of the water, took a chunk out of the kid, and then disappeared. Of course not great, but the boy was rushed to hospital, stitched up, and survived just fine.
The reporter on the scene of this small fishing community explained that everyone was now absolutely terrified. And of course as a result, ALL the local fisherpeople would now be "CHANGING THEIR BUSINESS PRACTICES." Cut to a local fisher-bloke who, presumably, would explain this, who then said, and I really do quote:
"Yeah... well sure, I won't be taking a sunny day crap over the side any more. Bugger that!"
Just thought you might enjoy this true story of 'When fear-mongering took a nose dive!"
Thanks again!
There are some potentially nasty pathogens out there but compared to politicians, health authorities, compliant health staff and hospital protocols... not as likely to kill or maim you.