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    A Bird Flu Pandemic Would Be One of the Most Foreseeable Catastrophes in History

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    Almost five years after Covid blew into our lives, the main thing standing between us and the next global pandemic is luck. And with the advent of flu season, that luck may well be running out.The H5N1 avian flu, having mutated its way across species, is raging out of control among the nation’s cattle, infecting roughly a third of the dairy herds in California alone. Farmworkers have so far avoided tragedy, as the virus has not yet acquired the genetic tools to spread among humans. But seasonal flu will vastly increase the chances of that outcome. As the colder weather drives us all indoors to our poorly ventilated houses and workplaces, we will be undertaking an extraordinary gamble that the nation is in no way prepared for.All that would be more than bad enough, but we face these threats gravely hobbled by the Biden administration’s failure — one might even say refusal — to respond adequately to this disease or to prepare us for viral outbreaks that may follow. And the United States just registered its first known case of an exceptionally severe strain of Mpox.As bad as the Biden administration has been on pandemic prevention, of course, it’s about to be replaced by something far worse. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Donald Trump’s pick to lead the nation’s vast public health agency, has already stated he would not prioritize research or vaccine distribution were we to face another pandemic. Kennedy may even be hastening its arrival through his advocacy for raw milk, which can carry high levels of the H5N1 virus and is considered a possible vector for its transmission.We might be fine. Viruses don’t always manage to adapt to new species, despite all the opportunities. But if there is a bird flu pandemic soon, it will be among the most foreseeable catastrophes in history.Devastating influenza pandemics arise throughout the ages because the virus is always looking for a way in, shape shifting to jump among species in ever novel forms. Flu viruses have a special trick: If two different types infect the same host — a farmworker with regular flu who also gets H5N1 from a cow — they can swap whole segments of their RNA, potentially creating an entirely new and deadly virus that has the ability to spread among humans. It’s likely that the 1918 influenza pandemic, for example, started as a flu virus of avian origin that passed through a pig in eastern Kansas. From there it likely infected its first human victim before circling the globe on a deadly journey that killed more people than World War I.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      India’s Epidemic of Cow Vigilantism Unnerves Nation’s Muslims

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      An unexpectedly narrow victory at the polls for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu-first agenda has not cooled simmering sectarian tensions, as some had hoped.A recent series of attacks by Hindus on Muslims in India have highlighted how sectarian violence remains a serious problem, even as the country seeks to define itself on the world stage as a robust democracy with equal rights for all.Despite a close election victory in June by Prime Minister Narendra Modi that many interpreted as a rebuff, there have been numerous instances of such violence, according to India-focused human rights organizations and a New York Times tally of local news reports. At least a dozen involve so-called cow vigilantism — violence related to the slaughter or smuggling of cows, or the suspicion of such acts.In August, a group of Hindu men beat up a 72-year-old Muslim man because they believed he was carrying beef in his bag. Also that month, a group that describes themselves as cow protectors fatally shot a 19-year-old Hindu student because they thought he was a Muslim smuggling cows, according to his family.The cow issue is deeply divisive because it pits the religious beliefs of one group against the diet of another. Cows are sacred in Hinduism, especially among its upper castes, and many Indian states ban their slaughter, as well as the sale or smuggling of beef. But beef is consumed by many Muslims. Religious violence is not rare in India, where more than one billion Hindus, around 200 million Muslims, 30 million Christians, 25 million Sikhs and other religious minorities coexist, sometimes uneasily.Under Mr. Modi, who has pursued a Hindu nationalist agenda since coming to power in 2014, Muslims have increasingly become a target for hard-line Hindu groups affiliated with his Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P. Hundreds of instances of religious violence, including lynching, beating and abuse, occur every year, according to data from the National Crime Records Bureau.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Three Injured After Bull Jumps the Fence at an Oregon Rodeo

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      While the crowd sang “God Bless the U.S.A.,” the bull leaped across a barrier into the stands and raced through the grounds of the rodeo before being captured.The bull ran back to the livestock holding pens where it was secured by rodeo workers and placed into a pen, according to the Sisters Rodeo Association.Danielle Smithers, via Associated PressThree people were injured Saturday night in central Oregon after a large bull jumped over a barrier and into the crowd at a packed rodeo event, sending onlookers scrambling for safety before the animal could be captured, the authorities said.The incident occurred during the final portion of the bull-riding event at the 84th annual Sisters Rodeo in Sisters, Ore., more than 150 miles southeast of Portland, the rodeo said in a statement.Video of the frantic episode circulating on social media shows a packed crowd under the arena lights, swaying and singing along to Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the U.S.A.,” when a large brown bull circles the bull ring and leaps over a metal gate and into the stands. Other footage shows the bull charging through an area designated for concessions and flipping a person through the air.When the bull first jumps the fence, a rodeo announcer can be heard giving instructions for an emergency response plan, repeatedly asking the crowd to take cover.“Get to higher ground, everybody,” the announcers shout over the loudspeakers. “Get to higher ground, there’s a bull out!” An announcer also instructs attendees on the grass to seek shelter under the grandstands.The Sisters Rodeo Association said the bull ran throughout the rodeo grounds and back to the livestock holding pens, where it was eventually secured by rodeo workers and placed into a pen.The bull injured three people, event officials said, two of whom were transported to the hospital. Their conditions were unknown as of Monday morning, though Sisters Rodeo said in a post on its Facebook page that all of the injured people had returned home.Sgt. Joshua Spano of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office told KTVZ, a local news channel, that several ambulances were called to the scene and that the bull was captured “pretty quick.”The bull was taken home after Saturday night’s episode, and Leslie Lange, a spokeswoman for Corey and Lange Rodeo, a livestock contractor hired by Sisters Rodeo, told the channel the bull would receive additional training.The Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, which put on several sanctioned rodeo performances throughout the five-day event, including one titled “P.R.C.A. Xtreme Bulls,” said in a statement that while rodeo is a “highly entertaining sport, on very rare occasions it can also pose some risk.”In 2022, a bull jumped a fence at a rodeo event in California, injuring several people before being captured a half-mile from the arena.The P.R.C.A. said it was grateful to quick-thinking rodeo staff members and emergency medical workers who prevented Saturday’s situation from being worse.Sisters Rodeo was established in 1940 with $500 purses, and the event grew over the years into one of the most popular rodeos in the Western United States. The rodeo joined the P.R.C.A. in 1988 and often features world champions.Despite the fiasco on Saturday, Sisters Rodeo resumed all scheduled events on Sunday. More

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      Bird Flu Spreads to Dairy Cows

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      U.S. regulators confirmed that sick cattle in Texas, Kansas and possibly in New Mexico contracted avian influenza. They stressed that the nation’s milk supply is safe, saying pasteurization kills viruses.A highly fatal form of avian influenza, or bird flu, has been confirmed in U.S. cattle in Texas and Kansas, the Department of Agriculture announced on Monday.It is the first time that cows infected with the virus have been identified.The cows appear to have been infected by wild birds, and dead birds were reported on some farms, the agency said. The results were announced after multiple federal and state agencies began investigating reports of sick cows in Texas, Kansas and New Mexico.In several cases, the virus was detected in unpasteurized samples of milk collected from sick cows. Because pasteurization kills viruses, officials emphasized that there was little risk to the nation’s milk supply.“At this stage, there is no concern about the safety of the commercial milk supply or that this circumstance poses a risk to consumer health,” the agency said in a statement.Outside experts agreed. “It has only been found in milk that is grossly abnormal,” said Dr. Jim Lowe, a veterinarian and influenza researcher at the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.In those cases, the milk was described as thick and syrupy, he said, and was discarded. The agency said that dairies are required to divert or destroy milk from sick animals.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More