ReportWire

Tag: outbreak

  • Botulism outbreak sickens more than 50 babies and expands to all ByHeart products

    Federal health officials on Wednesday expanded an outbreak of infant botulism tied to recalled ByHeart baby formula to include all illnesses reported since the company began production in March 2022.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said investigators “cannot rule out the possibility that contamination might have affected all ByHeart formula products” ever made.The outbreak now includes at least 51 infants in 19 states. The new case definition includes “any infant with botulism who was exposed to ByHeart formula at any time since the product’s release,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most recent illness was reported on Dec. 1.No deaths have been reported in the outbreak, which was announced Nov. 8.Previously, health officials had said the outbreak included 39 suspected or confirmed cases of infant botulism reported in 18 states since August. That’s when officials at California’s Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program reported a rise in treatment of infants who had consumed ByHeart formula. Another 12 cases were identified with the expanded definition, including two that occurred in the original timeline and 10 that occurred from December 2023 through July 2025.ByHeart, a New York-based manufacturer of organic infant formula founded in 2016, recalled all its products sold in the U.S. on Nov. 11. The company, which accounts for about 1% of the U.S. infant formula market, had been selling about 200,000 cans of the product each month.News that ByHeart products could have been contaminated for years was distressing to Andi Galindo, whose 5-week-old daughter, Rowan, was hospitalized in December 2023 with infant botulism after drinking the formula. Galindo, 36, of Redondo Beach, California, said she insisted on using ByHeart formula to supplement a low supply of breast milk because it was recommended by a lactation consultant as “very natural, very gentle, very good for the babies.”“That’s a hard one,” Galindo said. “If there is proof that there were issues with their manufacturing and their plant all the way back from the beginning, that is a problem and they really need to be held accountable.”Amy Mazziotti, 43, of Burbank, California, said her then-5-month-old son, Hank, fell ill and was treated for botulism in March, weeks after he began drinking ByHeart. Being included in the investigation of the outbreak “feels like a win for all of us,” she said Wednesday.“I’ve known in my gut from the beginning that ByHeart was the reason Hank got sick, and to see that these cases are now part of the investigation brings me to tears — a mix of relief, gratitude and hope that the truth is finally being recognized,” she said.In a statement late Wednesday, ByHeart officials said the company is cooperating with federal officials “to understand the full scope of related cases.”“The new cases reported by CDC and FDA will help inform ByHeart’s investigation as we continue to seek the root cause of the contamination,” the statement said.Lab tests detected contaminationThe FDA sent inspectors last month to ByHeart plants in Allerton, Iowa, and Portland, Oregon, where the formula is produced and packaged. The agency has released no results from those inspections.The company previously reported that tests by an independent laboratory showed that 36 samples from three different lots contained the type of bacteria that can cause infant botulism.“We cannot rule out the risk that all ByHeart formula across all product lots may have been contaminated,” the company wrote on its website last month.Those results and discussions with the FDA led CDC officials to expand the outbreak, according to Dr. Jennifer Cope, a CDC scientist leading the investigation.“It looks like the contamination appeared to persist across all production runs, different lots, different raw material lots,” Cope said. “They couldn’t isolate it to specific lots from a certain time period.”Inspection documents showed that ByHeart had a history of problems with contamination.In 2022, the year ByHeart started making formula, the company recalled five batches of infant formula after a sample at a packaging plant tested positive for a different germ, cronobacter sakazakii. In 2023, the FDA sent a warning letter to the company detailing “areas that still require corrective actions.”A ByHeart plant in Reading, Pennsylvania, was shut down in 2023 just before FDA inspectors found problems with mold, water leaks and insects, documents show.Infant botulism is rareInfant botulism is a rare disease that affects fewer than 200 babies in the U.S. each year. It’s caused when infants ingest botulism bacteria that produce spores that germinate in the intestines, creating a toxin that affects the nervous system. Babies are vulnerable until about age 1 because their gut microbiomes are not mature enough to fight the toxin.Baby formula has previously been linked to sporadic cases of illness, but no known outbreaks of infant botulism tied to powdered formula have previously been confirmed, according to research studies.Symptoms can take up to 30 days to develop and can include constipation, poor feeding, loss of head control, drooping eyelids and a flat facial expression. Babies may feel “floppy” and can have problems swallowing or breathing.The sole treatment for infant botulism is known as BabyBIG, an IV medication made from the pooled blood plasma of adults immunized against botulism. California’s infant botulism program developed the product and is the sole source worldwide.The antibodies provided by BabyBIG are likely most effective for about a month, although they may continue circulating in the child’s system for several months, said Dr. Sharon Nachman, an expert in pediatric infectious disease at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital.“The risk to the infant is ongoing and the family should not be using this formula after it was recalled,” Nachman said in an email.Families of several babies treated for botulism after drinking ByHeart formula have sued the company. Lawsuits filed in federal courts allege that the formula they fed their children was defective and ByHeart was negligent in selling it. They seek financial payment for medical bills, emotional distress and other harm.

    Federal health officials on Wednesday expanded an outbreak of infant botulism tied to recalled ByHeart baby formula to include all illnesses reported since the company began production in March 2022.

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said investigators “cannot rule out the possibility that contamination might have affected all ByHeart formula products” ever made.

    The outbreak now includes at least 51 infants in 19 states. The new case definition includes “any infant with botulism who was exposed to ByHeart formula at any time since the product’s release,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The most recent illness was reported on Dec. 1.

    No deaths have been reported in the outbreak, which was announced Nov. 8.

    Previously, health officials had said the outbreak included 39 suspected or confirmed cases of infant botulism reported in 18 states since August. That’s when officials at California’s Infant Botulism Treatment and Prevention Program reported a rise in treatment of infants who had consumed ByHeart formula. Another 12 cases were identified with the expanded definition, including two that occurred in the original timeline and 10 that occurred from December 2023 through July 2025.

    ByHeart, a New York-based manufacturer of organic infant formula founded in 2016, recalled all its products sold in the U.S. on Nov. 11. The company, which accounts for about 1% of the U.S. infant formula market, had been selling about 200,000 cans of the product each month.

    News that ByHeart products could have been contaminated for years was distressing to Andi Galindo, whose 5-week-old daughter, Rowan, was hospitalized in December 2023 with infant botulism after drinking the formula. Galindo, 36, of Redondo Beach, California, said she insisted on using ByHeart formula to supplement a low supply of breast milk because it was recommended by a lactation consultant as “very natural, very gentle, very good for the babies.”

    “That’s a hard one,” Galindo said. “If there is proof that there were issues with their manufacturing and their plant all the way back from the beginning, that is a problem and they really need to be held accountable.”

    Amy Mazziotti, 43, of Burbank, California, said her then-5-month-old son, Hank, fell ill and was treated for botulism in March, weeks after he began drinking ByHeart. Being included in the investigation of the outbreak “feels like a win for all of us,” she said Wednesday.

    “I’ve known in my gut from the beginning that ByHeart was the reason Hank got sick, and to see that these cases are now part of the investigation brings me to tears — a mix of relief, gratitude and hope that the truth is finally being recognized,” she said.

    In a statement late Wednesday, ByHeart officials said the company is cooperating with federal officials “to understand the full scope of related cases.”

    “The new cases reported by CDC and FDA will help inform ByHeart’s investigation as we continue to seek the root cause of the contamination,” the statement said.

    Lab tests detected contamination

    The FDA sent inspectors last month to ByHeart plants in Allerton, Iowa, and Portland, Oregon, where the formula is produced and packaged. The agency has released no results from those inspections.

    The company previously reported that tests by an independent laboratory showed that 36 samples from three different lots contained the type of bacteria that can cause infant botulism.

    “We cannot rule out the risk that all ByHeart formula across all product lots may have been contaminated,” the company wrote on its website last month.

    Those results and discussions with the FDA led CDC officials to expand the outbreak, according to Dr. Jennifer Cope, a CDC scientist leading the investigation.

    “It looks like the contamination appeared to persist across all production runs, different lots, different raw material lots,” Cope said. “They couldn’t isolate it to specific lots from a certain time period.”

    Inspection documents showed that ByHeart had a history of problems with contamination.

    In 2022, the year ByHeart started making formula, the company recalled five batches of infant formula after a sample at a packaging plant tested positive for a different germ, cronobacter sakazakii. In 2023, the FDA sent a warning letter to the company detailing “areas that still require corrective actions.”

    A ByHeart plant in Reading, Pennsylvania, was shut down in 2023 just before FDA inspectors found problems with mold, water leaks and insects, documents show.

    Infant botulism is rare

    Infant botulism is a rare disease that affects fewer than 200 babies in the U.S. each year. It’s caused when infants ingest botulism bacteria that produce spores that germinate in the intestines, creating a toxin that affects the nervous system. Babies are vulnerable until about age 1 because their gut microbiomes are not mature enough to fight the toxin.

    Baby formula has previously been linked to sporadic cases of illness, but no known outbreaks of infant botulism tied to powdered formula have previously been confirmed, according to research studies.

    Symptoms can take up to 30 days to develop and can include constipation, poor feeding, loss of head control, drooping eyelids and a flat facial expression. Babies may feel “floppy” and can have problems swallowing or breathing.

    The sole treatment for infant botulism is known as BabyBIG, an IV medication made from the pooled blood plasma of adults immunized against botulism. California’s infant botulism program developed the product and is the sole source worldwide.

    The antibodies provided by BabyBIG are likely most effective for about a month, although they may continue circulating in the child’s system for several months, said Dr. Sharon Nachman, an expert in pediatric infectious disease at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital.

    “The risk to the infant is ongoing and the family should not be using this formula after it was recalled,” Nachman said in an email.

    Families of several babies treated for botulism after drinking ByHeart formula have sued the company. Lawsuits filed in federal courts allege that the formula they fed their children was defective and ByHeart was negligent in selling it. They seek financial payment for medical bills, emotional distress and other harm.

    Source link

  • CDC Issues Food Safety Alert Over Salmonella Infected Eggs – KXL

    ATLANTA, GA – The Centers for Disease Control has issued a food safety alert over Salmonella infections linked to recalled eggs.  The federal health agency says 95 people from 14 states have gotten sick from the same strain of Salmonella.  18 people have been hospitalized but the CDC says no deaths have been reported.

    Country Eggs, based in California, recalled its Large Brown Cage Free “Sunshine Yolks” eggs on Wednesday.

    More than 70 of the Salmonella cases reported are from California with three each in Washington, Nevada, and Minnesota.

    The CDC is warning people not to eat, sell or serve recalled eggs.  The agency is also advising you to call your healthcare provider if you have any severe Salmonella symptoms.

    Tim Lantz

    Source link

  • What we know about the McDonald’s E. coli outbreak investigation

    What we know about the McDonald’s E. coli outbreak investigation

    An E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has led to at least 49 illnesses across 10 states, including one death.Here’s what we know.Quarter Pounders made people sickThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a food safety alert on Tuesday warning that dozens of people reported eating the Quarter Pounder sandwich at McDonald’s before becoming sick.A specific ingredient has not yet been confirmed as the source of the outbreak, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that the slivered onions or beef patties on Quarter Pounder sandwiches are the likely source of contamination.McDonald’s has stopped using the onions as well as quarter-pound beef patties in several states including Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, as well as portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma while the investigation continues, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.According to the agency, the beef patties are used only for the Quarter Pounders, and the slivered onions are used primarily for the Quarter Pounder and not other items. Diced onions and other types of beef patties used at McDonald’s have not been implicated in this outbreak, the FDA said.E. coli infections can be seriousEscherichia coli, or E. coli, is a common bacteria, but certain types can make you sick. Infections can occur after swallowing the bacteria, often after eating contaminated food or water. It can also spread from person to person through poor bathroom hygiene.People with E. coli infections may have symptoms including severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever and vomiting. Symptoms of infection usually begin three or four days after swallowing the bacteria.Although most people who become ill recover without treatment within a week, others can develop serious kidney problems and require hospitalization. Seniors, children younger than 5 and people with weakened immune systems are most at risk of infection, according to the CDC.E. coli infections from the McDonald’s outbreak have led to at least 10 hospitalizations, including a child who had hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious complication that can develop from an E. coli infection. One older person has died.Most of the illnesses related to the McDonald’s outbreak are in Colorado and Nebraska, according to the CDC, but the agency notes that the outbreak may go beyond those states. Illnesses have also been reported in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.The CDC recommends that people call their doctor if they have recently eaten a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder and are experiencing severe E. coli symptoms such as a fever higher than 102 and diarrhea, particularly bloody diarrhea or diarrhea that has not improved in three days, vomiting that limits liquid intake or signs of dehydration.A ‘fast-moving’ investigationIt can take weeks to determine if an illness is part of an outbreak, but the CDC said the investigation into the McDonald’s outbreak is “fast-moving.”The agency said the outbreak is expected grow, with new cases being reported “on a rolling basis” as scientists are able to make genetic linkages between the outbreak strain and the bacteria that are causing human infections.The onset of illnesses associated with the outbreak have been reported from Sept. 27 to Oct. 11, according to CDC data. But the start date of the outbreak is likely to shift too as past cases come to light, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation.Outbreaks like these can also wind down quickly after the tainted food or ingredient is removed from the market. That requires a thorough investigation to make sure all possible channels of distribution have been uncovered and stopped.Changes at McDonald’sThe president of McDonald’s USA said that it’s safe to eat at McDonald’s and that affected ingredients are probably out of the supply chain at restaurants.”We are very confident that you can go to McDonald’s and enjoy our classics” without getting sick, McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger said on NBC’s “Today Show” on Wednesday.Quarter Pounder sandwiches will temporarily be removed from the McDonald’s menu in some states while the company makes some supply changes, according to the CDC.Erlinger said he believes that “if there has been contaminated product within our supply chain, it’s very likely worked itself through that supply chain already,” but he acknowledged that the number of illnesses reported may rise as the CDC investigates and traces cases.”Serving customers safely in every single restaurant, each and every day, is our top priority,” McDonald’s said in a statement Tuesday.A fact sheet from the company highlights food safety protocols that it says are in place, including daily temperature checks and hourly handwashing for employees. It also notes that Quarter Pounders are cooked to order to temperatures that exceed the FDA’s code on best practices.Foodborne illness is on the riseCDC data released this summer shows that foodborne illness is on the rise in the U.S. A few illnesses, including E. coli infections, are well above federal targets for reducing foodborne illness.There were more than 5 E. coli illnesses for every 100,000 people in the U.S. in 2023 – a 25% increase from five years earlier and about 40% higher than target rates.The Campylobacter bacteria is the most common pathogen causing foodborne illness, with more than 19 illnesses for every 100,000 people – a rate that’s 22% higher than five years ago and twice as high as federal goals. Infections from this bacteria are most commonly caused by eating raw or undercooked poultry, according to the CDC, and it can make people ill with diarrhea.Salmonella infections haven’t increased in recent years, but the bacteria still caused about 14 illnesses for every 100,000 people in the U.S. in 2023.Listeria caused about 0.3 illnesses for every 100,000 people in the U.S. in 2023, according to data from the CDC, but has led to a few large, deadly outbreaks this year.Boar’s Head issued a recall in late July for more than 7.2 million pounds of its ready-to-eat liverwurst and some other deli meat products, leading to dozens of hospitalizations and at least nine deaths, and another recall of nearly 12 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry items made by BrucePac has affected schools, retailers and restaurants nationwide.CNN’s Nadia Kounang, Carma Hassan, Brenda Goodman and Meg Tirrell contributed to this report.

    An E. coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounders has led to at least 49 illnesses across 10 states, including one death.

    Here’s what we know.

    Quarter Pounders made people sick

    The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a food safety alert on Tuesday warning that dozens of people reported eating the Quarter Pounder sandwich at McDonald’s before becoming sick.

    A specific ingredient has not yet been confirmed as the source of the outbreak, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says that the slivered onions or beef patties on Quarter Pounder sandwiches are the likely source of contamination.

    McDonald’s has stopped using the onions as well as quarter-pound beef patties in several states including Colorado, Kansas, Utah and Wyoming, as well as portions of Idaho, Iowa, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico and Oklahoma while the investigation continues, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

    According to the agency, the beef patties are used only for the Quarter Pounders, and the slivered onions are used primarily for the Quarter Pounder and not other items. Diced onions and other types of beef patties used at McDonald’s have not been implicated in this outbreak, the FDA said.

    E. coli infections can be serious

    Escherichia coli, or E. coli, is a common bacteria, but certain types can make you sick. Infections can occur after swallowing the bacteria, often after eating contaminated food or water. It can also spread from person to person through poor bathroom hygiene.

    People with E. coli infections may have symptoms including severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever and vomiting. Symptoms of infection usually begin three or four days after swallowing the bacteria.

    Although most people who become ill recover without treatment within a week, others can develop serious kidney problems and require hospitalization. Seniors, children younger than 5 and people with weakened immune systems are most at risk of infection, according to the CDC.

    E. coli infections from the McDonald’s outbreak have led to at least 10 hospitalizations, including a child who had hemolytic uremic syndrome, a serious complication that can develop from an E. coli infection. One older person has died.

    Most of the illnesses related to the McDonald’s outbreak are in Colorado and Nebraska, according to the CDC, but the agency notes that the outbreak may go beyond those states. Illnesses have also been reported in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

    The CDC recommends that people call their doctor if they have recently eaten a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder and are experiencing severe E. coli symptoms such as a fever higher than 102 and diarrhea, particularly bloody diarrhea or diarrhea that has not improved in three days, vomiting that limits liquid intake or signs of dehydration.

    A ‘fast-moving’ investigation

    It can take weeks to determine if an illness is part of an outbreak, but the CDC said the investigation into the McDonald’s outbreak is “fast-moving.”

    The agency said the outbreak is expected grow, with new cases being reported “on a rolling basis” as scientists are able to make genetic linkages between the outbreak strain and the bacteria that are causing human infections.

    The onset of illnesses associated with the outbreak have been reported from Sept. 27 to Oct. 11, according to CDC data. But the start date of the outbreak is likely to shift too as past cases come to light, according to an official with knowledge of the investigation.

    Outbreaks like these can also wind down quickly after the tainted food or ingredient is removed from the market. That requires a thorough investigation to make sure all possible channels of distribution have been uncovered and stopped.

    Changes at McDonald’s

    The president of McDonald’s USA said that it’s safe to eat at McDonald’s and that affected ingredients are probably out of the supply chain at restaurants.

    “We are very confident that you can go to McDonald’s and enjoy our classics” without getting sick, McDonald’s USA President Joe Erlinger said on NBC’s “Today Show” on Wednesday.

    Quarter Pounder sandwiches will temporarily be removed from the McDonald’s menu in some states while the company makes some supply changes, according to the CDC.

    Erlinger said he believes that “if there has been contaminated product within our supply chain, it’s very likely worked itself through that supply chain already,” but he acknowledged that the number of illnesses reported may rise as the CDC investigates and traces cases.

    “Serving customers safely in every single restaurant, each and every day, is our top priority,” McDonald’s said in a statement Tuesday.

    A fact sheet from the company highlights food safety protocols that it says are in place, including daily temperature checks and hourly handwashing for employees. It also notes that Quarter Pounders are cooked to order to temperatures that exceed the FDA’s code on best practices.

    Foodborne illness is on the rise

    CDC data released this summer shows that foodborne illness is on the rise in the U.S. A few illnesses, including E. coli infections, are well above federal targets for reducing foodborne illness.

    There were more than 5 E. coli illnesses for every 100,000 people in the U.S. in 2023 – a 25% increase from five years earlier and about 40% higher than target rates.

    The Campylobacter bacteria is the most common pathogen causing foodborne illness, with more than 19 illnesses for every 100,000 people – a rate that’s 22% higher than five years ago and twice as high as federal goals. Infections from this bacteria are most commonly caused by eating raw or undercooked poultry, according to the CDC, and it can make people ill with diarrhea.

    Salmonella infections haven’t increased in recent years, but the bacteria still caused about 14 illnesses for every 100,000 people in the U.S. in 2023.

    Listeria caused about 0.3 illnesses for every 100,000 people in the U.S. in 2023, according to data from the CDC, but has led to a few large, deadly outbreaks this year.

    Boar’s Head issued a recall in late July for more than 7.2 million pounds of its ready-to-eat liverwurst and some other deli meat products, leading to dozens of hospitalizations and at least nine deaths, and another recall of nearly 12 million pounds of ready-to-eat meat and poultry items made by BrucePac has affected schools, retailers and restaurants nationwide.

    CNN’s Nadia Kounang, Carma Hassan, Brenda Goodman and Meg Tirrell contributed to this report.

    Source link

  • California reports a total of eight H5N1 bird flu outbreaks among dairy herds

    California reports a total of eight H5N1 bird flu outbreaks among dairy herds

    The number of California dairy herds reported to have outbreaks of H5N1 bird flu has grown to eight.

    Officials have refused to disclose the locations of the infected herds, but have said they are in close proximity somewhere in California’s Central Valley — an 18,000-square-mile expanse that is roughly the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined.

    They say they are still investigating the source of the virus, but at a news conference Thursday, federal officials said genetic sequencing from the first three outbreaks suggests the strain is similar to that seen in other states. They say it does not appear to have been caused by wild birds or animals.

    “This is the same virus that we’ve detected in herds since the beginning of the emergence of H5N1 in dairy cows,” said Eric Deeble, deputy under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs at the United States Department of Agriculture. “Sequencing of the samples from the additional five premises will likely be completed later this week or over the weekend.”

    He said the California Department of Food and Agriculture has been “conducting a very thorough traceback, and all the herds that have been detected in California to date have been through their investigation.”

    There have been 201 herds infected by the virus across 14 states since the outbreak was first reported in March.

    State officials continue to reassure the public that the risk to the general population is low, and that pasteurized milk and dairy products are safe for human consumption.

    Deeble said his agency is in the process of authorizing field safety studies for a H5N1 cow vaccine.

    An agency spokesman said vaccine development does not suggest that the biosecurity protocols that the USDA and state governments have followed have failed. Nor does it mean the virus is here to stay.

    “Vaccine development is one part of an overall strategy that includes enhanced and strengthened biosecurity efforts to contain the virus and help mitigate spread,” said Will Clement, a USDA spokesman.

    “Bovine vaccines may prove to be an important tool to eventually help eliminate the virus from the nation’s dairy cattle herd, but developing a vaccine requires many steps and it will take time to test, approve, and distribute a successful vaccine,” he said. “This is why we have opened the pathway to vaccine field trials even as we continue to deploy all available efforts, including emphasizing biosecurity and mandating the testing lactating dairy cattle moving across state lines.”

    In addition, federal health officials say they have not been able to sequence the entirety of the H5N1 sample isolated from a human case in Missouri. That person had no known contact with dairy or poultry, and a preliminary investigation has not been able to determine the source of infection.

    There have been no reports of infected dairy herds in Missouri.

    “Right now, evidence points to this being a one off,” said Nirav Shah, principal deputy director at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Shah said the patient, who was hospitalized with flu-like symptoms and has since recovered, had only low levels of the virus circulating through their body. As a result, sequencing has been difficult.

    While officials can safely say the virus is of the H5 sub-type, they have not been able to sequence the N-part.

    But the H5 part appears to resemble the H5 subtype in infected dairy cows.

    “We’re throwing everything we’ve got at this, but ultimately, a full sequence may not be technically feasible because of the low concentration of viral RNA,” Shah said.

    Susanne Rust

    Source link

  • How to finish ‘Zero Hour’ and get Outbreak Perfected in Destiny 2

    How to finish ‘Zero Hour’ and get Outbreak Perfected in Destiny 2

    “Zero Hour” is the second secret mission to ever come to Destiny 2, and it’s finally back in the game as part of the Into the Light update and the May 14 reset. Much like the reprised “The Whisper” mission and its Whisper of the Worm reward, the updated version of “Zero Hour” rewards a fully craftable version of the Exotic pulse rifle Outbreak Perfected.

    In this Destiny 2 guide, I’ll walk you through how to complete “Zero Hour” and get the pattern for Outbreak Perfected. Whether this is your first time experiencing “Zero Hour” or it’s just been too many years for you to remember the path, I’ve got you covered.

    How to start ‘Zero Hour’ in Destiny 2

    Image: Bungie via Polygon

    To start “Zero Hour,” all you need to do now is talk to Ada-1.

    Head to the Tower Annex — the landing point over by the Drifter — and head up to Ada-1, the vendor who normally just handles transmog. She’ll give you the “Asset Protection” quest. With the quest in hand, all you need to do is open up the “Into the Light” submenu in the Director and select “Zero Hour.”

    Completing the Exotic mission and finishing the quest at Ada-1 will reward you with the pattern for Outbreak Perfected.

    ‘Zero Hour’ walkthrough in Destiny 2

    You have 40 minutes to beat this mission on the Normal difficulty.

    Navigating the Destiny 1 Tower in ‘Zero Hour’

    “Zero Hour” starts out with a lot of combat as you first adventure through the Destiny 1 Tower. You’ll be dealing with some powerful Fallen here, so make sure to put on your best gear and an assortment of ad-clearing weapons. As with all dense Fallen encounters, the Riskrunner Exotic submachine gun will serve you well if you’re having trouble.

    Bungie via Polygon

    Make your way through the bazaar and into the small vent. On the other side, you’ll be where the Speaker’s chambers once were. Clear the enemies, and move through the sweeper bot hallway.

    You’ll find yourself in the courtyard, which is filled with enemies of varying type and power. There’s even a Brig here now, an enemy type that didn’t exist when the original mission came out. Take them all down to unlock the rest of the path.

    Bungie via Polygon

    Continue through the old tower until you reach the flaming scaffolding where the original opening mission of Destiny 2 takes place. Slide under the big door next to the M and drop down the elevator shaft. Climb in the vent and follow it.

    Bungie via Polygon

    You’ll emerge in a giant shipyard. Turn immediately left, and you’ll see a ship sitting below you. Run up to it and crouch under its nose. Follow the path and take a right into the vent. Follow the hallway you drop into and take the other vent above you. Take a left and enter another vent behind the toolbox.

    Bungie via Polygon

    Follow the vent and take your first right. There are a few doorways below, but you only need to take the one directly under you. If you’re the first player to arrive, you’ll have a handy metal lip to stand on. If you’re following a teammate, it’ll have broken off by now. Step off the ledge, turn around, and push forward against the wall as you fall. Climb into the ledge and follow the vent.

    Bungie via Polygon

    Jump onto the first piece of yellow scaffolding and then onto the next. Look toward the tower. There are two drain openings and a platform to your left. Depending on your class, you can either jump straight to the landing or hop your way to the landing through the drain openings.

    Bungie via Polygon

    On the landing, look off and down toward the tower. You’ll see a small protrusion. This is your target. Jump off the landing and move toward the wall. Land on the antenna.

    Bungie via Polygon

    Look out toward where the city and turn left. Jump on the pipes until you reach the next landing. You can pull a switch here to help your friends catch up.

    Bungie via Polygon

    Jump onto the scaffolding above you and run up to the open vent. Jump in and follow the path. You’ll be in a big elevator shaft. Start climbing up a few flights until you’re at the second from the top. Shoot open the vent on the right and climb through.

    Bungie via Polygon

    Now you’ll be surrounded by spinning fans, each of which have an Explosive Shank in the middle. Look for the red lights and jump into them. If you hold against the wall, you’ll save yourself from the fans. When you land, be careful — don’t hit the ground too hard and skid off into another fan. Repeat this process, carefully taking out or maneuvering around the Shanks, until you’re at the bottom of the shaft. Climb in another vent.

    Bungie via Polygon

    You’ll now find yourself in a long hallway that looks completely blank. Jump off the ledge and onto the silver vents hanging off the wall. These are tricky to stand on, so limit your movement. Jump to the next one and finally into the open door on the far side. Once again, there is a switch here to help your friends through the puzzle if they’re lagging behind.

    How to navigate the ‘Zero Hour’ maze

    Bungie via Polygon

    Follow the vents until you get to Ventilation. Walk forward and take a look at the map, which you can see clearly in the image above.

    This is the maze section of “Zero Hour,” and it looks much scarier than it actually is. The white lines represent hallways you can walk through, with the red arrows denoting switches you need to hit. You start the map in the center of the bottom-most rectangle’s southern white line. When you’ve had a good look at the map, turn around and drop down two floors of vents.

    You’re in the maze now, just like in the picture. We recommend sending one player right and another left, just to speed the process up. The instructions below are for the right-side player, so left-side players should just mirror my instructions.

    Bungie via Polygon

    1. Run forward and take a left. Keep running until you find a split in the hall.
    2. Turn right and into another rectangle.
    3. Follow the path and hit the first switch.
    4. Keep running until you reach the original hallway.

    Bungie via Polygon

    Here, you’ll likely have to wait for a wall of electricity to pass. If the electricity is just starting to arc, you can run through. Otherwise, you’ll have to sit and brood — Darth Maul style.

    Bungie via Polygon

    When the electricity drops, take a right turn. You should start hearing an unsettling sound about now. An electric shredder is also running the maze with you, named TR3-VR by Bungie and the Destiny community. There are some alcoves to hide in so it can pass, but just to your left you should see a giant cavern with pipes in it.

    Jump on the pipes and wait for the machine to pass. You can tell if the shredder is chasing you by its sound or giant red light.

    Bungie via Polygon

    With the machine gone, jump back over to your hallway and take a left. Follow the path until a hallway opens on the right. Go hit the switch like last time and return to your normal hallway.

    Bungie via Polygon

    Take a right and follow the path until you can take another right. This is the exit. If you’ve hit all four switches, the doors will be open.

    Run into the new room and hop on one of the elevators to your right or left. Hit the button and wait for them to slowly lift you into the rafters.

    Bungie via Polygon

    Jump onto the platform and shoot out the vent. Head down the chute and stay in the center of the slide. Jump to slow your momentum, or risk death by splattering against a wall. When you come out of the chute, turn left and then immediately right. Crawl through the vent on the floor.

    How to navigate the vault maze in ‘Zero Hour’

    Bungie via Polygon

    You’ll be in the old Cryptarch Vault now, and the mission is nearly done.

    On the opposite side of the Vault’s door, you’ll see some pipes on the wall. Next to the pipe, you’ll see the Cryptarch symbol. Go stand by it and the secret door will open. Run forward until you reach the section with white floor panels. You’ll need to step on these in the correct order or you’ll get incinerated.

    There are six rows of panels, each are five panels across. We’ve numbered the panels below in order, so R1 – 1 is the farthest left panel on the first row, R1 – 2 is the farthest left panel in the second row, R3 – 5 is the farthest right of the third row, and so on.

    You’ll start on the second tile from the right on the first row. From there, here’s the order you should follow, with the direction you need to head in in parentheses:

    • R1 – 4 (Start)
    • R2 – 4 (Forward)
    • R2 – 3 (Left)
    • R2 – 2 (Left)
    • R2 – 1 (Left)
    • R3 – 1 (Forward)
    • R4 – 1 (Forward)
    • R5 – 1 (Forward)
    • R5 – 2 (Right)
    • R5 – 3 (Right)
    • R4 – 3 (Back)
    • R4 – 4 (Right)
    • R4 – 5 (Right)
    • R5 – 5 (Forward)
    • R6 – 5 (Forward)

    Once you’re through the panels, head to the end of the vault.

    Bungie via Polygon

    At the broken case, take a right and you’ll see a burned hole in the ground. Drop through it. Run forward and hop into another vent. It’s time to fight.

    How to defeat Siriks in ‘Zero Hour’

    Bungie via Polygon

    When you drop down, you’ll find a Fallen Captain wielding a Scorch Cannon: Siriks. They’re surrounded by an army of Fallen.

    Take out Siriks’ Fallen allies. They’ll summon turrets, big Servitors that grant immune shields to everything (these are very annoying, so kill them first) and a ton of Shanks. Just keep killing everything until Siriks’ health is about one-third full. You’ll get a message on your screen that says “Siriks retreats… for now” and the boss will disappear.

    Two Fallen Walker tanks will appear on the raised platforms on your left and right, along with some additional Fallen. Take everything out and you’ll get another ominous message: “Siriks returns… heavily armed.”

    Siriks will drop back into the area in a massive Brig mech. This thing has full health, so it’s going to take some time and work to take it out. Once you manage to blast off theshield on the Brig, the boss will start lobbing massive tank and constant airstrikes. Just keep moving to dodge these attacks and you’ll eventually take it down.

    With Siriks dead, head up to the chest that spawns, say hi to Mithrax, and grab the Outbreak Perfected schematic. Head back to the Tower and talk to Ada-1. She’ll give you the Outbreak Perfected, complete with the pattern attached. Ada-1 will also give you the “Outbreak Refined 1” quest, which you can complete for some additional crafted perk options on your new Outbreak Perfected.

    If you already have the Catalyst for Outbreak Perfected from the original version of “Zero Hour,” you’ll instantly be able to place it on your newly crafted gun. However, if this is your first time running the mission, you’ll need to hop back in on Heroic mode in order to pick up the Catalyst and improve your Outbreak Perfected.

    Ryan Gilliam

    Source link

  • What to know about the latest bird flu outbreak in the US

    What to know about the latest bird flu outbreak in the US

    A poultry facility in Michigan and an egg producer in Texas both reported outbreaks of avian flu this week. The latest developments on the virus also include infected dairy cows and the first known instance of a human catching bird flu from a mammal.Although health officials say the risk to the public remains low, there is rising concern, emerging in part from the news that the largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S. reported an outbreak.Here are some key things to know about the disease.What are experts saying? Dr. Mandy Cohen, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the agency is taking bird flu seriously, but stressed that the virus has already been well studied.”The fact that it is in cattle now definitely raises our concern level,” Cohen said, noting that it means farmworkers who work with cattle — and not just those working with birds — may need to take precautions.The good news is that “it’s not a new strain of the virus,” Cohen added. “This is known to us and we’ve been studying it, and frankly, we’ve been preparing for avian flu for 20 years.”What is bird flu? Some flu viruses mainly affect people, but others chiefly occur in animals. Avian viruses spread naturally in wild aquatic birds like ducks and geese, and then to chickens and other domesticated poultry.The bird flu virus drawing attention today — Type A H5N1 — was first identified in 1959. Like other viruses, it has evolved over time, spawning newer versions of itself.Since 2020, the virus has been spreading among more animal species — including dogs, cats, skunks, bears and even seals and porpoises — in scores of countries.In the U.S., this version of the bird flu has been detected in wild birds in every state, as well as commercial poultry operations and backyard flocks. Nationwide, tens of millions of chickens have died from the virus or been killed to stop outbreaks from spreading.Last week, U.S. officials said it had been found in livestock. As of Tuesday, it had been discovered in dairy herds in five states — Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico and Texas — according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.How often do people get bird flu? This bird flu was first identified as a threat to people during a 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong. In the past two decades, nearly 900 people have been diagnosed globally with bird flu and more than 460 people have died, according to the World Health Organization.There have been only two cases in the U.S., and neither were fatal.In 2022, a prison inmate in a work program caught it while killing infected birds at a poultry farm in Montrose County, Colorado. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered.This week, Texas health officials announced that a person who had been in contact with cows had been diagnosed with bird flu. Their only reported symptom was eye redness.What are the symptoms of bird flu? Symptoms are similar to that of other flus, including cough, body aches and fever. Some people don’t have noticeable symptoms, but others develop severe, life-threatening pneumonia.Can it spread between people?The vast majority of infected people have gotten it directly from birds, but scientists are on guard for any sign of spread among people.There have been a few instances when that apparently happened — most recently in 2007 in Asia. In each cluster, it spread within families from a sick person in the home.U.S. health officials have stressed that the current public health risk is low and that there is no sign that bird flu is spreading from person to person.What is the economic impact? While it’s too early to quantify the potential economic impact of a bird flu outbreak, many of these latest developments are concerning, particularly the transmission of the virus from one species to another, said Daren Detwiler, a food safety and policy expert at Northeastern University.”We don’t have a magic forcefield, an invisible shield that protects land and water runoff from impacting other species,” Detwiler said. “There is a concern in terms of how this might impact other markets, the egg market, the beef market.”If the outbreak is not quickly contained, consumers could ultimately see higher prices, and if it continues to spread, some industries could experience “reputational strain,” possibly affecting the export industry, Detwiler added.The egg industry already is experiencing some tightening of supply following detections of bird flu late in 2023 and in early January, coupled with the busy Easter season, where Americans typically consume an average of 3 billion eggs, said Marc Dresner, a spokesperson for the American Egg Board.Still, even with the outbreak in Texas and the nearly 2 million birds that were killed there, Dresner said there are an estimated 310 million egg-laying hens in the U.S. and wholesale egg prices are down about 25% from a February peak.___Associated Press reporters Jonathan Poet in Philadelphia and Mike Stobbe and videojournalist Sharon Johnson in Atlanta contributed to this report.

    A poultry facility in Michigan and an egg producer in Texas both reported outbreaks of avian flu this week. The latest developments on the virus also include infected dairy cows and the first known instance of a human catching bird flu from a mammal.

    Although health officials say the risk to the public remains low, there is rising concern, emerging in part from the news that the largest producer of fresh eggs in the U.S. reported an outbreak.

    Here are some key things to know about the disease.

    What are experts saying?

    Dr. Mandy Cohen, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the agency is taking bird flu seriously, but stressed that the virus has already been well studied.

    “The fact that it is in cattle now definitely raises our concern level,” Cohen said, noting that it means farmworkers who work with cattle — and not just those working with birds — may need to take precautions.

    The good news is that “it’s not a new strain of the virus,” Cohen added. “This is known to us and we’ve been studying it, and frankly, we’ve been preparing for avian flu for 20 years.”

    What is bird flu?

    Some flu viruses mainly affect people, but others chiefly occur in animals. Avian viruses spread naturally in wild aquatic birds like ducks and geese, and then to chickens and other domesticated poultry.

    The bird flu virus drawing attention today — Type A H5N1 — was first identified in 1959. Like other viruses, it has evolved over time, spawning newer versions of itself.

    Since 2020, the virus has been spreading among more animal species — including dogs, cats, skunks, bears and even seals and porpoises — in scores of countries.

    In the U.S., this version of the bird flu has been detected in wild birds in every state, as well as commercial poultry operations and backyard flocks. Nationwide, tens of millions of chickens have died from the virus or been killed to stop outbreaks from spreading.

    Last week, U.S. officials said it had been found in livestock. As of Tuesday, it had been discovered in dairy herds in five states — Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, New Mexico and Texas — according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

    How often do people get bird flu?

    This bird flu was first identified as a threat to people during a 1997 outbreak in Hong Kong. In the past two decades, nearly 900 people have been diagnosed globally with bird flu and more than 460 people have died, according to the World Health Organization.

    There have been only two cases in the U.S., and neither were fatal.

    In 2022, a prison inmate in a work program caught it while killing infected birds at a poultry farm in Montrose County, Colorado. His only symptom was fatigue, and he recovered.

    This week, Texas health officials announced that a person who had been in contact with cows had been diagnosed with bird flu. Their only reported symptom was eye redness.

    What are the symptoms of bird flu?

    Symptoms are similar to that of other flus, including cough, body aches and fever. Some people don’t have noticeable symptoms, but others develop severe, life-threatening pneumonia.

    Can it spread between people?

    The vast majority of infected people have gotten it directly from birds, but scientists are on guard for any sign of spread among people.

    There have been a few instances when that apparently happened — most recently in 2007 in Asia. In each cluster, it spread within families from a sick person in the home.

    U.S. health officials have stressed that the current public health risk is low and that there is no sign that bird flu is spreading from person to person.

    What is the economic impact?

    While it’s too early to quantify the potential economic impact of a bird flu outbreak, many of these latest developments are concerning, particularly the transmission of the virus from one species to another, said Daren Detwiler, a food safety and policy expert at Northeastern University.

    “We don’t have a magic forcefield, an invisible shield that protects land and water runoff from impacting other species,” Detwiler said. “There is a concern in terms of how this might impact other markets, the egg market, the beef market.”

    If the outbreak is not quickly contained, consumers could ultimately see higher prices, and if it continues to spread, some industries could experience “reputational strain,” possibly affecting the export industry, Detwiler added.

    The egg industry already is experiencing some tightening of supply following detections of bird flu late in 2023 and in early January, coupled with the busy Easter season, where Americans typically consume an average of 3 billion eggs, said Marc Dresner, a spokesperson for the American Egg Board.

    Still, even with the outbreak in Texas and the nearly 2 million birds that were killed there, Dresner said there are an estimated 310 million egg-laying hens in the U.S. and wholesale egg prices are down about 25% from a February peak.

    ___

    Associated Press reporters Jonathan Poet in Philadelphia and Mike Stobbe and videojournalist Sharon Johnson in Atlanta contributed to this report.

    Source link

  • Florida’s Experiment With Measles

    Florida’s Experiment With Measles

    The state of Florida is trying out a new approach to measles control: No one will be forced to not get sick.

    Joseph Ladapo, the state’s top health official, announced this week that the six cases of the disease reported among students at an elementary school in Weston, near Fort Lauderdale, do not merit emergency action to prevent unvaccinated students from attending class. Temporary exclusions of that kind while an outbreak is ongoing are part of the normal public-health response to measles clusters, as a means of both protecting susceptible children and preventing further viral spread. But Ladapo is going his own way. “Due to the high immunity rate in the community, as well as the burden on families and educational cost of healthy children missing school,” he said in a letter released on Tuesday, the state’s health department “is deferring to parents or guardians to make decisions about school attendance.”

    That decision came off as brazen, even for an administration that has made systematic efforts to lower vaccination rates among its constituents over the past two years. Ladapo’s letter acknowledges the benefits of vaccination, as well as the fact that vulnerable children are “normally recommended” to stay home. Still, it doesn’t bother giving local parents the bare-minimum advice that all kids who are able should get their MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) shots, Dorit Reiss, a professor and vaccine-policy expert at UC Law San Francisco, told me. “I wouldn’t have expected him, in the middle of a measles outbreak, to be willing to sacrifice children in this way.”

    The Florida Department of Health has not responded to a request for comment on Ladapo’s future plans, should this situation worsen. For the moment, though, he has chosen to lower the guardrails from their standard height. It’s an escalation of his, and Florida’s, broader push against established norms in public health, especially as they relate to vaccination. So what happens now?

    At least in any immediate sense, Ladapo’s decision may not do much harm. In fact, there’s good reason to believe that its effects will end up being minimal. Parents who have children at the school, Manatee Bay Elementary, have until today to decide whether to pull out those kids for the next three weeks. Many seem to have already done so: About 200 students, and six teachers, have been absent, according to local news reports. In the meantime, Broward County Public Schools’ superintendent said yesterday that just 33 students out of the school’s nearly 1,100 were still unvaccinated. Given those two facts—some degree of self-imposed isolation, and 97 percent of the community now having some level of immune protection—the virus will have a hard time spreading no matter what the rules for attendance might be.

    Disease modeling, too, suggests that the risk of a larger outbreak is low. For a study released in 2019, a team of researchers based at Newcastle University and the University of Pittsburgh simulated thousands of measles outbreaks at schools in Texas, the most populous state to allow nonmedical exemptions from routine vaccine requirements. The researchers looked at the extent to which a policy of sequestering unvaccinated kids would help to reduce the outbreaks’ size. In the median outcome, even without any school-wide interventions, they found that an initial case of measles spreads only to a small handful of people. Adding in the rule that unvaccinated kids must stay at home has no effect on transmission. When the school’s vaccination rates are assumed to be unusually low, the rule reduces the outbreak’s size by one case.

    Not all the modeling outcomes are so rosy. For the very worst-case scenarios, in which a case of measles emerges in a school where unvaccinated kids happen to be clustered, the study found that forced suspensions have dramatic benefits. A major outbreak in the Dallas–Fort Worth area, for example, might end up infecting 477 people in the absence of any interventions, according to the model. When unvaccinated kids are kept from going to school, that number drops by 95 percent.

    Hypothetical models can’t tell us what will happen in a real-life school with real-life kids, like the one in Weston, Florida. But given Manatee Bay Elementary’s reported vaccination rate, it’s fair to assume that Ladapo’s policy won’t be catastrophic. Indeed, it may well end up sparing a few dozen families from the fairly serious inconvenience of being out of school without having much effect at all on the outbreak’s final size.

    But is the sparing of that inconvenience worth the risks that still remain? (And how should one value the time of a parent who could have vaccinated their child but chose not to?) As Reiss points out, if this policy leads to even one more case in the current outbreak, it will have put one more kid at risk of hospitalization, long-term complications, or even death. Worst-case outbreak scenarios do occur from time to time, as we all know well by now; and the Weston outbreak getting much worse is certainly within the realm of possibility. Any public-health authority would have to weigh these odds in the face of a six-case cluster; and surely almost every statewide health authority would choose to err on the side of caution. In Florida, though, the scale appears to tip the other way. Ladapo has rolled the dice on doing less.

    That’s been his way since the very day he was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis, in September 2021. Just hours after he was introduced, the state ended mandatory quarantines for low-risk students who had been exposed to COVID. The following March, just a few weeks after being confirmed into the job, Ladapo announced that Florida would be “the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children.” He continued to scale up from there: That fall, he recommended against the use of mRNA vaccines by any men under the age of 40. A year later, in October 2023, his office warned everyone under the age of 65 about the risks of getting an mRNA-based COVID booster. And then, finally, just last month, Ladapo came out with a warning that mRNA-based COVID vaccines “are not appropriate for use in human beings.”

    Read: The curious case of Florida’s pandemic response

    The man’s commitment to undermining vaccination is truly unparalleled among leading public-health officials. “As a surgeon general he stands alone,” Reiss told me. Yet Ladapo’s policy activism, however grotesque it might seem, has been bizarrely ineffective in practice. Take his March 2022 move to lead the way on not vaccinating young people against COVID. Media coverage of that announcement dwelled on reasonable concerns that this policy would dampen immunization rates; vaccine experts said it was a dangerous and irresponsible move that would “cause more people to die.” In practice, though, it seems to have done almost nothing. At the time of Ladapo’s announcement, 24.2 percent of Florida’s kids and 66.3 percent of its teenagers had received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine. (The corresponding national numbers at the time were somewhat higher.) By the end of the year, and in spite of Ladapo’s contrarian guidance, Florida’s vaccination numbers for these age groups were up by about four and three points respectively—which is almost exactly the same amount, percentage-wise, as the increases in those numbers seen across the country.

    Or compare Florida’s experience to that of Nevada, a state which had very similar child and teen vaccination rates in March 2022: 23.1 percent and 64.0 percent. Through the end of 2022, while Ladapo was discouraging his constituents from getting shots, that state’s Democratic governor was engaged in a large-scale effort to do just the opposite. And yet the results were essentially the same: Nevada’s rates increased by pretty much the same amount as Florida’s.

    For all of Ladapo’s efforts to dampen his state’s enthusiasm for life-saving interventions, Florida’s age-adjusted rates of death from COVID do not appear to have increased relative to the rest of the country, at least according to reported numbers. In this way, one of the nation’s loudest and most powerful voices of vaccine skepticism seems to be shouting into the wind. His proclamations and decisions to this point have been exquisitely effective at producing outrage, but embarrassingly feeble when it comes to changing outcomes. Even taken on its own terms, as a means of changing public-health behavior, Ladapo’s anti-vaccine activism has been a demonstrable failure.

    Read: The good news about vaccine hesitancy

    Perhaps this week’s decision to relax the rules on fighting measles will mark just one more step along that path: Once again, Florida’s surgeon general will have taken an appalling stance that ends up having no effect. But then again, now could be different. By the time Ladapo got around to undermining COVID shots, more than two-thirds of the state’s population, and 91 percent of its seniors, were already fully vaccinated. The damage he could have done was limited, by definition. But the measles outbreak in Weston is unfolding in real time. More such outbreaks are nearly guaranteed to occur in the U.S. in the months ahead. Reiss worries that Ladapo’s new idea, of choosing not to separate out unvaccinated kids during a school outbreak, could end up spreading into other jurisdictions. “If this becomes a precedent, that becomes a bigger problem,” she told me.

    For the first time since taking office, Ladapo may finally have a real opportunity to make a difference through his vaccination policy. That’s a problem.

    Daniel Engber

    Source link

  • Avian flu is crippling California poultry farms. Will there be a surge in pricing?

    Avian flu is crippling California poultry farms. Will there be a surge in pricing?

    December should have been the most profitable month of the year for Liberty Ducks, a poultry farm in Sonoma County. Instead, the 31-year-old business was suddenly face to face with a possible shutdown.

    “There was never going to be a good time for this to hit, but during the holidays was especially hard,” said Jennifer Reichardt of Liberty Ducks. The farm, she said, has been “crippled” by the outbreak.

    In December, the farm was one of nine locations in Sonoma County infected with highly pathogenic avian influenza, also known as bird flu. As a result, poultry farmers in the county have been forced to destroy more than 1 million birds while trying to quarantine their flocks to curb the outbreak.

    The outbreak has been ongoing since 2022, but its sudden surge in December has meant restaurants in the winery-rich region are seeing their supplies of poultry dwindle. Experts warn this may only be the beginning of a bird flu spike in California .

    “Restaurants are looking for product,” said Bill Mattos, president of the California Poultry Federation.

    The lingering disease has yet to affect prices or supply across the state as a whole, Mattos said, given the poultry available from other counties and outside the state. But restaurants, stores and wholesalers who prefer to use local sources are seeing their supply dwindle.

    “Everyone is looking to see what they can do to prevent it even more,” Mattos said.

    Liberty Ducks supplies Bay Area restaurants and more than 200 wholesalers. But because the company’s locations are under quarantine, the farm can’t start new production, Reichardt said.

    “Our business will be at a standstill for at least two months until the quarantine is lifted or we find other locations,” she said.

    Poultry companies have been feeling the effects of the avian flu since February 2022, when the U.S. Department of Agriculture first detected the virus in commercial and backyard flocks.

    Since then, more than 79 million birds across the U.S have been affected in 47 states. In California, the virus has affected 37 commercial and 22 backyard flocks, totaling 5.4 million birds, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

    Since the outbreak began, the avian pandemic has not gone by unnoticed by consumers either.

    Last year, the outbreak helped make egg prices skyrocket across the country. According to the USDA, prices in California for a dozen large eggs jumped to $7.37 in January 2023, up from $2.35 the year before. The USDA said that while demand for eggs was surging in December 2022, the avian flu was cutting the supply; in the last week of that month, there were about 29% fewer eggs than at the beginning of 2022.

    A higher incidence of the highly pathogenic avian influenza is common during this time of year because of the migratory patterns of wild birds, which carry the virus as they fly from the Arctic to California, said Dr. Maurice Pitesky, associate professor at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine whose research focuses on the disease.

    Unfortunately, the same climate and geography that makes poultry farming popular in some areas is what draws in wild birds like ducks and geese, carrying the flu with them into the state. The virus can pass from one animal to another through saliva, mucus or feces.

    “Wildlife can bring this virus into their farms because the virus is so infectious,” Pitesky said.

    Farmers have tried to keep their flocks safe through bio-security practices, such requiring clean footwear before workers enter a farm to keep feces from contaminating the area under the shoes, Mattos said. Several big farms also try to reduce risk by prohibiting their workers from owning backyard flocks.

    This past month, however, poultry farmers in Northern California have been particularly hit by the virus.

    “I’m not sure if it’s a more virulent strain or what,” Mattos said. “The industry expects it to come and show up, we just didn’t expect it to be in big numbers.”

    According to the USDA, 11 flocks in California have tested positive for the virus in the past 30 days, affecting more than 3.3 million birds.

    In Sonoma County, the effect has been significant.

    Nine poultry in sites in southern Sonoma County have been infected with the virus, requiring more than a million birds to be euthanized to prevent further spread, according to the county.

    On Dec. 5, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency because of the disease. Flocks that have been infected have been put in quarantine, and county officials are hoping to curb the spread of the virus.

    The flu’s effect in the county and region is still unclear, but officials are concerned that the consequences could ripple through affected farms, workers, restaurants and markets that rely on the farms’ eggs, meat and jobs.

    A spokesperson for Sonoma County said officials have not yet done an economic impact study, but are focusing resources on containing the outbreak.

    According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, five California counties — Fresno, Marin, Merced, San Joaquin and Sonoma — have active avian flu infections.

    The flu could be especially damaging to businesses like Liberty Ducks that are still recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “After COVID, we were already in such a tight financial space, this really could have been the final blow,” said Reichardt.

    She and her brother set up a GoFundMe campaign to keep the business afloat, and have raised more than $184,000 so far.

    “The community outreach is not only letting us continue on and help with cash flow, but also mentally gives us such a lift to fight on,” Reichardt said.

    Some farms can also apply for federal compensation for the value of lost birds, but Mattos said it is not enough to cover what farmers could have made from their flocks.

    For now, farmers and backyard flock owners are being urged to take precautions and keep their birds isolated from exposure.

    And depending on this year’s rains, poultry farmers may be seeing just the first effects of the outbreak this year, Pitesky warned.

    “If it’s a wet year, unfortunately, [wild birds] will probably stay here until April and May,” he said. “Most likely, they’ll be dealing with this for several more months.”

    Salvador Hernandez

    Source link

  • Bird flu concerns grow in California as deadly virus infects more farms

    Bird flu concerns grow in California as deadly virus infects more farms

    Federal and state officials have confirmed outbreaks in the last few weeks of a fast-spreading avian influenza strain — commonly known as bird flu — in four new California counties, sparking concerns about the possible agricultural and financial blow of the virus.

    The “highly pathogenic” bird flu was confirmed Wednesday at two commercial farms in Stanislaus County, joining recent outbreaks at poultry farms in Fresno, San Benito and Sonoma counties, according to updates from the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The strain is easily spread among birds and often fatal for them.

    “It is important to note that [the bird flu] is widespread in California and may also be present in other counties that are not listed,” the agency said in a statement Wednesday. “Enhanced biosecurity is critical in the face of ongoing disease outbreaks.”

    Surging egg prices earlier this year were blamed on an outbreak of the bird flu that killed millions of hens and left grocers struggling to keep shelves stocked.

    California agriculture officials said that in order to protect other flocks from the disease, the farms where outbreaks were reported are being quarantined and their birds euthanized.

    After cases were confirmed earlier this week at two Sonoma County poultry farms, officials there declared a state of emergency, calling the outbreak a local disaster.

    “We need to promote and protect our local food shed and the agricultural producers who dedicate their livelihoods to producing food for our local populations and beyond,” Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner Andrew Smith said in a statement. “These producers are integral in maintaining and increasing food security in our communities.”

    Sonoma County Supervisor David Rabbitt said he is concerned about economic and supply-chain issues that could result from the emergency, noting that south Sonoma County has about “one million farm birds within a five-mile radius” of one of the facilities hit by the outbreak, and that they provide as many as hundreds of thousands of eggs daily.

    Rabbitt also said that more than 200 employees work at the two affected Sonoma County facilities, and will be hurt by the losses.

    In October, as cases of avian flu increased nationally and the first California outbreak of the season was detected in Merced County, the state veterinarian urged that California bird farmers move their flocks indoors for now.

    The Merced County outbreak was confirmed at a commercial turkey farm, home to about 30,000 birds, according to USDA data tracking the virus’ spread.

    The most recent outbreaks confirmed in Stanislaus County were at two commercial farms that are raising about 250,000 chickens each. The infected Sonoma County farms were a duck farm with 169,000 birds, and a commercial egg producer with more than 80,000 birds.

    The San Benito and Fresno county cases also included commercial duck farms, with 5,000 birds in San Benito and 23,000 in Fresno, according to the USDA data.

    State officials did not disclose the names of the companies involved, and USDA data was limited.

    Avian infuenza can be found in both wild and domesticated fowl, including chickens, turkeys, pheasants, quail, ducks and geese, and its typically spread through bird-to-bird contact, according to the state Department of Food and Agriculture.

    There have also been confirmed cases in wild birds over the last month in Sacramento and Santa Clara counties, according to the USDA.

    Officials noted this spring that continued spread of the virus could soon become a concern for the still-endangered California condor.

    According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Protection, this bird flu strain is considered a low risk to humans. However, the World Health Organization has said there is some cause for worry due to some reports of the virus infecting humans.

    Californians can report unusual sick or dead pets or domesticated birds via the state Department of Food and Agriculture Sick Bird Hotline at (866) 922-2473. Any unusual or dead wild birds should be reported to the state Department of Fish and Wildlife online.

    Grace Toohey

    Source link

  • U.S. childhood pneumonia outbreak raises alarm, no known link to China

    U.S. childhood pneumonia outbreak raises alarm, no known link to China

    The recently elevated number of pediatric pneumonia cases in Warren County, Ohio, has crossed the “outbreak” threshold, health officials say. However, there is “zero evidence” the Warren cases are connected to any respiratory activity “statewide, nationally, or internationally,” county health officials said.

    According to a press release from the Warren County Health District on Thursday, there have been 145 cases of pediatric pneumonia reported in children ages 3 to 14.

    “Not only is this above the county average, it also meets the Ohio Department of Health definition of an outbreak. We do not think this is a novel/new respiratory disease but rather a large uptick in the number of pneumonia cases normally seen at one time,” a release on Wednesday said.

    When reached for additional comment by Newsweek, Warren County Health District sent Thursday’s press release.

    Masked schoolchildren wait to have their portraits taken during picture day at Rogers International School on September 23, 2020, in Stamford, Connecticut. A recent uptick in pediatric pneumonia cases in Ohio has reached the “outbreak” level; however, there is no known link to the breakout among kids in China.

    “While the number of cases is higher this year, the severity is similar to previous years. Most cases recover at home and are treated with antibiotics,” Thursday’s Warren County press release also stated. County health officials say among the pathogens recovered included “Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Streptococcus pnuemoniae and Adenovirus.”

    There have been no reported deaths, county officials added.

    Several portions of China, meanwhile, have also recently been hit by a surge in respiratory illnesses, which have particularly affected children. Northern provinces in China have experienced a jump in flu-like illnesses for five consecutive weeks since mid-October.

    The rapid spread of COVID-19 in 2020 prompted strict public health restrictions and quarantine measures across the globe. Several nations, including Taiwan, India and Vietnam, are now preparing, given China’s recent uptick in respiratory illnesses. The ailments have also put a strain on China’s hospital system and are reminiscent of the coronavirus outbreak, which originated in Wuhan in December 2019.

    The Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL) has also reported a spike in child pneumonia cases. The Messenger reported that in the past week, 80 out of every 100,000 children ages 5 to 14 came down with pneumonia.

    While speaking to Congress on Thursday, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Mandy Cohen, said that the uptick in respiratory illness in China is not from “a new or novel pathogen,” according to NBC News.

    Amid the rise in pneumonia cases in Ohio, social media users are calling attention to the outbreak.

    Notably, conservative radio talk-show host and founder of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, took to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday: “JUST IN—The ‘Mystery pneumonia’ affecting kids and ripping through China and parts of Europe, is reportedly now in America. 142 child cases of ‘white lung syndrome’ have now been recorded in Warren County, Ohio since August, meaning if true, it’s been here for months.”

    Kirk continued, “CDC officials are saying ‘nothing is out of the ordinary’ but according to county health official ‘Not only is this above the county average, it also meets the Ohio Department of Health definition of an outbreak.’ Just in time for election season! Whatever is going on, never again and do not comply.”

    Warren County health officials have not named this illness “white lung syndrome” and also said on Thursday, “It is not uncommon for respiratory illnesses to spread in the community during this time of year.”

    Entrepreneur Mario Nawfal also posted to X, saying in part, “BREAKING: US Kids Pneumonia Outbreak – Ohio Fights Back, WHO Probes China’s Crisis!

    “Ohio is battling a frightening outbreak of pediatric pneumonia, prompting an emergency express lane for kids, as the US faces a health emergency mirroring China’s.

    “The US is reeling from a sharp rise in child respiratory infections, closely resembling China’s alarming outbreak.”