20 Big Cats Die from H5N1

Posted on by Thor

H5N1 or Bird Flu is spreading from California to surrounding states. A wildlife sanctuary in Shelton, Washington State has been hit hard. Twenty big cats which is half the population at the sanctuary have died from the infections.

The cats were in 30 by forty foot habitat enclosures. Those habitats are spread put across 5 acres. In other words the big cats were not extremely close together. The first death happened around Thanksgiving. The sanctuary has been put under quarantine and the public had been denied access. They don’t not yet know how the cats were infected. Could it be bird droppings, or perhaps the meat they were fed? Could the virus be airborne? No one is certain yet. Among the cats that dies were, five African servals, four bobcats, four cougars, two Canada Lynxes, one Amur-Bengal tiger.

H5N1 has had a mortality rate of about 50% while COVID has a much smaller mortality rate of about 0.28% which resulted in over a million American deaths. If H5N1 starts human to human transmission, a 50% mortality rate would be devastating.

COVID Dystopia: An Earthquake Took Out Canada

Posted on by Thor

This scene had depth maps, a camera move and the animation consists of waving the flag.

I was starting to feel like we were free from these crazy times, but Donald J. Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States on November 5, 2024. I honestly can not believe that Americans would elect a convicted criminal to become president. I am stunned and in mourning.

The first thing I did this morning after seeing the news was start looking for countries that are great places for expatriates to live. Spain has the highest number of Americans who have moved there. I was thinking of moving to New York State to set up a studio but New York would be target number one for the presidents “enemy of the people” campaign. New Zealand and Australia handled themselves well at the start of the pandemic.Australia would be as far as I could get from America.

H5N1, or Bird Flu, has killed millions of wild birds, and caused sporadic outbreaks among poultry and an ongoing multi-state outbreak among cows in the United States. While there has been no known person-to-person transmission of the virus, there have been 39 reported human cases in the U.S. in 2024. If H5N1 starts to spread from human to human, we will have the worst leader imaginable at the helm, downplaying the exponential spread. COVID had a mortality rate of about 1.4% which resulted in well over a million deaths in America. H5N1 has had a mortality rate of about 50% among mammals infected. I woke up dreading the next 4 years of life on Earth.

COVID Dystopia is available to be seen at the Virtual Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival happening now through November 24, 2024. COVID Dystopia can be seen in the Eventive – Chiller Theater Block 2 – Shorts online. It can be seen anywhere in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. After you start watching the films, you have 48 hours to complete watching them. Tickets are $18.

COVID Dystopia: Yea, I should Go

Posted on by Thor

This was probably the most complex scene to animate in COVID Dystopia. I learned so much about rubber hose animation and overlapping action by doing this shot.

I am sure most people have blocked the fact that on New Year’s Eve in 2021, Times Square had no live spectators. They filled the square with Wacky Wavy Balloon Arm Men so the shots on TV would appear less deserted and more active. This was American ingenuity at work.

Right now the COVID hospitalization have dropped down to a rather high base line. England is seeing a rise in cases and as always I am sure America will follow. Now is a good time to get those medical appointments set up since this is as low as it will go before another spike in cases. We are coming off of the JN1 spike and new variants are jockeying for dominance for the next spike. The Omicron spike was huge,  so each new wave seems small in comparison. People cave been conditioned to accept mass infection.

I have stopped drinking milk because bird flu (h5N1) has infected so many dairy cow herds in America. 33 herds have tested positive so far. The cows were likely infected from chickens. Cow feed is actually laced with chicken droppings.

One in five samples of commercially available milk in stores has been found to test positive for h5N1. The hope is that pasteurization will kill the active virus, but pasteurization temperatures are not standardized. Until there is more testing, and no active virus is found in any samples, I remain cautious.

This morning I tried Almond milk on my cereal and it was actually really good. I am also thinking about making breakfast smoothies in the morning, again with almond milk and fruit like blueberries and bananas. I have made some eggs over the last week but I am making sure I cook them extra well so that they are not runny. I have one small packet of vegan cheese left over and I am thinking of switching over to vegan cheese to see how that tastes.

The primary concern should probably not be the consumption of the virus. I am sure it is airborne and that will be the primary way it spreads. Early reports are that human to human transmission has not yet happened. Then again that is what was being reported in China at the start of the COVID outbreak. Only two proteins are keeping human to human transmission from happening. I have learned to respect viruses. They are tenacious and will find a way to spread. Humans are the best mammalian host to spread the virus world wide. Since h5N1 has a 52% mortality rate, this would be a horrible outbreak if it happens.

Bird Flu

Posted on by Thor

A research team published a study in One Health that analyzed over 70,000 records related to bird flu (H5N1) from 1970 to 2016. The researchers concluded that bird flu might be the source of a new pandemic strain. Bird flu could become zoonotic, that is, transfer from animal to human.

The virus has made the  jump from birds to mammals. Professor Michael Ward from the Sydney School of Veterinary Science, said, “It’s just a numbers game. Viruses jumping species is not a rare event, so it’s likely a virus will eventually make that final jump to humans.”

H5N1 has infected almost 900 people since 2003 with a death rate just shy of 52.5 percent, according to the World Health Organization. Since January 2022 in the United States, outbreaks of a branch of H5N1 known as 2.3.4.4b have affected more than 58 million fowl, resulting in the deaths or culling of most. Farms that raise poultry are reluctant to report cases since it would result in devastating financial losses.

The Philadelphia Enquirer reported that Bird Flu is hitting Pennsylvania harder than any other state. In the last 30 days, more than 215,000 birds in Pennsylvania have been affected by avian flu, meaning they are raised on farms or in backyards where the disease has been confirmed.

In the U.S., it has recently been detected in wild birds in every state, as well as in commercial poultry operations or backyard flocks in 47 states. Since the beginning of last year, tens of millions of chickens have died of the virus or been killed to stop outbreaks from spreading. The death rate among birds affected is over 50%. The bird flu has resulted is rising egg prices.

Bird Flu had made the jump to mammals. In June and July 2023, more than 150 dead or ailing seals washed ashore in Maine with the deadly virus. It is likely that wild birds introduced the virus to seals. Bird flu has also spread to minks and the virus seems to be spreading from mammal to mammal. In Vancouver, Canada skunks are being found infected with bird flu.

Globally, nearly 870 human infections and 457 deaths have been reported to the World Health Organization in 20 countries. But the pace has slowed and there have been about 170 infections and 50 deaths in the last seven years. In the vast majority of cases, the infected people got it directly from infected birds. Human to human transmission of the virus has not yet been confirmed.

Should an outbreak happen it is clear that the human race is not prepared. COVID-19 has a mortality rate of just 1% which resulted in over 6 million of deaths worldwide. Imagine an outbreak where the mortality rate jumps from 1% to over 50%. Those numbers are hard to imagine.