How the U.S. Lost Control of Bird Flu, Setting the Stage for Another Pandemic

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. RFK Jr. asked Fresno County raw milk producer Mark McAfee to apply as FDA advisor - his milk had bird flu virus

McAfee owns RAW FARM in Fresno County and says Kennedy has been a long-time customer, who now wants him to help create standards for getting raw milk safely on store shelves across the country.

"And then they called me back and confirmed that I actually had that application was submitted and told me thank you very much," McAffee said. "It's just a waiting game now to see if RFK is confirmed and whether the team for "make america healthy again" is confirmed and going forward."

Recently, state and federal health experts detecteMd the bird flu virus in milk samples from McAfee's farm.

And this week, the California Department of Public Health secured a voluntary recall for all Raw Milk and Cream products from his company.

https://abc7chicago.com/post/rfk-jr-asked-raw-farm-owner-mark-mcafee-center-milk-recall-apply-fda-advisor-donald-trump-administration/15625517/

And yes, pasteurization does work:

Experiments were devised to assess if virus artificially spiked into unpasteurised milk, would remain infectious after simulating a pasteurisation process while working inside our secure laboratories. The experimentation demonstrated that the pasteurisation successfully killed the virus, rendering milk that had been treated in this way safe. Samples were also assessed for virus survival over time in milk to mimic what might occur in a milking parlour where high concentrations of milk may be present in the environment that might act as a source of onward infection. This demonstrated that high levels of virus could be detected over a considerable time period in milk.

https://aphascience.blog.gov.uk/2024/12/02/aphas-response-to-high-pathogenicity-avian-influenza-threats-in-cattle/

Bird Flu Be Damned: Raw Farm Is Doubling Down On Selling Raw Milk At Scale

Mark McAfee hopes to become the chief advisor on raw milk in the next Trump Administration. The cofounder and CEO of Raw Farm, the country’s largest producer that’s been at the center of raw milk recalls in California, said he’s in discussion about the role and hoped to help Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a raw milk proponent who’s been nominated as the next Secretary of Health and Human Services, set standards on raw milk that would ensure safe production, while allowing more distribution of it.
...
It’s been a moment for the raw milk industry and for Fresno, California-based Raw Farm. First, Raw Farm recalled several batches of its milk and cream after testing by the California Department of Public Health found bird flu virus in samples of its milk. Then it shut its dairies while its herd is under quarantine. Over the past few weeks, the drumbeat of news about bird flu went from bad to worse, as the virus spread to cats and to people, with a child in California testing positive (from an unknown source) and a person in Louisiana being hospitalized with severe illness (likely exposed from a backyard flock). On December 18, with the California state agriculture department having found the virus in 645 dairy herds, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared an emergency.

Raw Farm’s family farmers aren’t backing down in their belief in the benefits of raw milk, which propelled the 100% family-owned business to sales of more than $30 million. With RFK Jr.’s nomination, they’re hoping to sell a lot more. Raw Farm’s president Aaron McAfee, Mark’s 40-year-old son, said that he expected sales to reach $100 million within three years, and that he was already thinking about product expansions. “One of our greatest value adds right now is that we specialize in making a product that everybody in the traditional industry says is impossible,” Aaron McAfee said. “Nobody believes you can do raw milk at scale.”

Federal health regulators have warned repeatedly about the risks of raw milk, which have caused 2,645 illnesses and 228 hospitalizations between 1998 and 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s legal in some states, illegal in others – and always illegal to transport it across state lines for human consumption. (Selling raw milk for pets across state lines is a different matter.) But California, where Raw Farm is based, is one of 15 states where retail sales are legal and something of a ground zero for the raw milk movement, which has brought together proponents of organic food who believe in its health benefits and conservatives who argue for their right to make their own choices without government interference. “Food is medicine is ringing true to the customers,” said Mark McAfee, who is also founder of the Raw Milk Institute and describes himself as a Bernie Sanders/Jill Stein Democrat. “Our consumers are saying, ‘Screw you, FDA, we want raw milk,’” he said.

https://archive.is/dCwn0 (archive of Forbes)

There's money to be made, so screw public health - put the people who will profit the most in charge of it, and the regulations just disappear, like bid flu during pasteurization!