Is A Bird Flu Pandemic Avoidable?

"I'm extraordinarily sympathetic to the general public sentiment that, like, 'Oh my God, we're so sick of infectious diseases'. We don't want alarmism."

"The best way to avoid alarmism is to avoid human infections, and do the low-hanging fruit stuff really well. [More robust biosecurity measures on farms and educating hunters], because we know a lot of animals that are harvested are at high risk [of infection with H5N1 as well [such as foxes and ducks]."

"[Should an H5N1 sample be found in infected milk] Then we're in trouble. Because if we find an infected milk sample, then the virus is almost certainly pretty widespread, because we know how rapidly the virus can spread via contaminated milking equipment."

"The CFIA [Canadian Food Inspection Agency] is taking an approach to testing commercial milk that gives them some insight into where the milk comes from. Intuitively what they would do is start looking back at the farms that were the supplier of the milk that tested positive in order to identify infected animals."

Matthew Miller, Canada Research Chair in viral pandemics

Flock of farmed geese, Henan province, China [death rate in geese, 4%]. (China Daily/Reuters)

 

The medical scientific community is now consumed with watching and waiting as the highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 virus -- yet another import, as it were, from China -- is spreading. While it has not yet shown up in Canada, an outbreak on dairy farms in March in Kansas and Texas is close enough for guarded concern. From dead wild birds to dairy farms, the pathogen has spread to 131 herds in a dozen American states. Human cases -- one in Texas, two in Michigan; with mild symptoms -- have also appeared, linked to the outbreak in dairy cows in the United States.

The virus has not yet been detected in Canadian dairy cattle, nor has its presence been revealed in the 600 retail milk samples tested up to June 18. There is a level of comfort in knowing the risk of transmission to humans is low and milk and milk products commercially available remain safe, according to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. That comfort is short-lived in the realization that influenza viruses evolve continually. "I'm very worried about pigs", confides Dr. Miller, explaining that pigs can facilitate bird flu to exchange genetic material with human flu viruses; the result being a virus more adapted to transmit to humans.

The world's first plan to begin administering bird flu vaccines is set to take place in Finland when farm workers become the initial recipients. First detected in 1995 in birds in southern China and Hong Kong, since then H5N1 has become endemic in bird populations, destroying millions of both wild and farmed birds. Approximately 889 people have been infected with the virus since 2003, leading to a high proportion of deaths in the infected (52 percent). Generally the point of contact is transmission through a live or dead infected animal's body fluids; saliva, blood or feces.

And although human-to-human transmission of H5N1 rarely occurs, the high ratio of deaths to cases, in all likelihood means bird flu has the potential to "cause a major public health emergency if human exposure and viral evolution lead to sustained person-to-person transmission", concluded an editorial published the BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal).

When H5N1 infectsm it relies on cells in almost all human tissues to allow it to replicate, not just the lungs. "It can infect all kinds of other organs, including our brain", advised Dr. Miller. Complications ranging from encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) to coma have developed in humans infected by H5N1.  Case fatality rate -- proportion of people with confirmed infections who die -- exceeds 50 percent, an astonishingly high lethality. Children and young adults experience higher critical illness with the virus.

Still, at the present time, the risk to humans is not yet sufficiently elevated to justify a mass H5N1 vaccination protocol. "My preference is that we don't find ourselves in that scenario."

"[While the U.S. has stockpiled H5N1 vaccines and other countries are soliciting tenders for emergency doses], I'm not aware that Canada has done that yet, but quite certain that it is being considered at this point."

"I'm acutely aware of public sentiment around vaccines right now, and resistance to vaccination."

"The best thing we could do is adopt a strategy like Finland is using and offer vaccine to those at high occupational exposure risk to prevent a widespread human outbreak."

Matthew Miller, McMaster Immunology Research Centre, Hamilton

The Universality of Indifference to Antisemitism

"His connection to individuals linked to terrorist groups and his history of antisemitic statements and activities demonstrate that he is not suitable for this critical position [at the Canadian Human Rights Commission."

"We urge the government to reconsider Mr. Dattani's appointment to ensure the integrity of the CHRC and public trust in its mission."

"Dattani's inadequate response to these allegations [of having spoken for BDS at anti-Israel rallies, of posting offensive 'anti-Zionist' antisemitic statements] over the past week further underscores a pattern of denial and obfuscation rather than genuine accountability."

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs/Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies joint statement

 

"As an academic, I have discussed, often in great detail, the BDS movement. That being said, I have not personally or publicly endorsed the BDS movement."

"I did not agree with the comparison [statement attributed to him comparing Israel with Nazi Germany]. However, I do accept and sincerely apologize that this has deeply offended members of the Jewish community and I would never do such a thing now."

Birju Dattani, appointment-designee as head, Canadian Human Rights Commission

Birju Dattani has been appointed chief commissioner of the Canadian Human Rights Commission. Photo by LinkedIn/Handout

"Trudeau Liberals appoint an antisemite who compared Israelis to Nazis as head of the Canadian Human Rights Commission."

"Liberal MP Housefather ... the NDP & Bloc could agree to recall committee to investigate this grotesque appointment but they won't."

Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Opposition Conservatives

Canada's Minister of Justice, Arif Virani, on June 14 announced the new head of the Canadian Human Rights Commission: Birju Dattani. Following the announcement, it was revealed soon afterward that this man had a past record of antisemitic statements to his account, and was prominent with groups promoting Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel. Yet the Justice Ministry proceeded with announcing its choice candidate for this position on human rights defence for all of Canada. Making it clear that once again the ministries headed by Liberal Cabinet ministers failed their due diligence.

 

 

A simple enough matter of background checks would have swiftly brought to the fore these past associations of the man whom the Minister of Justice felt assured would make an outstanding head of the CHRC. This is not an unfortunate one-time incident. On a previous occasion a contract was signed by Minister Ahmed Hussen for a blatant antisemite -- Laith Marouf of outlawed terror group Samidoun -- whose sentiments were extremely public on social media sites, to conduct training workshops for government employees on anti-racism. 

 

This latest appointment, reckless in its lack of oversight, with Birju Dattani revealed to have links to terrorist groups and a personal history of antisemitic statements is yet another indication that the current Liberal government has a lax attitude toward racism, even while promoting itself as devoted to ensuring that any vestiges of societal racism is dealt with under the law, even as they themselves flaunt their unerring incapacity to identify bigotry where it exists, and seemingly oblivious to its harms when it targets Jews, promote it.

 

In 2015, while completing his academic education, Dattani joined a panel discussion along with a member of an Islamic fundamentalist group known to lecture on the BDS movement. "I spoke on many panels as a graduate student with people holding a range of views. This does not mean I shared or agreed with the views of other panellists", he insisted, denying ever having himself endorsed the BDS movement. "As an academic, I have discussed, often in great detail, the BDS movement. That being said, I have not personally or publicly endorsed the BDS movement."

"I can testify to the fact that while serving as our Director of Human Rights, Mr. Dattani was exemplary in meeting the highest standards of dedication to the defense of human rights for all Yukoners."

Michael Dougherty, chair, Yukon Human Rights commission

As for background, Mr. Dattani cut his teeth following graduation in employment with the Syrian Legal Development Program at the United Nations. Syria under President Bashar al-Assad is, of course, a bastion of human rights; ask any Sunni Syrian about the estimated 300,000 Syrians whose lives were forfeit during the (still ongoing) civil war, where the Alawite Shiite regime settled a disagreement with its majority Sunni Syrian citizens with barrel bombs and chemical weapons.

A man is surrounded by debris from a regime bombing in Aleppo. Hosam Katan/Reuters

Exalting Terrorism and Expressing Antisemitism In Germany -- One Count and You're Out!

"[The acts perpetrated by Hamas on October 7 have been] celebrated in a repugnant way [on social media in Germany. [The attack in Mannheim] also was glorified on the net by many in the most appalling way."

"Such brutalization online stokes a climate of violence that can drive extremists to new acts of violence."

"So it's very clear to me that Islamist agitators who mentally live in the Stone Age have no place in our country. Anyone who has no German passport and glorifies terrorist acts here must, wherever possible, be expelled and deported."

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser

A protester is dragged away by police officers during a pro-Palestinians demonstration on the campus of Berlin's Free University, in Berlin, Germany, May 7, 2024.

 

New legislation is being launched in Germany to make it easier to deport foreigners who engage in public approval of terrorism. With the new law a sole, single comment posted to social media could conceivably represent adequate grounds for government agencies to deport those it considers have countered the law, offending Germany's moral and ethical codes unpermitting of verbal violence against Jews in particular. 

Public demands that the state  take remediative action against foreign elements that have supported the Hamas atrocities in southern Israel on October 7, and the rising levels of antisemitism that have resulted from among asylum seekers compelled Chancellor Olaf Scholz to take hard action against those who unreservedly promote hate among themselves and infecting larger parts of the population.

 

A man attacks people with a knife, at a far right-wing information stand of the Buergerbewegung Pax Europa (BPE) in the central market of the city of Mannheim, Germany, May 31, 2024, in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. Buergerbewegung Pax Europa/Handout via REUTERS

 

The Cabinet approved the measure in the wake of a deadly knife attack a month ago against a group describing itself as opposition to "political Islam". During the assault a police officer was killed. Migration continues to be a headache for Germany. Under Chancellor Angela Merkel, in 2015 a million asylum seekers, basically economic migrants, were permitted to enter Germany when the EU was being flooded with an unstoppable migrant rush, mostly young males from the Middle East and North Africa.

Now, Chancellor Scholz faces a backlash by a population fed up with rising crime levels and in particular violence against women where incidents of rape have increased substantially. More latterly, since the October 7 Hamas assault in Israel, many from among the migrant community have expressed their general contempt and hatred for Jews; their cultural/religious racism in free expression.

 

New citizenship legislation stipulates that naturalized people must be capable of supporting themselves and their relatives financially, that those seeking citizenship be committed to the "free democratic fundamental order" is already covered under the existing law, with the new version specifying that antisemitic and racist acts are incompatible with the original stipulation. 

 

Basically, according to government rules, issues like antisemitism, Israel's right of existence, along with Jewish security in Germany now have greater weight in the test for citizenship which applicants must undergo.

 

The country's law on residence will also undergo change; approving or promoting "a single terrorist crime" is to be viewed as grounds for a "particularly serious interest in expulsion", according to the German Interior Ministry. In other words, a single comment that "glorifies and endorses a terrorist crime on social media" could result in expulsion.

Under the new guidelines anyone publicly approving of an offence "in a manner which is suited to causing a disturbance of the public peace", could face expulsion, without  a conviction. Simple social media post 'likes' will not fall into the deportation category. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser expressed her confidence that these changes would shortly be approved by lawmakers, nor is she concerned that freedom of speech laws would be impacted.

Source: JGI/Tom Grill / GettyImages.de

Canada's Notorious Residential School System for First Nations Children

"This report has caused renewed grief and dismay in Indigenous communities, especially for those who attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School and for intergenerational survivors."

"Many of those grieving are devout Catholics who, with others, are seeking solace, affirmation, and accountability from the Catholic Church."

Tk-emlups Ngyuen report, May 27, 2021

"[The GPR survey was] very preliminary [in reference to] initial horrific findings of what potentially could be ... they are very preliminary ... there could very well be children beneath the surface."

"This is not a mass grave, but rather unmarked burial sites that are, to our knowledge, also undocumented."

Tk'emlups te Secwepemc Nation chief Rosanne Casimir

Tk'emlups te Secwepemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir on Thursday, September 30, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

In May of 2021, Canada was horrified to be informed of the news that an unproven legend among First Nations, was true, where it was found -- mostly Catholic-church-operated residential schools for Canada's First Nations children -- that large numbers of children died after being mistreated by nuns. Schools where children were forbidden to speak their native language, were given insufficient food, were physically assaulted, persecuted, and required medical attention withheld. The word was out, that in Kamloops, B.C. close to one of those notorious schools, a 'mass grave' had been discovered and in that unmarked grave hundreds of First Nations children were buried.

 

Soon enough, where other residential schools operated across Canada, tribes chimed in with their reports of 'unmarked graves', after years of intake of thousands of First Nations children to be educated for the purpose of 'taking the Indian' out of them; inculcating in their impressionable young minds the values and the culture of white Europeans. As the tales of the horrors inflicted on helpless children taken prisoner to a scheme the government of Great Britain initiated in the first half of the 19th century forward to the early era of the government of Canada up until the end of the 20th century, excuses such as their purpose being to teach children the three Rs, and self-management to enable them to take their place advantageously in the larger society were ignored.

When some former residents of the schools came forward with their personal stories of having benefited from the curriculum, enabling them to further their educations independently after graduation from the schools, and reaching professional status in employment, they were ignored. The misleading announcement of May 27, 221 that informed the world "the confirmation of the remains of 215 children" were discovered adjacent to the long-since-closed Kamloops Indian Residential school was broadcast widely to Canada's shame.

A survey using ground-penetrating radar had led to the announcement. The radar results merely suggested that the ground had been disturbed at some time in the past; there was no suggestion that human bodies were buried in the area in question. Yet the uncertain statements of children's bodies having been surreptitiously buried went unquestioned, no affirming evidence or action was involved, simply an assumption. Suddenly a "mass grave" had been discovered.

 

Shoes, toys and more were a set up around the Centennial Flame on Parliament Hill in Ottawa June 2, 2021 in recognition of what's believed to be the discovery of children's remains at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. (Brian Morris/CBC)

 

A story picked up by international media where the headline in the New York Times read: Horrible History: Mass Grave of Indigenous Children Reported in Canada. Criticism of China at the time over its treatment of its Muslim Uyghur population led Beijing to sneer at a Canada that would slaughter its First Nations children. CTV News reported: "The discovery of the mass grave is gripping the nation tonight..."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau required no evidence of the truth of the allegations to move him to regret that 'genocide' occurred in Canada, calling for a period of national reckoning. A committee for nation-to-nation reconciliation was struck to investigate past claims of Canada's indigenous populations to institutional racism. Chief Casimir of the Tk'emlups in Kamloops attempted to emphasize that her original charges of deaths at the Kamloops residential school were speculative, with no basis in fact.

Justin Trudeau, however, was 'way ahead of her, declaring that the Canadian flag would be lowered to half mast on Parliament Hill; any Canadian flags flown anywhere, across the country or at diplomatic missions abroad were to be lowered to half-mast in grief over Canada's genocidal past. And there they stayed for months. Wherever residential schools were operated, local Indigenous groups averred their intention to dig up the grounds where suspected children's bodies lay mouldering.

 

 And then reality intruded. The disturbed ground was likely the results of sewer pipes' installation, irrigation ditches, trenches cut by backhoes for utility lines, anything but mass graves. The estimated 1,300 children whose lives were lost to maltreatment and pathological racism disappeared in a poof of investigatory revelations. It was accepted that during mass infections where children in the general community died, so did aboriginal children who were more susceptible to infectious disease impacts. Children were buried in established community cemeteries.

 

 

But before the rebuttal of realities kicked in, a rampage of church burnings took place. Shrines were desecrated and vandalized, many burned to the ground. Indigenous Catholics were dismayed to see that activist First Nations protesters saw fit to destroy their Indian reserve churches. Riots ensued, statues were brought down, and anti-Catholic criminal acts took place. No authorities in government felt it suitable to condemn these criminal acts, nor to investigate the perpetrators and bring them to justice. As far as they were concerned, 'justice' was being done by the 'protesters'.

 

They were acting out to proclaim their resentment and hatred toward the white colonialists who had attempted to destroy their history, their culture, their beliefs and their values. Even if they had set out to do no such thing. Now, it is acknowledged that residential-school era 'missing children' are no longer missing. The Catholic Church apologized to First Nations. The Pope made his apology on behalf of the Church he leads.

Chief Casimir was given an independent site-inspection report dated 2022, suggesting that whatever 'anomalies' the original GPR (ground-penetrating radar) survey had detected, they were in all likelihood the result of ground disturbances going back decades. And while it has been declared for years that excavations could finally clear matters up to the satisfaction of First Nations, and funding from the federal government was provided to do just that, no such excavations have ever taken place.

A child’s dress is seen on a cross outside the former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., on June 13, 2021. Photo by Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press