Fergawdsakes. I’m sure you’ve heard about the fears of the H5N1 avian flu virus being found in dairy cattle. Well, guess what?
Ever vigilant about stoking fears among their constituents regarding the threat of governmental overreach, Republican leaders, as a form of political strategy, frequently crow about all the things liberals allegedly want to take away from working Americans. The White House is coming for their guns, they say, or perhaps their gas stoves — or even pints of raw milk that have potentially been contaminated with bird flu.
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“There is concern that consumption of unpasteurized milk and products made from unpasteurized milk contaminated with HPAI A(H5N1) virus could transmit HPAI A(H5N1) virus to people; however, the risk of human infection is unknown at this time,” the agency writes.
However, in recent weeks, as the number of bird flu cases have climbed, so have sales of raw milk. This is because numerous Republican public figures have decried what they perceive to be attempts from the government and “Big Milk” to infringe on their right to consume the beverage, regardless of whether it contributes to the human-to-human spread of bird flu. It’s an attitude that closely mimics the party’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic and the ways in which their members refused to participate in even basic public health and safety measures.
Essentially, for Republicans, it seems like avoiding raw milk is the new masking — and they’re just not going to do it in order to prove a point.
For instance, in April, Infowars host Owen Shroyer called the Food and Drug Administration a “gangster mafia” who wanted to “make raw milk illegal.”
“So, now that more people are going to local farms and farmers markets and consuming raw milk, this angers the FDA,” Shroyer said. “This angers Big Milk. Say, ‘No, you need to pasteurize milk, it’s a lot less healthy for you.’ See, eventually, they’ll just make it illegal. They’ll just make raw milk illegal. That’s what this is all about.”
That same month, as Media Matters reported, right-wing media outlet TheBlaze published an article titled “Blaze News Investigates: The truth about raw milk the government doesn’t want you to know: ‘Close to a perfect food,’” which told readers that “the so-called ‘experts’ are not telling you the full story” and that “unfortunately, the potential benefits of raw dairy are a secret to most Americans.”
Now, the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA is selling a plain white t-shirt emblazoned with a line illustration of a dairy cow. The caption reads: “got raw milk?”
“See, eventually, they’ll just make it illegal. They’ll just make raw milk illegal. That’s what this is all about.”
There’s more at Salon. The throwback states are already putting laws on the books to ensure that people can kill themselves with raw milk. I won’t be surprised to see them mandating it for babies and schools.