Reporting Highlights
- Deadly Outbreak: A bird flu outbreak has been raging uncontrolled on a Utah mink farm for two months. Flu experts fear it could spark a devastating human pandemic.
- Government Failures: State officials didn’t order the mink to be killed, which other countries with outbreaks have done. They are prioritizing the financial interests of the fur trade.
- Silent Risks: Despite CDC guidance urging officials to monitor workers, they actively chose not to and declined to test workers — including one with a symptom experts said would warrant testing.
In Spain and Finland they also had to kill whole farms full of Mink. in 2022 and 2023 for avian influenza.
It’s insanely sad and pointless that they are raised to be killed for fur in the first place, but at least that was the correct reaction to the infection.
In this case in Utah they just let underpaid workers die?