>

People absolutely did the same stupid shit during the Spanish Flu outbreak.
Work at an Audubon bird of prey center. Baby season was ROUGH this year, so many birds came in sick and many did not make it. >

Is it still safe to be feeding songbirds and whatnot? I kept my feeders out because my state said it was fine and that it was mostly spreading through waterfowl. I'll take them down if needed but the birds seem to really need the food/water as these nasty cold fronts and ice storms keep hitting. >

I'm worried about the same thing. My yard birds are so chonky and happy from all of the seeds I'm putting out for them since fall started. I'll stop if it's for their health but it'll break my heart, those little bastards know they can chirp near my door and guilt trip me into coming out to feed them lol. >

Same. Especially if it's a cardinal staring woefully at me through the window, lol.
I'm really glad I invested in a bird bath heater because even though it only keeps a small pizza slice of water melted, the birds seem to really appreciate it. I'd hate to take all of that down because birds do learn to depend on reliable sources of water. But...if it keeps them safer in the long run. Still, I'll keep checking my state's wildlife resources because as far as I knew it was harder for the flu to spread through songbirds vs. stuff like waterfowl and the birds that eat waterfowl. >

That is real disturbing. I fear it's not long before it jumps to humans, especially if it can find more mammalian hosts. >

Already jumped to humans 20 years ago. It lacks one final step, transmission between humans. >

Mother Nature: Is that a challenge? >

HPAI is no fuckin joke. We live on a knifes edge: 2 mutations away from a plague estimated to be capable of killing 75% of the population. >

At least COVID has taught us that most Americans will endure some inconveniences and make minor sacrifices to work toward the common good. /s >

The flu is much more direct than covid. >

I'm not sure that matters. We had idiots packing themselves into mega churches and truck/motorcycle rallies well before any vaccine came out, just because those idiots wanted to proved something. We had people straight up arguing (and still arguing) against wearing face masks. >

They wouldn't be doing that if it was HPAI, like they didn't during the Spanish Flu. Covid just wasn't very dangerous, which is perversely what made it so dangerous