Items

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  12/01/2020

  Wade Pitrucha Oral History, 2020/12/01

  Wade Pitrucha, Marine Corps veteran and butcher, was raised in Texas and lived in California for several years, and currently works as a butcher and lives in Barron, Wisconsin. In this interview, Wade discusses the political and economic developments he has observed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wade gives an inside look at the COVID-19 meat shortage, and explains some of the causes, as well as the impacts on farmers and families. Wade also shares some of his personal experiences and frustrations with the local handling of the pandemic, and how he feels the federal government and the Trump administration has contributed to the massive spread of COVID-19 in the United States. In an entertaining and sometimes darkly humorous interview, Wade’s military experience and personal beliefs provide a unique and well-balanced view of the COVID-19 pandemic and modern American society.
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  2020-09-01

  Sahrawi refugees in COVID-19 lockdown hit by livestock epidemic

  Refugees from Western Sahara in camps in Algeria’s Tindouf province lose animals to livestock epidemic, while coronavirus restrictions wipe out other means of income.
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  2021-01-25

  Why camels are worrying coronavirus hunters

  In northern Kenya, researchers are working to prevent a dangerous coronavirus – Mers – from jumping from camels to humans again. But climate change is making their job more difficult. I It’s thought that Covid-19 originated in animals before jumping to humans. Now experts are warning that the chances are the next pandemic will, too. Seventy-five percent of the newly emerging diseases currently affecting people originate in animals, according to Predict, a US government-funded collaboration by infectious disease experts across the globe. Already, Predict scientists have identified 1,200 new zoonotic, or animal-borne, diseases. But scientists estimate there are some 700,000 more zoonotic diseases we don’t even know about yet. ... “That infection” is Middle East respiratory syndrome (Mers), a novel coronavirus that so far has proven to be at least 10 times more deadly than Covid-19. It was discovered in Saudi Arabia in 2012. By 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) had identified “1,761 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with Mers-CoV, including at least 629 related deaths”. Later that year, an outbreak at a hospital raised the alarm that it’s not just camel herders who are susceptible to the disease, but anyone at all. But while camels can be carriers, the Mers threat to humans is mostly man-made. As human-induced climate change makes droughts more frequent, prolonged, and severe, herders have had to abandon cows and other livestock for camels because only they can survive weeks without water. The result is a growing number of camels in close contact with humans – the perfect conditions for the spread of a deadly disease. Mers causes the same sorts of respiratory system complications as Covid-19, including pneumonia. Symptoms often start with nasal congestion, a cough, chest pains, or difficulty breathing. In the worst cases, it may cause fibrosis – irreversible scarring – in the lungs. This can be deadly. More than one-third of all humans known to have contracted Mers have died from it, according to the WHO. Once it jumps from animals to humans, a Mers outbreak could grow rapidly. Saudi Arabia alone saw 15 people infected in December 2019 and January 2020 – three of whom were hospital workers infected by their patients. “The fact that RNA viruses such as coronaviruses mutate means you never know what could happen with that particular virus,” says Zimmerman.
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  2021-07-06

  World Zoonoses Day

  This is a tweet from the UN Environment Programme showing the driving factors behind zoonotic diseases and pandemics. Humans abuse of the environment is to blame.
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  2021-07-21

  Coronavirus, Climate Change, and the Environment

  In this article, Dr. Aaron Bernstein, Director of Harvard Chan C-CHANGE, answers questions about how climate change and COVID-19 are related. He discusses the problems that animal agriculture causes for both the environment and human health. Hopefully, more people will hear the words of a world-renowned scientist and make the change to veganism like I did 4 years ago.
• 
  2020-08-07

  Jewish Melbourne: Continental Kosher Butcher responds to Stage 4 lockdown

  Continental Kosher Butcher shared information on their facebook page after the Victorian Government announced Stage 4 of lockdown, which involved restrictions on the meat industry, explaining some of the short-term impacts, but reassuring customers not to panic about supply.
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  2020-06-21

  Thousands of workers at Tyson meat plants around the US test positive for Covid-19 as China suspends some Tyson imports

  This tweet from the New York Times to one of its articles tells how poultry imports had been suspended by China. It explores how the US has handled the virus in comparison to China has begun to have significant effects on the meat industry. Thousands of meat plant workers have gotten sick, and many have died, and considering the importance of the meat industry this could lead to significant issues in the meat supply chain or overall US meat production. This tweet not only highlights this issue, but also puts the negative spotlight on a household name brand that nearly everyone is familiar with. I chose this tweet for the archive because it exemplifies the various global domino effects that the virus has caused. This tweet originated from a search of twitter using Tags 6.1.9.1 and using the hashtag #virus the week of June 21, 2020.