60 People In Idaho Sick From Drinking Raw Milk, Because ... Big Pharma? The Deep State?
It can't be the raw milk, because bacteria aren't real. Have YOU ever seen one?
About 60 people in Idaho have become sick after drinking raw milk in the last two weeks, which is the sort of thing we should get used to now that the American Right has decided that science and medicine are nothing but conspiracy theories. Yes, this is a whole ‘nother story about cows from the one about the flesh-eating screwworm outbreak in Texas. Just one more data point in the bounty of frightening public health news in the Age of MAHA.
Idaho’s Department of Health and Welfare (DHW) announced Wednesday that the outbreaks started on May 19, and had been traced to two different “milking operations,” one in the northern part of the state and the other in southern Idaho. We might call a milking operation a “dairy farm,” but considering the woo-woo hype and antigovernment fervor with which Trumpers have embraced raw milk, it’s pretty clear the sellers are milking the consumers, too.
About 45 of the people who fell ill tested positive for the bacterial infection campylobacteriosis; not everyone who got sick was tested, and health officials warn that more cases may be identified as the investigation continues.
While DHW didn’t publicly identify the sources of the infected milk, the agency said the dairies are cooperating with state and local public health agencies to “identify and fix any potential sources of contamination.” Good as far as it goes, but that doesn’t address the basic reality that the source in general would be cows, which live in barns and poop, and the best fix for potential bacterial contamination of milk is to pasteurize it. Jesus, we’ve only known about that since the late 19th century.
Prefer a non-Substack subscription? The button below will take any amount of your choosing at Paypal — let us know if you want the newsletter subscription too! they’re separate! — or we have a Patreon too.
In a statement, Idaho DHW spokesperson AJ McWhorter explained that really, there was no need to name the milking operations tied to the illness outbreak “because this is a potential risk for any raw milk producer.” Did McWhorter go on to add that raw milk from other producers is also likely to make you sick, because of the whole “no such thing as safe raw milk” thing? Not so much. Instead, McWhorter reassured the public that the milking operations “are working with public health officials to figure out which patches of milk might be affected and to take steps to remedy the situation,” although getting out of the business of selling raw milk doesn’t appear to be one of those steps.
This is at least Idaho’s second cluster of infections related to raw milk this year; in February, nine residents of Ada County, in the Boise area, became seriously ill after drinking raw milk. Two children were among those who got sick. In that outbreak, lab tests confirmed the illnesses were related to infection with E. coli bacteria, according to Central District Health, the local multi-county public health agency.
CDH reported that the children were hospitalized for “hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a rare but serious complication of E. coli infection that can lead to kidney failure and long-term health problems.”
In the current outbreak, the state health agency hasn’t provided any breakdown of the patients’ ages, and didn’t say whether anyone had been hospitalized.
Remember, kids, raw milk has no nutrition benefits over pasteurized milk, no matter what loopy raw milk advocates may claim. It’s just more likely to make you sick. In addition to campylobacter bacteria, raw milk can transmit “Listeria, E. coli, Salmonella and Mycobacterium bovis, which can cause tuberculosis in humans.” It’s especially dangerous for children, the elderly, pregnant people, and folks who are immunocompromised. Bizarrely, raw milk enthusiasts pretend they’re “protecting” children from the big scary corporate dairies that use pasteurization, even though pasteurized milk is far safer for kids.
Campylobacteriosis is an especially nasty infection that can cause serious illness and complications including Guillain-Barré Syndrome. Symptoms usually start two to five days after exposure, and last about a week; the symptoms include “diarrhea (sometimes bloody), fever, stomach cramps, nausea and/or vomiting.”
On the other hand, you really piss off the liberals who want to crush freedom through over-regulating what we eat and drink, so it’s probably worth weighing whether you’re willing to risk socialism just for the sake of keeping your precious children from having bloody diarrhea or maybe dying.
[Idaho Capital Sun / Idaho Dept. of Health and Welfare / Food Poisoning Bulletin / KTVB (February) / Politico / University of Arizona]
Yr Wonkette is funded entirely by reader donations. If you can, please become a paid subscriber, or if you’d like to make a one-time (or recurring) donation, you can click this here button. But for Crom’s sake wash your hands first.
𝘊𝘋𝘏 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘻𝘦𝘥 𝘧𝘰𝘳 “𝘩𝘦𝘮𝘰𝘭𝘺𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘪𝘤 𝘴𝘺𝘯𝘥𝘳𝘰𝘮𝘦 (𝘏𝘜𝘚), 𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘌. 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘪 𝘪𝘯𝘧𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘪𝘥𝘯𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘨-𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘮 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮𝘴.”
This is what makes me angry. It's one thing if idiotic adults want to do idiotic things, but then they drag their kids into the mess, and they end up suffering.
I'm a pediatric intensive care physician who is also trained in pediatric infectious diseases -- been doing it for 45 years. I've seen may cases of hemolytic uremic syndrome from E. coli 0157/H7. All were from exposure to cattle or raw milk from them. Two of the kids died, more than a few went into kidney failure. These people are dangerous idiots.