Avian flu detected in wastewater from 10 Texas cities

Most likely cities based on my reading of the report and then asking a computer model to verify (I grew up in TX)

    Houston – Largest city in Texas (South Texas)
    Dallas – Major city in North Texas
    El Paso – Major city in West Texas
    San Antonio – Major city in South Texas
    Austin – Central Texas hub
    Fort Worth – Large city in North Texas, close to Dallas
    Corpus Christi – Major coastal city (South Texas)
    Lubbock – Large city in West Texas
    McAllen – Important city in South Texas (Rio Grande Valley)
    Arlington – Substantial city in North Texas, near Dallas

> It also supports the conclusion that it is not actively transmissible between humans, yet.

Sorry, I'm not following. How does a high level of prevalence show a lack of virality?

I can think of at least two infections that are probably widespread and underreported in the US. Plus, in recent years, there's a quiet little Hepatitis A epidemic in the US that the CDC is actively downplaying.

I'm aware of the hep A thing because it probably started in the homeless population in San Diego County, California. I happened to be homeless and running a blog called The San Diego Homeless Survival Guide, though I had been out of San Diego County for over two years.

I was contacted by some online rag and interviewed via email while on route to bring off the street. They misgendered me and made up a quote while cloth.

But it made me aware of the issue. So I then watched over coming months as reports of it spread further north to Los Angeles etc and eventually across the nation.

I blogged about it a few times but one dirt poor female blogger with no traction is not well positioned to essentially shout down a health crisis cover up by the US government.

Then Covid hit and people had bigger fish to fry.

I probably still have one blog post up somewhere about the quiet little Hepatitis A epidemic but I know I posted about it more than once and then redacted it more than once. I have a long history of doing that while trying to figure out this blogging thing. I do that less these days.

"Overton Window" plus who has credibility in the eyes of the public plus government goals of trying to avoid panicking people etc -- insert some Russian joke about The News isn't always true and The Truth isn't always news or something along those lines (a play on words, as I understand it, though I can count to ten in Russian and might know TEN more Russian words).

How long until the technology is cheap and small enough that municipalities sell access to the pipes out of each house, to data brokers?

I imagine in most cities it's illegal already to have a septic system if there is public sewage available.

If the scientists are motivated enough, they can trace a virus all the way to your place of business.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-02996-y

That depends on system design. Older systems tend to be combined systems, unless they've been reworked to separate stormwater. If you live in or near somewhere that often has sewage outflows in heavy rains, chances are it's a city that urbanized before WW2 and has combined sewers.

Sanitary sewers also tend to be leaky, rain will result in surface water entering the sanitary sewers and larger flows into the treatment plants even if storm drains are routed elsewhere. You might get some filtration from soil though. If your city only very occasionally has sewage outflows in heavy rains, it's probably from ground inflows rather than combined sewers and there may also need to be a second trigger such as power loss.

Lots of stormwater lines in Texas cities/suburbs are straight to water sources. Lots of PSAs and signs and what not about storm drains going to rivers and lakes and what not. They don't often hit a lot of treatment plants.

As a kid I had a lot of fun exploring the underground of the storm drains.

Yes, that's part of the whole purpose of pasteurization, there is ample proof that it is generally useful at that, and there is specific research showing that it is effective for avian flu. And that's just normal pasteurization, when GP said his potentially over-cautious approach is to only consume ultra-pasteurized milk if it sourced from the US.

https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-informatio...

Let me introduce you to the "germ theory" of disease. It makes more accurate predictions about the world than other disease theories!

https://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2016/08/history-pas...

I'm struggling to think of definitions of these terms where this sentiment might seem coherent

Yes, as per the FDA's own website[0]

[0]https://www.fda.gov/food/alerts-advisories-safety-informatio...

Back in June some testing was done in UK based on samples from US.

https://www.gla.ac.uk/news/headline_1078447_en.html

Would love to see your sources to the contrary!