Ingesting uncooked, unpasteurized milk was as soon as primarily touted by a small group of individuals on the left, usually these skeptical of company farming. However now, as considerations improve about the chance that avian flu could be transmittable to people by way of consumption of uncooked milk, MAGA conservatives have taken up the trigger.
The Meals and Drug Administration and the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention warn in opposition to consuming unpasteurized milk. Pasteurization kills pathogens in milk, and when that course of is skipped, the milk might comprise harmful germs, reminiscent of salmonella, E. coli, listeria, and others.
The CDC has recorded 202 outbreaks involving uncooked milk between 1998 and 2018, leading to over 2,600 sicknesses and 228 hospitalizations.
Since 2020, a number of Republican-led states have handed laws or modified rules permitting the sale of uncooked milk, regardless of these well being considerations. The states embrace Alaska, Georgia, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, and Wyoming.
On the identical time, MAGA influencers have began selling uncooked milk. Alex Clark, a podcast host for the far-right college students group Turning Level USA, has extolled the virtues of uncooked milk for pregnant ladies, regardless of that the FDA has particularly warned that pregnancies could be harmed via the consumption of uncooked milk. Undeterred by science, Turning Level USA has bought T-shirts and glass straws with pro-raw-milk slogans.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s choose to guide the Division of Well being and Human Companies, is a raw-milk advocate as properly. Talking earlier than a pro-raw-milk group in 2022, Kennedy stated it’s the solely sort of milk he consumes. He has additionally advocated for eliminating federal rules governing uncooked milk and has complained in regards to the “aggressive suppression” of uncooked milk.
Kennedy regularly promotes misinformation about science, notably the debunked declare that there’s a connection between childhood vaccination and autism.
Conservatism has traditionally been motivated by distrust of the scientific institution and the scientific course of, together with a want to “trigger” liberals with disturbing habits.
In current historical past, this drive was demonstrated by conservative complaints and protests about masking through the COVID-19 pandemic, at the same time as public well being officers advocated for masking to cease the unfold of the virus. Conservatives additionally railed in opposition to necessary vaccination insurance policies, although these insurance policies have been a key weapon within the struggle in opposition to an infection.
Information has proven that these beliefs have been such a big a part of conservatism that areas with massive conservative populations confirmed a greater fee of deaths associated to COVID than different areas.
The rise of avian flu in milk provides, together with present germs in uncooked milk, make consuming the dangerous product much more of a raffle. However conservatives, pushed by the mistrust inherent of their perception system in addition to an urge to make liberals mad, seem useless set on pushing raw-milk consumption.
Even when it kills them within the course of.
