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Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

thelocal.dk

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Re: Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

#31

Post by fartzzz »

djxfade wrote: post #29
cheph wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Denmark is not a socialist/communist/marxist country, it is not the Danish state's function to provide jobs for people.

You don't have something simulator to Norways social services? In Norway they will help you find a new job, and offer re-education. You also gets up to 80% of your former salary provided by the government until you do.

Yes Denmark have similiar social services. The farms (and related companies that works in the industry) will get financial help and the State will help workers with re-education

Re: Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

#32

Post by bigbubba »

recursive wrote: post #23
apazzolini wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree with your first paragraph, but humans > minks by literally any measure.

> humans > minks by literally any measure Not by the measure of the luster of their coat.

Our coats now.

Re: Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

#34

Post by napier »

_Microft wrote: post #19
jlouis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1. Yes. This is serious. Mutation is a big red reset button on the pandemic potentially. 2. No. Minks are kept in small cages with a very high density of biomass. This makes it a perfect incubator. Also ferrets have some similarities with humans in the upper respiratory system, making this more of a concern.

Not only that, the conditions of keeping the animals close but not too close even encourages selection for mutations that allow the virus to spread more easily through air. If I remember correctly, ferrets were held under similiar conditions for "gain for function" experiments [0]. "Gain of function" means here how the virus can develop the ability (function) of spreading through the air when it e.g. initially requir…

Banned in the US, but presumably outsourced to wherever else the research funding flowed to?

Re: Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

#35

Post by lumberjack »

pinipedman wrote: post #17
bzb6 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans > Minks

Humans raise mink in horrible conditions just to be slaughtered so we can make a fashion statement. Then, when the very conditions we created become an inconvenience to us, we slaughter them and fail to make even frivolous use of them, rendering their tortured lives even more pointless and sad. After all that you have to be pretty callous and self-important as a species to think "Humans > Minks"

Why are you putting the blame on the whole of humanity? Go place the blame on well off white western women, who are probably the main consumers of such products. I literally never owned anything made of out fur, let alone mink fur.

Re: Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

#36

Post by _Microft »

abeppu wrote: post #22
graeme wrote: post #18

This is one of the serious dangers with the idea of letting the virus run wild to achieve herd immunity: you create a lot of animal reservoirs. Though minks do seek way riskier than average.

Why are minks riskier than average? Is it because of biological similarity (but then, there are lots of other mammals), or because of the conditions they're kept in? Naively, I might have just expected that cows or pigs or sheep would be the highest risks in aggregate, just because of numbers.

I don't know why but it seems that in minks SARS-Cov-2 mutates a lot more frequently than it does in humans. This would mean a lot of new strains that we would not know how to detect or deal with.

Re: Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

#37

Post by im3w1l »

fartzzz wrote: post #15
wffurr wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's possible there is only mink-to-human transmission and not human-to-human. This was the case for MERS, which was contained in part by culling chickens.

It is believed that some of the cases (all?) didnt have any contact with minks and therefore was human-to-human

Source?

Re: Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

#38

Post by aeyes »

sethhovestol wrote: post #33

From the article this looks like it's not SARS-Cov-19, can someone confirm that? Does the weak immune response mean it's also novel?

Seems like it's SARS-Cov-19:

> Mette Frederiksen said a report from a government agency that maps the coronavirus in Denmark has shown a mutation in the virus found in 12 people in the northern part of the country who got infected by minks. Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said half the 783 human COVID-19 cases in northern Denmark ”are related” to mink.

Source: https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Denmark-wants-to-cul...

Re: Denmark to cull millions of minks over mutated coronavirus

#39

Post by Igelau »

pinipedman wrote: post #17
bzb6 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Humans > Minks

Humans raise mink in horrible conditions just to be slaughtered so we can make a fashion statement. Then, when the very conditions we created become an inconvenience to us, we slaughter them and fail to make even frivolous use of them, rendering their tortured lives even more pointless and sad. After all that you have to be pretty callous and self-important as a species to think "Humans > Minks"

It's a dismal reality, but the fact that they shouldn't have done this in the first place doesn't have an iota of bearing on what has to happen now. Good luck selling anyone on a rationale that asks them to risk human lives to buy a couple more years for the world's most miserable minks. Ergo, Humans > Minks.
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