# Raw milk is making a revival- because of Avian flu **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 16, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654 "2024-05-16T22:33:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/1 "2024-05-16T22:33:14Z")
> **[Seriously, don't drink the raw milk: Social media doubles down despite bird...](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/05/14/raw-milk-health-impact-bird-flu/73685527007/)** > > Raw milk fans are going as far as intentionally seeking out unpasteurized dairy products contaminated with H5N1 to consume for perceived "benefits." _Communities online have [continued to push](https://www.tiktok.com/channel/raw-milk) the rising trend of [seeking out raw milk for](https://www.instagram.com/explore/search/keyword/?q=raw%20milk) consumption in the weeks following an update on the [spread of bird flu in the U.S.](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/05/01/bird-flu-virus-milk-meat-dairy-product-testing/73529637007/) earlier this month._ _In a press conference on May 1, the CDC, FDA and USDA [revealed that recent testing on commercial dairy products](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/05/03/bird-flu-outbreak-raw-milk-social-media/73545886007/)detected remnants of the H5N1 bird flu virus in one in five samples. However, none contained the live virus that could sicken people and officials said testing reaffirmed that pasteurization kills the bird flu virus, making milk safe to consume._ _Even so, anti-pasteurization dairy advocates have continued their crusade online, with some saying they have begun to intentionally seek out milk contaminated with H5N1 to drink to “build up” what they believe will be a “tolerance” or “immunity” to the virus._ In other words- again- morons are listening to morons on social media insteads of actual scientists and medical experts. Raw milk- unless you know that cow\*- is fucking _dangerous_. And no, drinking raw milk will not immunize you from Bird flu. - when you are on a farm with a few milk cows- you drink raw milk-from your own cows. Cows you know, and that milk isnt mixed up with thousands of other cows- and if one of the cows is sick- all that milk is tainted. Mind you- I did not care for the taste, even squirted straight from the udder. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/2 "2024-05-16T22:37:45Z")
Been saying it for years. Cow milk is for calves. Not me. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/3 "2024-05-16T22:45:10Z")
Let’s not go there, Okay? Keep it on Raw milk., please. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/4 "2024-05-16T22:54:17Z")
If raw milk fanatics want to prove that it’s harmless, especially when bird flu seems to be morphing into cow flu, I wish them well, and hope they chug a lug just about as much udder direct milk they can glug! (And I also say that milk from a cow is only fit for human consumption once the magical cheese making miracle has been performed. If this bird flu shit makes it into the cheese supply, we’re going to have a problem!) ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/5 "2024-05-16T23:13:51Z")
I think giving these whackos more screen words is self-defeating. They have too much room on the internet as it is. IMO. I hear you, tho’ You don’t want responses in your thread? Fine. I’ll go. No need to push. ---
**Author:** ![SuntanLotion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suntanlotion/32/16165_2.png) [@SuntanLotion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SuntanLotion)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/6 "2024-05-16T23:28:52Z")
People came up with pasteurization to keep us healthy. I would never drink raw milk. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/7 "2024-05-16T23:32:41Z")
More proof that our culture is plagued with Oppositional Defiance Disorder. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/8 "2024-05-17T00:34:50Z")
Pastuer? Perhaps? Oops, sorry this isn’t about Raw milk. Excuse, please. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/9 "2024-05-17T00:48:10Z")
In the immortal words of G. L. Costanza: “[Louis Pasteur] was in the fields all day with the cows, you know with the milk, examining the milk, delving into milk, consumed with milk. Pasteurization, homogenization. And [Mrs. Pasteur] was in the kitchen killing cockroaches with a boot on each hand.” I will not let those sacrifices be in vain! ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/10 "2024-05-17T00:56:38Z")
This may be excessively cynical, boarding on out and out evil, but I’m in that sort of mood, so my response? Good. Okay, got that out of my system. But seriously, in a circumstance where (unlike COVID) the ones bearing the costs are only the stupids themselves, I endorse it. Screw these people. EXCEPT (!!!) it’s not just them. Sure, mostly, but their family (kids especially!), friends or others who don’t KNOW or can’t agree to the risks are vulnerable. So, I’ll keep the cynicism to a low burn, and instead hope that only the idjits who go this route suffer all the results of their poor choices, even if I know it to be folly. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/11 "2024-05-17T01:00:56Z")
Moderating: > [@DrDeth](#): > > Let’s not go there, Okay? Keep it on Raw milk., please. Don’t junior mod, please. Report posts you think are going off topic. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/12 "2024-05-17T01:14:06Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > Okay, got that out of my system. But seriously, in a circumstance where (unlike COVID) the ones bearing the costs are only the stupids themselves, I endorse it. Screw these people. > > EXCEPT (!!!) it’s not just them. Sure, mostly, but their family (kids especially!), friends or others who don’t KNOW or can’t agree to the risks are vulnerable. There’s also the possibility (how likely, I am not competent to address) that in one or more of these raw milk bird-flu-seeking idiots the virus will mutate into a form that is virulently infectious among humans and kick off a pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/13 "2024-05-17T01:21:31Z")
Oh granted, along with the costs to our medical system, which our never-to-be-sufficiently-damned _health insurance_ co-conspirator will use to further reduce protection to any and all they can manage. Thus the “it’s not just them” - I made the emphasis on the most vulnerable victims, but we’re all screwed by their selfishness. And even discounting that, if some numb-nut were to off themselves from this particular stupidity, it brings pain and consequences onto those who are emotionally involved with or financially dependent upon them. Thus my whole “cynical verging on evil” mention. I just tired of being the better person sometimes. 🤷‍♂️ ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/14 "2024-05-17T01:24:07Z")
> [@ParallelLines](#): > > I just tired of being the better person sometimes. You’re far from the only one. ---
**Author:** ![duality72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duality72/32/3910_2.png) [@duality72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/duality72)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/15 "2024-05-17T02:13:29Z")
An epidemiologist take on raw milk. > **[No, there are likely no immune benefits from raw milk](https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/no-there-are-likely-no-immune-benefits)** > > And other raw milk rumors addressed ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/16 "2024-05-17T03:35:10Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/mWg4pUI3yN8/maxresdefault.jpg "Ep156 Osterholm Update: H5N1: An Impending Crisis?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWg4pUI3yN8&t=33m23s) Stranger ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/17 "2024-05-17T12:09:34Z")
Listeria? No thanks. In our refrigerator we currently have soy, almond, and coconut milks. Delicious. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/18 "2024-05-17T12:49:16Z")
> [@duality72](#): > > An epidemiologist take on raw milk. Probably in the pay of Big Milk. 😀 ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/19 "2024-05-17T15:28:17Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Been saying it for years. Cow milk is for calves. > Not me. 1st reply is a threadshit, bad form. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > You don’t want responses in your thread? Fine. I’ll go. > > No need to push. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Pastuer? Perhaps? > > Oops, sorry this isn’t about Raw milk. Excuse, please. So you don’t even listen to yourself. I’ll help you out, **you are banned from this thread.** And I’m going to issue a warning as you were hijacking threads last night also. Maybe you’ll start paying attention to the OP and stop hijacking and threadshitting with a **warning**. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2024, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654/20 "2024-05-17T15:43:29Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > If raw milk fanatics want to prove that it’s harmless, especially when bird flu seems to be morphing into cow flu, I wish them well, I ran across this yesterday (though it’s from 2016): [![](https://i.imgur.com/hvhVPDX.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/hvhVPDX.png) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/raw-milk-is-making-a-revival-because-of-avian-flu/1001654.md?page=2)