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allegorical oracle

(3,399 posts)
Fri Dec 6, 2024, 06:04 AM Dec 6

RFK Jr's planning to make America healthy again with raw milk farmer

Robert F Kennedy Jr has asked a raw milk farmer whose products have been recalled for containing the bird flu virus to become a health adviser to the US government.

Mark McAfee, a raw milk producer from California, confirmed on Thursday that he had applied to advise the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on his product, after a request from Donald Trump’s Health Secretary nominee.

Mr Kennedy is understood to have asked Mr McAfee to apply for the role, despite his products being recalled 13 times since 2006 for containing bird flu and other pathogens.

/snip

His appointment to the FDA is not confirmed, and Mr Kennedy’s own nomination as HHS Secretary is subject to confirmation by the Senate.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/news/2024/12/06/rfk-jr-mark-mcafee-raw-milk-farmer-adviser-fda/

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no_hypocrisy

(49,208 posts)
1. One problem with raw milk is that if the lactating cow has mastitis
Fri Dec 6, 2024, 06:09 AM
Dec 6

(udder infection), the infection gets into the milk. And can be fatal to humans.

Nancy Lincoln, President Lincoln's mother, died of "milk sick", the infected raw milk.

travelingthrulife

(959 posts)
10. A cow's udders are simply not very clean. I grew up on raw milk but having
Fri Dec 6, 2024, 10:33 AM
Dec 6

worked on a dairy farm I can attest that it is definitely not a sterile or even very clean collection process. Their udder is wiped 'clean' with an antibacterial solution. Cows lie in mud and manure.
Because we were introduced to that bacteria at birth is probably why it never sickened us.

With bird flu coming our way it is simply nuts to not pasteurize it when it is known to kill that virus.

Botany

(72,665 posts)
2. America is now this Zebra. How many people have been saved from illness or death by Pasteurization?
Fri Dec 6, 2024, 07:08 AM
Dec 6


From wiki

Milk
Further information: Raw milk

180 kilograms (400 lb) of milk in a cheese vat
Milk is an excellent medium for microbial growth,[18] and when it is stored at ambient temperature, bacteria and other pathogens soon proliferate.[19] The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says improperly handled raw milk is responsible for nearly three times more hospitalizations than any other food-borne disease source, making it one of the world's most dangerous food products.[20][21] Diseases prevented by pasteurization can include tuberculosis, brucellosis, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and Q-fever; it also kills the harmful bacteria Salmonella, Listeria, Yersinia, Campylobacter, Staphylococcus aureus, and Escherichia coli O157:H7,[22][23] among others.

Prior to industrialization, dairy cows were kept in urban areas to limit the time between milk production and consumption, hence the risk of disease transmission via raw milk was reduced.[24] As urban densities increased and supply chains lengthened to the distance from country to city, raw milk (often days old) became recognized as a source of disease. For example, between 1912 and 1937, some 65,000 people died of tuberculosis contracted from consuming milk in England and Wales alone.[25] Because tuberculosis has a long incubation period in humans, it was difficult to link unpasteurized milk consumption with the disease.[26] In 1892, chemist Ernst Lederle experimentally inoculated milk from tuberculosis-diseased cows into guinea pigs, which caused them to develop the disease.[27] In 1910, Lederle, then in the role of Commissioner of Health, introduced mandatory pasteurization of milk in New York City.[27]

Developed countries adopted milk pasteurization to prevent such disease and loss of life, and as a result milk is now considered a safer food.[28] A traditional form of pasteurization by scalding and straining of cream to increase the keeping qualities of butter was practiced in Great Britain in the 18th century and was introduced to Boston in the British Colonies by 1773,[29] although it was not widely practiced in the United States for the next 20 years. Pasteurization of milk was suggested by Franz von Soxhlet in 1886.[30] In the early 20th century, Milton Joseph Rosenau established the standards – i.e. low-temperature, slow heating at 60 °C (140 °F) for 20 minutes – for the pasteurization of milk[31][32] while at the United States Marine Hospital Service, notably in his publication of The Milk Question (1912).[33] States in the U.S. soon began enacting mandatory dairy pasteurization laws, with the first in 1947, and in 1973 the U.S. federal government required pasteurization of milk used in any interstate commerce.[34]

The shelf life of refrigerated pasteurized milk is greater than that of raw milk. For example, high-temperature, short-time (HTST) pasteurized milk typically has a refrigerated shelf life of two to three weeks, whereas ultra-pasteurized milk can last much longer, sometimes two to three months. When ultra-heat treatment (UHT) is combined with sterile handling and container technology (such as aseptic packaging), it can even be stored non-refrigerated for up to 9 months.[35]

According to the Centers for Disease Control, between 1998 and 2011, 79% of dairy-related disease outbreaks in the United States were due to raw milk or cheese products.[36] They report 148 outbreaks and 2,384 illnesses (with 284 requiring hospitalization), as well as two deaths due to raw milk or cheese products during the same time period.[36]

*******
Last year I was fighting for my life because of an E. coli infection.

Emile

(30,804 posts)
4. Raw milk is bad because it can contain dangerous bacteria and germs that can cause serious illness or even death.
Fri Dec 6, 2024, 07:18 AM
Dec 6

Raw milk can contain bacteria like Salmonella, E. coli, and Listeria. Plus it has a shorter refrigerator shelf life. What's not to like?

Botany

(72,665 posts)
5. This is truly madness.
Fri Dec 6, 2024, 07:26 AM
Dec 6

What do scientists, microbiologists, dairy farmers, dietitians, cooks, and the food
industry people with their fancy expiration dates really know? That Louis Pasteur
was so overrated.

Did we learn nothing from the COVID outbreak and the links from animal contamination?

allegorical oracle

(3,399 posts)
6. Besides the history of raw milk-caused illness, couldn't RFK have found a farmer
Fri Dec 6, 2024, 08:16 AM
Dec 6

whose product hasn't been recalled 13 times for contamination?

Botany

(72,665 posts)
8. But what did Louis really do? Oh lots. Microbiology, germ theory, pasteurization, vaccines, and ....
Fri Dec 6, 2024, 10:18 AM
Dec 6
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Pasteur

This is madness a mentally ill shithead RFK Jr. in charge of a very important agency
that should be based in science. Trump’s response to COVID is in a large part for the
deaths of 14 million worldwide and RFK Jr. might beat that he already caused a measles
outbreak in the South Pacific.

ForgedCrank

(2,389 posts)
9. I see
Fri Dec 6, 2024, 10:31 AM
Dec 6

no issues with this as long as there are some controls.
The only milk I had for the first decade and a half of my life was "raw" milk. It came from our own milk cows, and it was never an issue because we knew how to handle it. And to be completely honest it does taste so much better.
As long as it is not allowed to be distributed and is isolated for local pickup, the burden and decision should be left to those who want to consume it. People should also be required to sign off before they buy the stuff to acknowledge that they understand what they are getting and how to handle the risks involved in getting it from an unknown source.

Jacson6

(843 posts)
11. There is something wrong with some one mentally that drinks raw, unpasturized milk.
Fri Dec 6, 2024, 11:11 AM
Dec 6

The bacteria & virus in it are lethal, especially for young children.

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