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American dairy cows have been contracting avian flu, and inactive traces of the virus have been found in milk supplies across the country. The spread to humans has been very limited, but the Times Opinion columnist Zeynep Tufekci argues that hoping for good luck is not a strategy for responding to potential pandemics and that government agencies need to do a better job of coordinating, testing and reporting their findings quickly. (A full transcript of this audio essay will be available within 24 hours of publication in the audio player above.)

Persons: Zeynep Tufekci

☆ Bird flu could jump to humans any day. A former surgeon general says it feels like 2020 again.
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-25 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In recent months the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus has been spreading through US cattle herds for the first time ever. The cow-to-cow transmission is the latest escalation in a global outbreak that began when the virus reemerged in Europe in 2020. Bill Powers with his flock of white turkeys, kept under shelter to prevent exposure to bird flu, in Townsend, Delaware. Nathan Howard/Getty ImagesDr. Jerome Adams, a former surgeon general and the director of health equity at Purdue University, is getting deja vu. AdvertisementOnly testing the sickSo far, the USDA has only been testing cattle herds when an animal appears sick.

Persons: —, Jeremy Farrar, Nathan Frandino, Farrar, Bill Powers, Nathan Howard, Jerome Adams, they've, Adams, Donald Trump, hasn't, Terry Chea, they're, Zeynep Tufekci, Jean Carroll, Alexi J . Rosenfeld, President Trump, Trump, Biden Organizations: Service, Business, World Health Organization, Washington Post, Food and Drug Administration, New York Times, FDA, Johann, Reuters, US Centers for Disease Control, Purdue University, CDC, US Department of Agriculture, White, USDA Locations: Europe, South America, Fresno , California, Texas, Townsend , Delaware, COVID, Sonoma County , California

☆ We Are Blowing the Fight to Contain Bird Flu - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-24 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza among U.S. dairy cows, first reported on March 25, has now spread to at least 33 herds in eight states. Federal authorities say the milk supply is safe, but this latest development raises troubling questions about how widespread the outbreak really is. Rick Bright, an expert on the H5N1 virus who served on President Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, told me this is the crucial moment. That’s when I told him what I’d heard from Sid Miller, the Texas commissioner for agriculture. The commissioner speculated that back then, as much as 40 percent of the herds in the Texas panhandle may have been infected.

Persons: Rick Bright, Biden’s, ”, it’s, I’d, Sid Miller, Bright, I’m, what’s Locations: Texas

☆ You Don’t Have to Freak Out About Boeing Planes - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-31 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“Ah, it’s a Boeing Max,” I exclaimed to my travel companions after we boarded our plane a few weeks ago. I looked to see if we were seated next to a hidden door plug panel like the one that blew out on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in January. But the bad news wasn’t over: On Thursday, a New York Times investigation reported a disturbing pattern of sloppy safety procedures and dangerous cost-cutting. One expert who had spent more than a decade at Boeing told The Times, “The theme is shortcuts everywhere — not doing the job right.”Is it any wonder that some travelers are trying to avoid Boeing planes? The biggest danger of all may be understaffed air traffic controllers and overstuffed runways, which lead to far too many near misses.

Persons: ”, hasn’t Organizations: Boeing Max, Alaska Airlines, Federal Aviation Administration, Boeing, Senate, New York Times, Times, United Airlines

☆ Kate Middleton’s Story Is About More Than Kate Middleton - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“Where Is Kate Middleton?” yet another headline blared on Monday. But the frenzy around Catherine, Princess of Wales, raises important questions that go well beyond the usual concerns of royal watchers. On the surface, the controversy over Catherine’s photo and her absence may have nothing to do with Meghan. Their supposed rivalry has been manipulated for years now to generate nostalgia for social hierarchies of an idealized past. In modern Britain, royalty has played a similar role of entertainment and distraction — a role that persisted during the country’s post-Brexit decline.

Persons: Kate Middleton, Catherine , Princess of, Catherine, Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, Meghan, Juvenal Locations: Catherine , Princess of Wales, Britain, Rome

☆ Opinion | Shining a Light on Long Covid, a ‘Vicious Affliction’
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

To the Editor:Re “Could Long Covid Be the Senate’s Bipartisan Cause?,” by Zeynep Tufekci (column, Feb. 20):Like one of the people you interviewed, I, too, was an “Energizer bunny” before I contracted Covid. However, two active Covid infections within three months — in June and August of 2022 — left me virtually bedridden with long Covid for 18 months. To add insult to injury, there are too many dismissive doctors who treat long Covid in an ineffective manner and believe that long Covid is largely a psychological issue. We need strong, consistent funding and relentless, targeted research to identify effective diagnostic testing and successful therapies. We need to require insurance companies to fund experimental or off-label usage of pharmaceuticals and nutraceuticals (food products with health benefits).

Persons: Long, Zeynep Tufekci, Covid, —

Gen Z and younger millennials are taking to apps like TikTok to express their anger about everything from the conflict in the Middle East to the cost of living. Some politicians are not happy. In this audio essay, the Opinion columnist Zeynep Tufekci argues that lawmakers should stop blaming social media platforms for corrupting people’s minds, and instead concentrate on oversight and demand transparency from them. (A full transcript of this audio essay will be available midday on the Times website.)

Persons: Z, millennials, Zeynep Tufekci Organizations: Times

☆ Opinion | The Appeal of an All-American Strongman
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-14 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Cheryl Sharp, a 47-year-old sales associate who was among the many Iowans turned away from a filled-to-capacity Trump rally last month, sounded pretty confident she knew why Donald Trump was so appealing to many voters. “You want someone strong, globally, so that it creates mutual respect with other countries, and maybe a little bit of fear,” she told me. Being strong is better.” Sharp readily conceded that not everything Trump said was great, but she saw that as part of the right personality to be president. “You gotta be a little crazy, maybe, to make sure other countries respect and fear us,” she said. “He commands respect and fear around the world,” Scott Bobbitt told me.

Persons: Cheryl Sharp, Donald Trump, ”, “, ” Sharp, Trump, Scott Bobbitt, Heather, ” Scott Bobbitt, he’s Organizations: Trump Locations: New Hampshire

☆ How Companies Like Google Control Our Privacy and Our Data - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-20 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

“Inside the app, click on the Me tab, tap the settings icon and select Privacy. Under default privacy settings, select Private,” he explained. So, how much are default settings worth? For many companies, and even for entire industries whose business models are based on tracking people online, it was a cataclysmic event. Industries like mobile gaming, in which revenue largely depends on tracking users, also suffered.

Persons: ”, ’ ” Organizations: Apple, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Meta, Industries

☆ Opinion | The Memories That Feed Distrust in the Middle East
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-31 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +10 min

His pained voice turned to anger when he recounted encountering disbelief that Hamas committed terrible atrocities when it attacked Israel. Indeed, since Hamas did murder children and take others as hostages, should it get credit if it didn’t also behead them? But if the U.S. response after Sept. 11 is a model, it is as a model of what not to do. After the attacks, the United States received deep global sympathy. In the Middle East, the devastating aftermath of that war — justified by false claims — has never ended.

Persons: Moshe Lavi, Lavi, there’s, Biden, didn’t, that’s, ”, Bush, —, Peter Lerner, Saddam Hussein, Saddam, Benjamin Netanyahu Organizations: Hamas, New York Times, United Nations, Britain’s Sky, United, Iraqi Army, The New York Times, Guardian, Israeli Defense Forces, Hamas’s Naval Police, Naval Force, Amnesty International, Kuwaiti, American, Rights, Amnesty, West Bank Locations: Israel, Gaza, Iraq, U.S, United States, Abu Ghraib, People, Israeli, Kuwait, Vietnam, Kuwaiti

☆ My miserable, euphoric, muddy escape from Burning Man
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Social media was having a field day turning Burning Man into the epicenter of schadenfreude and misinformation, the few people who managed to connect to the internet reported. AdvertisementAdvertisementThe reality of Burning Man was not quite so dire. 2023 was my first year at Burning Man. I'd wanted to go to Burning Man for years. Even before the floods, there was an uncomfortable tension to Burning Man.

Persons: Joy, I'd, JULIE JAMMOT, Betty, preemptively, There's, they'd, Twitter, Zeynep Tufekci, Tufekci, I've, Ansel, we'd, Rob Price Organizations: FEMA, National Guard, Social, Getty, New York Times, Rock City, YouTube Locations: Nevada, San Francisco, Silicon, playa, AFP, Somme, Northern Nevada, Rock, American, Ansel Adams, Trail

☆ Opinion | One Thing Not to Fear at Burning Man
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-03 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

No matter how this mess is resolved — and many there seem to be coping — the common belief that civilization is but a thin veneer that will fall apart when authority disappears is not only false, the false belief itself is harmful. Rutger Bregman, who wrote a book called “Humankind: A Hopeful History,” had read “Lord of the Flies” as a teenager like many, and didn’t doubt its terrible implication about human nature. However, Bregman got curious about whether there were any real-life cases of boys of that age getting stranded on an island. They were stranded on an island for more than a year. When one of them broke his leg, they took care of him.

Persons: Rutger Bregman, ”, Bregman Locations: Nevada, Tonga, Polynesia

☆ Opinion | Cats With Bird Flu? The Threat Grows.
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-31 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

If one animal is infected by both, the viruses can mix genes and give rise to an avian flu that can infect humans. Fur farms in Finland, however, aren’t being closed. Instead the Finnish Wildlife Agency allowed fur breeders to kill wild birds near their farms in large numbers. Meanwhile, officials said a sizable outbreak of H5N1 among pet cats in Poland this summer killed at least 29 animals, though cat owners have compiled lists with as many as 89 sick animals. The affected cats lived in different areas of Poland, yet their viruses had almost identical genetic sequences.

Persons: aren’t, Tom Peacock Organizations: Finnish Food Authority, Finnish Wildlife Agency, Agency, Britain’s Imperial College Locations: Finland, Poland

☆ Few Schools Have Covid Relief Funds to Improve Air Quality - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-09 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In March 2021, Congress allocated $122 billion for schools to cope with the Covid pandemic and its aftermath — to hire tutors, retain teachers or improve their facilities. Public health and clean air advocates hoped that this would lead to widespread improvements in classroom ventilation and air quality, to help ward off future pathogenic threats and reduce problems like dust, allergens and wildfire smoke. About 28 percent more installed in-room air cleaners, 8 percent said they installed ultraviolet lights — a more expensive and complicated method — and the rest reported no changes that would substantially improve air quality. Moreover, once the federal spending was approved, aggressive salespeople descended on school officials who were struggling to open. School officials often were persuaded to spend more for products that many scientists believe aren’t substantially more effective than cheaper alternatives that have been thoroughly studied.

Organizations: Public, Centers for Disease Control

☆ Opinion | The Government Must Say What It Knows About Covid’s Origins
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-21 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +3 min

One of those named researchers, Ben Hu, is a leading scientist who has worked on bat coronaviruses related to SARS. In September 2021, DRASTIC also obtained a funding proposal that the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s U.S. collaborator, EcoHealth Alliance, submitted to the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The proposal called for using genetic engineering to perform experiments with bat SARS-like coronaviruses and modify them by inserting features that can increase their ability to infect humans. The feature could also have evolved naturally, and many scientists dismissed its significance as evidence that research set off the pandemic origins. (Some of the scientists have said they later changed their minds).

Persons: Ben Hu, Yu Ping Organizations: U.S, U.S ., Waste, Wuhan Institute of Virology’s, EcoHealth Alliance, Pentagon’s Defense, Research Projects Agency, Wuhan Institute, Virology Locations: Wuhan, U.S, coronaviruses

☆ Zeynep Tufekci on ‘Breaking Bad’ - The New York Times
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The TV drama “Breaking Bad” does an exceptional job of capturing America’s other exceptionalisms. So Walter turns to yet another American institution that stands out among the nation’s peers: a vast and violent drug trade. Walter worries about his family’s future — especially that of his son, Walt Jr., who has cerebral palsy. But Walter Jr. is talented: In an episode that aired one year before the crowdfunding site GoFundMe was founded, Walt Jr. designs a website to solicit donations to help pay for his dad’s cancer treatment. 1 cause of bankruptcy in the United States.

Persons: topick, Alexis de Tocqueville, Barack Obama, “, Ronald Reagan, Walter White, Walter, —, Walt Jr, Walter Jr, Walt, Jr, ”, don’t Organizations: Caltech, National Rifle Association Locations: America, United States, GoFundMe, Covid

☆ Opinion | The Pandemic Threat That Hasn’t Gone Away
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Zeynep Tufekci | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

His father said the man “wanted to die at home” rather than bring shame to his lab and his country. The incident came to light only after the desperate father threatened to kill himself unless his son sought medical help. Back in 2003 her supervisor had been infected with SARS in a lab. But the abilities scientists have developed in the past few decades have increased the threat. Scientists studying animals in the wild can carry back pathogens to their lab and the densely populated areas where they may be situated.

☆ Twitter restricted in Turkey, according to network monitoring firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

Washington CNN —Access to Twitter has been restricted in Turkey, according to reports by an internet monitoring company as well as journalists and academics tracking the country’s response to the devastating earthquake this week. On Wednesday, the network monitoring firm NetBlocks said traffic filtering had been applied at the internet service provider level that was preventing Twitter users from reaching the social media site. It also comes as Turkish police detain individuals after sharing “provocative posts” on social media platforms. Tufekci added that some Twitter users had been expressing “increasing dissatisfaction” with Turkey’s response effort. Some Twitter users made appeals to Twitter CEO Elon Musk for help, tagging his Twitter handle in an apparent effort to flag the issue for his attention.

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