Well this is chilling. There’s a coronavirus mutation detected in Denmark that scientists say is more resistant to antibiotics antibodies and therapies and could spur a new pandemic. Vaccines in the pipeline for Covid-19 would be ineffective against this mutation. It’s spreading through the mink population in Denmark, the world’s largest exporter of mink, and has been found in over 200 people. As a result the Danish government is implementing new restrictions and ordering that the entire commercial mink population in the country be euthanized. Here’s some of the story, from The Guardian:
A Danish vaccine specialist has warned that a new wave of coronavirus could be started by the Covid-19 mink variant.
“The worst-case scenario is that we would start off a new pandemic in Denmark. There’s a risk that this mutated virus is so different from the others that we’d have to put new things in a vaccine and therefore [the mutation] would slam us all in the whole world back to the start,” said Prof Kåre Mølbak, vaccine expert and director of infectious diseases at Denmark’s State Serum Institute (SSI).
He added, however, that the world was in a better place than when the Covid-19 outbreak began. “We know the virus, have measures in place including testing and infection control, and the outbreak will be contained, to the best of our knowledge.”
Denmark, the world’s largest mink producer, said on Wednesday that it plans to cull more than 15 million of the animals, due to fears that a Covid-19 mutation moving from mink to humans could jeopardise future vaccines.
Announcing the cull, the country’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said 12 people were already infected [Ed note: this has been updated to over 200, see above] with the mutated virus and mink are now considered a public health risk, based on advice from the SSI.
Prof Allan Randrup Thomsen, a virologist at the University of Copenhagen, went further, telling the Guardian on Thursday that while Denmark was not “on the verge of being the next Wuhan” there were risks.
“This variant can develop further, so that it becomes completely resistant, and then a vaccine does not matter. Therefore, we need to take [the mutation] out of the equation. So it’s serious.”
In interviews with Danish media, Thomsen advised shutting down northern Denmark due to the risks from mink farms, a task made easier by the Limfjord, which cuts across northern Jutland.
Although bridges across the fjord remain open, all restaurants, pubs, cafes and sports activities in the area will close shortly.
While I don’t care much about the fur industry and find it barbaric, I did feel bad for the Danish mink worker interviewed in the Canadian news video below. (It’s less than two minutes if you want to watch it.) His entire mink population will have to be put down and that must be devastating. This is the right thing to do and I’m so glad that the Danish government is on top of it. Can you imagine if a new mutation was discovered in America, in poultry farms for example? They would cover it up, lie about it and get the Republicans to defend them. We already saw the virus affect the workers in poultry packing plants. It would be an absolute disaster. The pandemic and Trump administration have exposed all the ugly cracks in our system, a house of cards cobbled together with the paper mache of white supremacy and oppression. The current government is actively trying to kill people, but at least other countries are listening to the scientists and doing their best. Fingers crossed we’ll be on the other side of this pandemic in 2021.
This is Mette Frederiksen, Denmark’s Prime Minister.
Also, mink are cute and I feel sorry for them. The International Humane society supports the Danish government’s decision.
Photos via Mette Fredericksen on Instagram and credit: Azyl dla Norek and Mike Kestell on Flickr. Used by Creative Commons license
Just when there’s some good news along comes the bad news… poor babes
I just read this this morning. It’s a possible vaccine study done on Ferrets that seems promising (it does need to go to human trials though). Perhaps it would encompass this mutation…who knows? We have to think though, once we *do* find something that “works”, that like the (reg.) Flu vaccine, we will be able to adapt it each year to help encompass any mutations.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/05/health/coronavirus-ferrets-vaccine-spray.html
WTAF.
How about forbidding using animals for this outright.
And let’s keep random wild animals away from people for dumb acts of consumption, stopping the spread of disease.
The reason banning ethical fur harvesting this is dead in the water is because people are unwilling to give up their leather goods. The hypocrisy shuts the discussion down. Also, there are people around the world who simply can’t afford to purchase beef regularly. That may be hard to believe for middle class Westerners but there are many who still only get their animal protein from what they can catch. Furthermore, eating game is not the only way these diseases can be transmitted. A bite from a wounded animal for instance.
I feel for the workers in this industry and also think this is a further reminder that we need to urgently re-think our relationship with the natural world. Rich people don’t need fur coats and accessories, we don’t need to eat so much meat.
+1
I live in Denmark – yeah, this is pretty worrying, they think even more people have been infected this this mink variant of COVID-19.
I am glad they are doing the right thing and culling the mink; though it is a huge amount of mink to cull, these mink unfortunately were only being farmed to die anyway. I feel for the 3000 people working in the mink industry in Denmark, it’s a bad time to lose those jobs and I hope the government supports them to transition to new careers.
Doesn’t Denmark have a system in place to financially support the unemployed? I keep reading about it. You guys are the example that Bernie Sanders points to.
There is a system in place – but it is still hard to loose your job. Right now, the northern part of Jutland has been completely shut down – even more severe than the original shutdown in March. I live in Denmark and I so hope they the authorities can keep this contained.
Just because Denmark, and other places in Scandinavia, has things in place to help unemployment doesn’t mean that it’s not hard.
Also, here (Norway) you don’t get 100% of your paycheck if you get laid off, you get about 67% of it.
Plus, as much as I don’t care for the fur industry, some of these businesses have run for generations and is someone’s passion. Not to mention, whether they start back up or do something else, it still takes time to get back up again.
Also, losing your job hurts, emotionally and psychologically. That’s not less true whether unemployment benefits are better or not.
67% isn’t great but it sounds awesome compared to the 23% my husband received in California.
@ Ragna, this was my thought about the industry too. My husband’s family is from Norway (stavanger) and before I went I used to be appalled at them bringing back sheepskin. I was shocked at how the sheep farming sustains entire villages. It sounds like this is different as the sheep farms we went to used every. Single. Piece. Of a sheep, but the generational aspect and reliance on one specific industry I have a much better understanding of. It still doesn’t make me support killing for fur alone, but the impact of what this would mean is really unfortunate.
Those pictures and this story make me want to give my cat a hug.
Its really worrying, covid 19 apparently can jump species fairly easily. There have been cases of dogs and house cats and large cats getting it. Which makes sense since they have always been able to catch colds from us.
People keep rats , mice , hamsters, ferrets ect as pets which also can catch colds from us (coronavirus)
So…. What if it jumps to cats or dogs. I know they were killing people’s pets at the start of this in china because of some cases in them.
Thank God Denmark is responsible and being honest about this. I predict the whole country goes back on total lock down for a bit to contain this.
During the height of the pandemic the whole country was paid to stay home for two months.
My husband is from Denmark, so we would hear from his mom and sister all about it.
But yeah, with the current administration here in the U.S. it would be a total nightmare, we’d never contain it.
And our moron population would never comply
I’m very very glad that we have a socialdemocratic government during this time.
Incidentally, cats have been affected by a type of corona virus for a very long time.
Do what you gotta do Denmark.
And I agree, if this was the US they would turn a blind eye “for the economy”.
ETA: I also want to say that in the US they need to get rid of factory farming! The way they breed chickens, pigs and cows for meat consumption is literally a Petri dish for the next potential pandemic. And your right about the meat plants too.
Agreed, It’s no secret that keeping large numbers of animals in extreme confinement and other unnatural conditions and pumping them with antibiotics is not only cruel, but dangerous.
Hopefully it’s the end of this industry in Denmark.
It’s a progressive country that will help those workers find new work, hopefully.
The days of justifying wearing fur for warmth are over – there are modern materials that are far better for warmth than wearing the skin of another living being.
HEARD. There is just simply no reason in this day and age for raising animals for slaughter and their bodies human use as clothing. I have heard friends who have tried to go veg that they’ve become sick and weak, and I know nutrition is personal. But after years of owning down comforters and having a down jacket, I’ve made my first microfiber quilt purchase and the quality and effective is so excellent I will never ever feel I need to buy animal warmth products again. Also, I love faux fur outerwear.
This is heartbreaking. I get that it is something that has to be done, but I still feel sorry for the minks (and there is no reason to still farm and slaughter them for their fur!)
We must learn, we must do better. Our relation in regards to animals, farmed and wild, needs to be fundamentally changed. We are causing so much harm, to them and ourselves.
Unfortunate all around. But keep wild animals wild. My cousin is a conservation biologist and got very sick after one interaction with a turtle. It was a known turtle virus humans can get, but it’s probably best to keep your distance from all wild animals. And fur is actually quite sustainable, I disagree with it, but it has its place unfortunately.
I really hope someone pioneers lab grown fur coats one day. With genetic engineering and the right kind of Petri dish, you’d think they could. I would be all over a cruelty free leopard jacket.
You couldn’t pay me to wear one of those ghastly for the environment fake furs.
The purpose of farming all of these mink was to kill them anyway. This forced cull simply exposes more clearly the cruelty of an industry that exists solely to satisfy the desire of the wealthy for a particular type of clothing material.
We need to leave the animals alone . Every disease that we get comes from torturing, killing and using animals as products. They are sentient beings. This news broke my heart 😞 go vegan for them, for you, for the planet, for your soul
Actually, since the last article that talked about veganism, I’ve done some more reading, and pasturing animals in very specific ways is one of the best ways to heal land. The book that I read that explains this is “The Soil Will Save Us.” Truly, the way that grassland evolved needs to grazed by herbivores that clump together and move on before decimating the grass. In the process, they crush broken grasses into the soil where they further feed microbes, their urine and feces feed microbes that make all sorts of nutrients bioavailable to plants. And all this healthy soil locks away carbon from the atmosphere.
Yes but. Current crowding practices in livestock farming create stress and disease and feces and urine runoff from animal farms has created situations like vegetables transmitting deadly disease. And I do believe that there is enough methane produced by bovine herds to cancel out soil benefits that “lock carbon.”
U.S. farms are not wild grassland. Cows here are fed cheap and medicated and juiced up cornfeed (ever seen a silo?). Bovine farm crowding has created ebola in spinach, mad cow disease and other ills.
And a book that talks about an ideal way to pasture animals doesn’t change that.
Can we stop torturing and murdering animals just because we like their flesh and fur? Humans are such monsters. We can do so much better for our fellow earthlings!
How is this new strain “more antibiotic resistant”? It is a virus. All viruses are antibiotic resistant. Antibiotics treat bacterial infections. Anyone explain?
Probably the pnemonia you can get from it, they are using antibiotics to treat that
Either they mean resistant to whatever antivirals they had in development, or the bacterial pneumonia that complicates SARS-CoV-2 caused by the new strain is caused by some different, more resistant bacteria.
I wish they’d clarify
Antibodies, not antibiotics. It is resistant to antibodies (the proteins our immune systems produce in response to fight the the viral infection). Hope that clarifies.
This is serious and devastating.
This was absolutely an error I made. The announcer in the video said it was more resistant to antibodies and the the scientist said “therapies” and I misreported that part. I have corrected it.
This is terrifying and so upsetting. I feel bad for the workers as to have an entire industry go belly up is never an easy thing if that is YOUR industry. I feel awful about 15 million minks being culled, though that was where they were headed either way, mink coats aren’t made of live minks. I hope they are humanely euthanized, the sheer volume of them and the fact that they are now considered a danger to health worries me about what short cuts could be taken.
I remember seeing hundreds of thousands (??) of pigs in America screaming as they were gassed at the start of the pandemic. This is a barbaric system all round. Fuck everyone who wears fur coats. Evil.
My only comfort in this is the mink would have died anyway and now they will die sooner, thus shortening their suffering. Pigs are so smart and have well-developed emotions. Even if I were not vegan for 25 yrs, I would never again eat a pig.
Where on earth did you see that?
Some time I think Covid will kill us all. Aren’t I just a ray of sunshine today. Comes from being sleep deprived from the last few days.
It IS bad – but NOWHERE near as bad as the Spanish Flu (estimated 40-50 million dead) or the various outbreaks of the Plague. Or Smallpox in the Americas (estimated 56 million deaths). The Plague which decimated Europe in the years between 1348 to the late 1600s had a horrific death toll. Research estimates the initial outbreak in 1348 to have had 200 million deaths in Europe! And the death rate stayed about 1/3 of the population at almost every outbreak.
Like I said, it is bad and we should all be extremely vigilant – but we know a lot more about what to do (quarantine, hygiene, social distancing, etc.) and the state of science is very advanced in our times. I am worried and sometimes scared – but I am also cautiously optimistic.
Ugh the fur industry is gross.
Maybe when our new alien overlords start farming humans we will start to care how disgusting, cruel, and unnecessary factory farming is.
I hope these jobs never EVER come back and instead transition to something useful, rather than raising animals in tiny cages to be slaughtered for eyelashes.
These animals shouldn’t be farmed at all! The majority of pandemics comes from animals being harassed by humans! Ebola, Marburg, Swine Flu, Coronavirus, all happened because man keep fucking with nature.
Fur is disgusting, those animals were captives in horrible conditions. Killing them is just a way to pretend you found a solution, the real one would be stop exploiting animals for all.
There’s no rule that there can only be one worldwide pandemic at a time. This is the proof. It’s a fact that these viruses come from factory farming/ wet markets, etc. The WHOLE world is being affected by Covid but mainstream media doesn’t want to talk about it.
Hi, Danish journalist here…
This is a pretty tragic story regardless if you are pro or against mink-farmes. Many people are affected by this – farmers, workers, families and communities.
So, Coronavirus has been detected within various mink farms in the North of Jutland for some time. The goverment and the authorities initially tried to avoid to destroy the entire mink farms in order to save their jobs and foundation etc. Some farms were intially partially shut down but not the entire mink generation. Now this new mutation has been found, and the government couldn’t see any way out of this situation other than killing about three million minks who are at risk of getting the mutation. They have killed about one million minks – two millions are yet to be killed.
Many oy of these mink farms have been in business for tree-four generations. Some farmers have said that they have to sell their farmhouse, because their entire foundation has been ripped away. The same with other employers. They just can’t buy new ones, because the Danish mink farmers are world leading and have been breeding for generations. All this is gone. They have to switch profession.
Yes, they will get some sort of compensation from the state from the loss of profession. They won’t go hungry to bed, and they will have a home at the end of the day. The Danish welfare state makes sure of that. But their entire identity and profession has been ripped away. That is rough, and there have been various farmers crying on TV .
There are also restrictions in the area that are to make sure of that the mutation doesn’t travel from city to city.
Yes, if this was to happen, Denmark is one of those countries that has the resources to handle the problem – both the farma and the people who are affected.
Thank you for this comment. It is eye opening.
Scandi, does Denmark allow the cloning of livestock? Would that be a way for these farmers to preserve the DNA of the livestock they’ve cultivated for generations? To gather and freeze samples from their best X number of animals, to try to restart the industry in a few years.
Hi.
No, Denmark does not allow this. Denmark is actually quite restrictive in the reproductive area concerning both humans and animals. Paid surrogacy isn’t allowed, IVF options for lesbians or transgendered are only available using their own eggs or through a legal egg donation system, etc. Freezing DNA for cloning isn’t allowed either.
These mink farmers have made it clear that this is the end of their livelihood, and that they cannot purchase new minks from abroad because there is such a quality difference, that they cannot earn the same from those breedings.
Now the discussion in Denmark is how serious this Cluster-5 mutation is. Some experts claim that it really wasn’t that widespread as the government claims. Others say that this has potential for an entire new pandemic. Crazy times!
Thank you for answering, I should have suspected that as there was no talk of gathering DNA from the mink stock in the news. For animal husbandry reasons, it means the finest (Danish) mink breeding stock will be completely eliminated. Nothing the Intl Fur Federation can do either I guess, not the in face of Danish law.
From what I understand Norway is also restrictive around human IVF and surrogacy.
here is an idea – let’s stop abusing and torturing animals. Maybe this is one of the lessons this pandemic will teach us.
Hi, Canadian here and I live where the air hurts my face. Unpopular opinion, fur (and leather) keeps you warmer. There’s a reason Canada Goose coats have real fur around the hood, it doesn’t frost as much with your breath and really helps keep you warmer. Having farms like this ensures that the animals are killed humanely. My father was a fur trapper, and getting gassed is going to be much preferable to getting caught in a trap. The unfortunate reality is that sometimes your opinion can be shaped by the environment you live in; for example a lot of people who live in the city love coyotes and protest using their fur, but if you live in a rural area, you’re more likely to want to remove a pest that will eat your pet. And you WILL have lost pets to coyotes, foxes, bears, etc. You yourself might have also been attacked.
I have two coats almost exactly the same, one with fake fur hood and one with real fur. I wear the fake fur all the time, and break the real fur one out for when it’s really cold. Huge difference. I agree that the meat industry really needs to change, and I can see the benefits of a lot of the philosophy behind veganism. But I’m not going to both sides it. Fur is expensive and if synthetics could really replace it in a practical, non-fashionable context, it would have by now. So please continue to wear and advocate for fashionable fake fur, that’s practical and ethical!! But consider how it is for people that don’t live where it’s always warm.
I just want to second this. When the weather is that cold, fur/leather can make all the difference. This typically isn’t factored into the conversation that sometimes it has an actual function.
Also synthetic fabric cause environmental damage.
Anyhow, I hope we can find natural solutions to fur & leather without contributing to the terrifying amounts of mircoplastics in the water.
A mutation has been the fear all along, not good.
All coronaviruses always mutate. This is why a vaccine will be ineffective.
Keep exploiting animals and this is what you get people.
Although I know this might be the right to do, I feel really bad for those minks 🙁 I wish there were some kind of treatment for them instead of killing them all…
It’s past time for the fur industry to end. Factory farming of all animals needs to stop now. Minks should either be left alone in the wild or kept strictly as pets, like ferrets.
This whole situation makes me ill. Those poor animals. They are innocent victims of the human species.
Meanwhile people over here in Louisiana are still going maskless everywhere. Can’t wait to die because of something that was mostly preventable
If this doesn’t finally prove that we’re a blight on this planet, nothing will.
I’m an atheist. I don’t think COVID is “god’s revenge” nor am I a tree-hugger who thinks it is “gaia’s revenge”. It is our fault, though. It is most definitely our fault and the only saddening fact about it is that the people who should be getting it and, yes, dying from it will not die. The rich, the soulless owners of corporations that pollute our environment, who are directly or indirectly killing children and animals and our ecosystem.
The more I think about it, the more I think this will kill us all. If not COVID, then the virus that’ll come after it. And, honestly? We deserve it. The planet will be better without us.
Also, boo-hoo, cry me a river. No compassion for anyone in the fur industry. Unless you’re indigenous, you should slap yourself for supporting this cruelty-based industry. Indigenous people treat nature with actual respect.
This “poor people who kill animals for fashion” reminds me of a “poor poachers uwu” post over at Tumblr. No mercy for those people. Poverty is not an excuse for inhumanity. I live in a poor country, too, and I could resort to these kinds of jobs. I don’t. I’m not a hero and I’m not the only one. These people who profit from cruelty to animals are vile, full stop.
Capitalism and large scale industrialization is a blight on this planet, not humanity itself. It is no coincidence that severe climate change and the destruction of entire eco-systems at an alarming rate is happening at the same time as large scale industrialization driven by capitalist logic.
In fact, capitalism is a blight on humanity itself. Not only the natural world but countless of humans suffer because of capitalist exploitation. We need a fundamentally different economic philosophy and system.
Capitalism is the only spontaneous system that develops in human societies since the dawn of time. It is natural to human behavior. Trying to stop capitalism is like trying to stop the use of language.
I’m excited for all the humane mink coats i can buy now!
Cellular/cultured meat tech means there will come a day soon when you can eat chicken, beef, salmon, etc., that’s been grown in a vat. They’re making vegan leather and all kinds of synthetic materials too. Veggies can be grown in vertical farms using possibly vegan fertilisers, with no soil. We don’t need to torture animals for this kind of stuff, and it eliminates the risks associated with mutating viruses. The thought of these poor cute, innocent minks living out their lives in tiny cages to be culled for their fur is heartbreaking. I’ve seen vids of them skinning raccoon dogs alive in China – afterwards the animals often stay alive for 10 minutes, still moving around and aware of their surrounds. Humans are the worst.
I hate when people use the word “cull” instead of saying what it really is: massive murder!