This time, it's the LAST paragraph you all should read

[conuly]

Big Bird's vaccination announcement sparks backlash from conservatives, GOP

To save you the effort of scrolling down to a roundup of how inane the rightwing has become, I'll just quote the last paragraph, seemingly dropped in from nowhere to add an other inch to the column:

Little research has been done about birds' getting Covid-19, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says "chickens and ducks do not seem to become infected or spread the infection based on results from studies."

I am very glad to know this thoroughly irrelevant piece of information.

Comments

[librarygeek]

I have a dog, I'm hoping that our vaccines keep her safe too! Dogs and cats do get COVID-19, but from their people living with them. 😔

[wpadmirer]

OMG, Big Bird is a fucking puppet, you morons! (bangs head on tv table)

[ioplokon]

Yeah a puppet of the administration, duh!

Sorry I laugh so I don't cry. This whole schtick is just the worst.

[adafrog]

Wait, what? Whatever.

[shadowkat]

Considering Big Bird is a puppet...LOL! I knew the right-wing went bat-shit crazy over this..

It did have the unexpected result of Big Bird suddenly obtaining over 10K followers on Twitter over night.

[kengr]

Alas, that's one of several sites that wants me to turn off my ad blocker (which is already off).

I suspect that what's happening is that it's an issue with tracking cookies or other third party cookies, but I can't be bothered to do the experimentation that'd be required to figure out which.

[larryhammer]

I'm glad to learn we've tested poultry for becoming reservoirs for this virus.

[conuly]

Yes, I just think that should be a separate article.

[semperfiona]

It's not that irrelevant that birds are not a vector for COVID-19; they were a major vector for West Nile virus, not that many years ago. The corvid populations in my area are still trying to recover from West Nile, and plenty of people got sick from it around here too.

[conuly]

It's not irrelevant to science or public health.

It IS irrelevant as a paragraph tacked on to the end of an article on how the GOP is freaking out that Big Bird - who, it should be stated, is not a real bird - got his shot and told kids about it.

[semperfiona]

Fair point.

[silveradept]

I feel like people who are squawking about Big Bird's tweet fundamentally misunderstand who Sesame Street is for and how researched within an inch of its existence the show is. Of course, those same people have probably been up in arms about Sesame Street being "woke" for years at this point, so I suppose this is less surprise and more "oh, the mainstream media needed something to cover because it was a slow news week."