Media Eager To Blame New COVID Variant On Livestock

Word on the street is there is a new COVID variant on the loose. 

Now, it’s hard to say if this one should give us pause for concern, or if click-bait journalists who love to fan the flames to boost their numbers are just using it to get their base worked up and in a frenzy.

I say this tongue-in-cheek, but maybe we’ll call this one of the “election season variant - round two.”

One of my friends said it best on Facebook and gave me quite a chuckle, “There’s a new variant making the rounds. If y’all could stay six-feet apart, we’ll have this deal known out in two weeks.”

Now that I’ve ruffled a few feathers with these opening comments in today’s column, let me get to the meat and potatoes of what I’m concerned about with the “next pandemic.”

No matter the source, the bio-weapon, the lab leak, or the organic spread of whatever is coming next, there are people with nefarious agendas who will use this to push forward their extremist goals.

Take, for example, animal rights activists. They seized on the opportunity in 2020 and 2021 to accelerate their anti-meat, anti-animal agriculture policies. Attacking rodeo, fur, wool, and even milk in coffee shops, these folks did not pause for even a second while the rest of the world was navigating an uncertain situation.

Articles soon came out during the pandemic with titles like, “The End Of Meat Is Near.” These journalists opined that it was the “dirty” livestock industry that was creating the spread of pathogens. 

Other articles claimed that soon, “beef would only be for the affluent,” and it was interesting to see how the media started to tie together the climate change narrative alongside the pandemic reports.

To me, it all whittles down to control. Our elite politicians got to decide who was “essential,” which resulted in hundreds of thousands of small businesses shutting down for good, while the big box stores continued on business as usual.

We saw the forcible shutting down of churches, because worship and practicing our religious beliefs were deemed not essential, as well.

We saw people lose their jobs and be ostracized from society for making personal health decisions for their own bodies. 

And we saw politicians chomping at the bit to chip away at our private property rights. Biden’s 30X30 plan, which would put 30% more land in the federal government’s control by the year 2030, is a prime example of that.

Considering all of this, my eyebrow raises quite a bit when I see chatter of the “next pandemic” and certain places across the country reinstating their mask mandates. I wonder what’s in store for us this round, and how human behavior will be shaped by potential lockdowns, mandates, and duplicitous political agendas.

USA Today’s Karen Weintraub recently published an article titled, “U.S. Meat May Start Next Pandemic.”

Citing Harvard Law School and New York University research that claims the United States has zero regulations to protect us from zoonotic diseases.

The fear-mongering in the article was astounding, to say the least. And the overall message of this article, like so many others, is this — meat is to be avoid. Here’s another reason, among many, that we’ll say to curtail consumption.

Now I would argue if our government truly cares about protecting our nation from zoonotic disease, they would start with a request that every American cattle rancher in this country is united on — stop the importation of Brazilian beef. These folks are bad actors in the global marketplace when it comes to labor and human rights, destroying the rain forest, and being transparent on issues like foot and mouth disease.

Yet, the beef industry’s collective request to the USDA to ban these imports is falling on deaf ears. Why is that?

I could go on, but I give you this food for thought — if the next pandemic is going to rear it’s ugly head, make no mistake, there will be people that use it to push their agenda. The target is on the American cattle rancher’s back, and it’s up to us to share the truth, the science, the research, the facts, and our stories from the heartland. 

If we don’t, these folks will tell our stories for us, and if it’s up to reporters like Karen, the story will not be very favorable at all.