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Bird flu has jumped across to cows and is rapidly spreading through herds in the USA with traces found in milk. The risk to the general population is still considered low, given H5N1 does not appear to transmit from human to human. Those most at risk are farm and poultry workers close to infected animals. But researchers are concerned, given the potential for further mutations through intermediaries, such as cows, cats or pigs.
If mutations enable human-to-human spread, avian flu would become the top priority for governments around the world. The fatality rate is estimated by the World Health Organization at 52%, including young people. The US government is preparing a vaccine plan, with Tamiflu, a flu antiviral, seen to be an effective treatment. As yet it is considered a US problem with UK beef being largely imported from the Republic of Ireland, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands.
Given we are deluged with catastropherian panics daily in the media it could be just one more scare but if it does spread it makes sense for health authorities to be prepared.
The recent Covid-19 epidemic had a Saturn Pluto conjunction stamp, hinting at deprivation, hardship and destruction but that is not usually a sign of illness. more often bringing significant wars.
The astro-signature most associated with epidemics is a Saturn Neptune conjunction of which the next one is due in 2025/26 in Aries. The Spanish flu epidemic towards the end of World War One which wiped out more people in a single year than the Middle Ages black death plague (between 25 and 50 million) coincided with the Saturn Neptune conjunction in Leo of 1918.
An epidemic of St Vitus Dance (chorea) broke out in Europe in 1021 when Saturn and Neptune were together in Aquarius; the disease causes involuntary jerky movements and leads to brain deterioration. The plague that devastated Europe and Asia during the 1340s was marked by the Saturn–Neptune conjunction in Aquarius of 1344, and the Uranus–Pluto conjunction at the same time. The outbreak of bubonic plague in London in 1665 and the Great Fire of London a year later both took place when Saturn and Neptune were together in Capricorn.
In 1846 in Aquarius, widespread famine in Ireland followed the failure of the potato crop. By the conjunction of the late 1980s in Capricorn, the AIDS virus was running amok, causing countless deaths in Africa, Europe and the United States.
But given there are three Saturn Neptune conjunctions per century an illness blight is not a constant.
There is another side to a Saturn Neptune conjunction in providing practical care for the suffering. Medical advances are highlighted. Take one example, the Saturn Neptune conjunction in 1881 in Taurus, oversaw Louis Pasteur’s discovery of the anthrax vaccine.
Another thought – the foot and mouth outbreak in the UK in 2001 which saw a crisis in British farming with 6 million cows and sheep slaughtered came two years after the famous/infamous August 1999 Solar Eclipse. It had a highly charged, destructive Mars in Scorpio opposition Saturn square Uranus opposition a Leo New Moon Grand Square and its path ran across the UK. There were not too many instant effects in the UK but when transiting Mars returned eighteen months later to Scorpio the foot-and-mouth outbreak occurred.
The Great American Eclipse recently was not as stressful as the 1999 eclipse was in terms of aspects but it might be worth keeping an eye on later triggers to the 2024 eclipse chart.
Celestial straws in the wind.