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How genetic science helped expose a secret coronavirus outbreak in Postville

cigaretteman

HR King
May 29, 2001
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POSTVILLE, Iowa — It wasn’t until their colleagues began to disappear that workers at Agri Star Meat and Poultry realized there was a killer in their midst.

First came the rumors that rabbis at the kosher plant had been quarantined. Then a man who worked in the poultry department fell ill. They heard whispers about friends of friends who had been stricken with scorching fevers and unbearable chills — characteristic symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

Where was the contagion coming from?


No one would say. Not Agri Star’s wealthy owner, who didn’t shut down production lines after cases were confirmed among workers. Not the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which closed a complaint containing multiple allegations against the plant without an inspection. Not Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), whose administration threatened to prosecute officials who released covid data and did not conduct testing at the plant until seven weeks after the first infections.

[Massive genetic study shows coronavirus mutating and potentially evolving amid rapid U.S. spread]

The mystery terrified Magdalena Toj García, a 36-year-old worker in the beef department who worried about bringing the virus home to her three young daughters. It infuriated John Ellingson, a council member in a nearby town desperate to know if his constituents were at risk.




Clockwise from left: Paraic Kenny, a tumor geneticist who turned his lab into a coronavirus sequencing facility. Magdalena Toj García and her husband, Rudy Pérez, both of whom have worked at the Agri Star plant for several years. John Ellingson, a council member in Waukon, Iowa, who sought the state's data on covid-19.
But it intrigued Paraic Kenny, a tumor geneticist turned disease detective, who knew that the killer had left behind vital clues.

The coronavirus mutates as it moves through its victims. Infectious particles swabbed from a patient’s nose carry small but distinctive differences in its genome that can be used, like a molecular bar code, to track where the virus came from and how it had been transmitted. By reading the virus’s RNA, Kenny could unveil how cases were connected to one another, exposing the secret spread of the disease.

The truth of what happened at Agri Star — and across America — is written in that code.

Much more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/grap...coronavirus-outbreak-iowa/?itid=hp-banner-low
 
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I have family that lives in Postville. That place sucks.

Go Pirates!
Postville has had a rough go of it for quite some time. I lived 30 miles from there as a youngster. Today, it's like all towns with a meat packing company in town. Some jobs are difficult to fill because the work is tedious and not much fun. So you end up with immigrants and others under the poverty line.
 
POSTVILLE, Iowa — It wasn’t until their colleagues began to disappear that workers at Agri Star Meat and Poultry realized there was a killer in their midst.

First came the rumors that rabbis at the kosher plant had been quarantined. Then a man who worked in the poultry department fell ill. They heard whispers about friends of friends who had been stricken with scorching fevers and unbearable chills — characteristic symptoms of the novel coronavirus.

Where was the contagion coming from?


No one would say. Not Agri Star’s wealthy owner, who didn’t shut down production lines after cases were confirmed among workers. Not the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which closed a complaint containing multiple allegations against the plant without an inspection. Not Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R), whose administration threatened to prosecute officials who released covid data and did not conduct testing at the plant until seven weeks after the first infections.

[Massive genetic study shows coronavirus mutating and potentially evolving amid rapid U.S. spread]

The mystery terrified Magdalena Toj García, a 36-year-old worker in the beef department who worried about bringing the virus home to her three young daughters. It infuriated John Ellingson, a council member in a nearby town desperate to know if his constituents were at risk.




Clockwise from left: Paraic Kenny, a tumor geneticist who turned his lab into a coronavirus sequencing facility. Magdalena Toj García and her husband, Rudy Pérez, both of whom have worked at the Agri Star plant for several years. John Ellingson, a council member in Waukon, Iowa, who sought the state's data on covid-19.
But it intrigued Paraic Kenny, a tumor geneticist turned disease detective, who knew that the killer had left behind vital clues.

The coronavirus mutates as it moves through its victims. Infectious particles swabbed from a patient’s nose carry small but distinctive differences in its genome that can be used, like a molecular bar code, to track where the virus came from and how it had been transmitted. By reading the virus’s RNA, Kenny could unveil how cases were connected to one another, exposing the secret spread of the disease.

The truth of what happened at Agri Star — and across America — is written in that code.

Much more at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/grap...coronavirus-outbreak-iowa/?itid=hp-banner-low
What we're witnessing today is reminiscent of the oligarch class in America during the late 1800s and early 1900s. They want no oversight, regulation or accountability for actions that impact regular people.

Just as in the late 19th century, they'd ship spoiled/rotten meat to our servicemen if it means making more $$. Americans ultimate fixed things back then, but here we are again with the oligarch classes trying to eliminate some of the same concepts as back then.

And, as I've stated many times: Putin is trying to turn American back into an oligarchy, just like Russia.
 
Postville has had a rough go of it for quite some time. I lived 30 miles from there as a youngster. Today, it's like all towns with a meat packing company in town. Some jobs are difficult to fill because the work is tedious and not much fun. So you end up with immigrants and others under the poverty line.
I lived there until I was five. My parents told me if they hadn't moved they would have open enrolled me to Decorah. I ended up going to Waverly-Shell Rock years later after moving back to Iowa.

I go to Postville when I fly back home for Christmas. That town is definitely struggling. My dad doesn't like going back because he grew up there and sees how much it's changed since the 70s.
 
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