How “Happy Birthday to You” Can Prevent the Flu

OK, this is a first. Today I want to talk about washing your hands.

Well, actually I’m going to turn the blog over to Dr. Michael Greger, a renowned expert on the zoonotic diseases—contagions that spread from animals to people, including swine flu, which has been so much in the news lately. Dr. Greger is The HSUS’s director of public health and animal agriculture, and no one knows better about the origins of zoonotic diseases than he does. His book, “Bird Flu: A Virus of Our Own Hatching,” is a remarkable resource and a chronicle of how the mistreatment of animals—such as factory farming, live animal markets, and the bush meat trade—is actually spawning dangerous pathogens that threaten people.

We’re working as hard as we can, of course, to end these awful factory farming confinement practices that bring so much misery into the lives of so many animals. But in the meantime, we’ve got to do what we can as individuals and as a nation to minimize the threats that flu poses to us. In this entertaining video, Dr. Greger provides a valuable primer of how flu is spread and how to protect yourself. Enjoy it and please pass it on. We need all of you to be healthy and to help in the important work of stopping these kinds of outbreaks—at the factory farm where many of them begin.