While Canadian geese are apparently auditioning for Contagion: South Plains Edition in our parks, the City of Lubbock Public Health Department has decided now is the perfect time to promote… a youth MLK Day empowerment event. Yes, avian influenza has been confirmed locally, and yes, geese showing symptoms are now just being presumed positive. But don’t worry—there’s a craft event with a community pledge, so everything’s under control.
The South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is doing the unglamorous, actually-useful work: warning residents not to handle sick or dead wildlife, reminding people to leash dogs, limit exposure for pets, disinfect shoes, and call Animal Services if they’ve been exposed without PPE. You know—public health basics. The kind of stuff that prevents humans and pets from accidentally becoming supporting characters in a zoonotic outbreak.
Meanwhile, the city’s health messaging seems to be split between “please don’t touch the plague geese” (outsourced to a nonprofit) and “hey kids, want to do an MLK Jr. activity at the Y?” Don’t get it twisted—celebrating Dr. King and the accomplishments of Black Americans is important and good. But maybe—just maybe—the Public Health Department could multitask while a confirmed infectious disease is spreading through shared public spaces?
Because right now, it feels less like proactive public health and more like the city saying, “We’ll circle back on the bird flu—after lunch, raffles, and a leadership pledge.”
If a potential pandemic is literally honking at us from the park pond, shouldn’t that be the event we’re promoting?