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WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE! Bird flu variant found in baby seals.

Cylinder said:
...and they told us clubbing baby seals was evil.
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You usually have to be a little older before you go to a rave, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's evil (unless the music is crap). Clubbing doesn't normally make harp seals evil by itself....
 
Undesired Walrus said:
Hasn't Bird Flu jumped from birds to mammals (Humans) before?
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Iirc, that's why it's so rough. Some flus from China are believed to come about from duck flu and human flu viruses, both of which can exist in pigs, mixing together and getting into humans. With a virus signature little like anything your body has seen, it takes extra long to adapt and fight it off.
 
See, baby seal huggers? We told you so. Should have let us club them to death 30 years ago.:D
 
Babies? I only read about seals, not necessarily infants. It's disturbing because we don't know where the next source of influenza will be, so we can't prepare---we can't cut off all contact between humans and any mammal after all.
 
For anyone who actually cares about the science, this is an excellent summary with dozens of links to more factual analysis of the risks than the typical news sensationalism: Avian Flu Diary - mBio: A Mammalian Adapted H3N8 In Seals
Although the public health threat from H3N8 is hard to quantify, this is yet another example of how Nature’s laboratory is open and operating 24/7, and why we need to remain alert and prepared for the next pandemic threat that may emerge.
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Beerina said:
Iirc, that's why it's so rough. Some flus from China are believed to come about from duck flu and human flu viruses, both of which can exist in pigs, mixing together and getting into humans. With a virus signature little like anything your body has seen, it takes extra long to adapt and fight it off.
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I'm hoping the two Swine Flu vaccinations I have had (1976 and two years ago) keep me from catching this when it inevitably does happen.
 
Silly Green Monkey said:
Babies? I only read about seals, not necessarily infants. It's disturbing because we don't know where the next source of influenza will be, so we can't prepare---we can't cut off all contact between humans and any mammal after all.
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We COULD stop raising them in huge numbers in squalid conditions for food, though. If the public hygiene need is great enough, mass slaughter of existing meat stocks and a change to vegetarianism or to (soon) cultured meat might make sense.
 
BenBurch said:
Depends on the surface proteins. There is a significant cross-immunity on related strains.
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Why would the 1976 and 2009 (both H1N1) flu vaccine strains be any more likely to offer cross protection than an H3 vaccine strain?
 
This is interesting: Wiki on H3N8 History
H3N8 was suspected of causing a human influenza pandemic in either 1889 or 1900. Sources differ; some say the 1889 pandemic was caused by H2N2. The experts also differ on exactly how sure we can be if either were even involved.

A 1997 study found H3N8 was responsible for over one quarter of the influenza infections in wild ducks.[3] In 1963, the H3N8 (A/equine/2/Miami/63) subtype created an epidemic of equine influenza in Miami and subsequently spread throughout North and South America and Europe, creating massive outbreaks during 1964 and 1965. Since 1963, the H3N8 virus has drifted along a single lineage at a rate of 0.8 amino acid substitutions per year. Between 1978 and 1981, there were widespread epidemics of the A/equine/2 strain throughout the USA and Europe despite the development of vaccines. Since the late 1980s, evolution of the H3N8 virus has diverged into two families: an "American-like" lineage and a "European-like" lineage.[4]
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Wonderful, now we can all look forward to a two-week 24-hour marathon about the "next pandemic" on all the cable news stations.
 
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