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

[Polaris]

Nah, not til after the Olympics and the US Nov election. Then ....

Now, I never said how long we'd have to wait.

 

[cwalner]

Because the likely human vector will come from swine via gene exchange.

WTF? This cannot possibly mean what I think it means.

 

[BenBurch]

WTF? This cannot possibly mean what I think it means.

Viral hybrids can get created through a process called reassortment where a host is infected with two or more sometimes-dissimilar viruses and there can be a wholesale exchange of genes into a new virus.

See; http://nieman.harvard.edu/Microsite...ndemicFlu/TheScience/HowFluVirusesChange.aspx

 

[000063]

The solution is obvious. *shotgun cock*

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Viral hybrids can get created through a process called reassortment where a host is infected with two or more sometimes-dissimilar viruses and there can be a wholesale exchange of genes into a new virus.

See; http://nieman.harvard.edu/Microsite...ndemicFlu/TheScience/HowFluVirusesChange.aspx

Ben, buy a lottery ticket. Your odds of the vaccine from '76 and/or '09 working against a new variant should it emerge are about the same. I'm really not sure why you are trying to defend this claim.

 

[Dave Rogers]

The solution is obvious. *shotgun cock*

Boasting again, I see...

Dave

 

[George 152]

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.

I think we should all duck the flu and not let it get us down

 

[BenBurch]

Ben, buy a lottery ticket. Your odds of the vaccine from '76 and/or '09 working against a new variant should it emerge are about the same. I'm really not sure why you are trying to defend this claim.

Because one of the things conserved when this happens is often the surface proteins.

There are some studies of cross-immunity and it does seem to happen.

I wouldn't depend on it, for sure, but when, not if, this happens, I hope that I will have at least some cross-immunity to it.

 

[fuelair]

Because the likely human vector will come from swine via gene exchange.

Sooooooooo........as long as nobody porks a pig, we're good?!!!!!

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Because one of the things conserved when this happens is often the surface proteins.

There are some studies of cross-immunity and it does seem to happen.

I wouldn't depend on it, for sure, but when, not if, this happens, I hope that I will have at least some cross-immunity to it.

You're drifting here. Not the best backpedal to just conflate a bunch of stuff.

H1 is very different from H3 regardless if someone labeled them both "swine" flu.

If there was so much cross immunity we wouldn't need to change vaccine components on a regular basis.

And genetic drift vs genetic shift is one reason the flu virus is so successful in reinfecting people every year. If there was as much cross immunity as you suggest, that wouldn't be the case.

 

[BenBurch]

You're drifting here. Not the best backpedal to just conflate a bunch of stuff.

H1 is very different from H3 regardless if someone labeled them both "swine" flu.

If there was so much cross immunity we wouldn't need to change vaccine components on a regular basis.

And genetic drift vs genetic shift is one reason the flu virus is so successful in reinfecting people every year. If there was as much cross immunity as you suggest, that wouldn't be the case.

Well, I am doing a formal product build and have no time to run through Google Scholar, but there are studies which show that people who have received flu vaccinations for a number of years do have a significant cross immunity to new strains.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Well, I am doing a formal product build and have no time to run through Google Scholar, but there are studies which show that people who have received flu vaccinations for a number of years do have a significant cross immunity to new strains.

Drifting, drifting....

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.

 

[mhaze]

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.

And genetic drift vs genetic shift is one reason the flu virus is so successful in reinfecting people every year.

Sooooooooo........as long as nobody porks a pig, we're good?!!!!!

So as long as the pigs don't pork the seals, and the people don't rub with the bacon, and we drift before shifting that harley...

 

[BenBurch]

You know, nit-picking isn't a productive way to hold a discussion. Skeptic Ginger.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

You know, nit-picking isn't a productive way to hold a discussion. Skeptic Ginger.

Neither is losing track of the original discussion and later acting like you were talking about something else.

 

[Aepervius]

Sooooooooo........as long as nobody porks a pig, we're good?!!!!!

Having worked at a farm while a bit younger, and having caught a few different person doing unwritable things to animals.... I would not count on it. Really.

 

[BenBurch]

Neither is losing track of the original discussion and later acting like you were talking about something else.

But, I wasn't. Only you want to twist words to make it that way. I'm not playing.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

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.

Well, I am doing a formal product build and have no time to run through Google Scholar, but there are studies which show that people who have received flu vaccinations for a number of years do have a significant cross immunity to new strains.

One of these two is not like the other.

 

[Nosi]

Awesome!!!!

Revenge of the Seal Baby!

 

[Silly Green Monkey]

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.

we eat seals?!?