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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

H5N1 only had about 500 human victims, iirc. There were a couple of H2H cases, but the nature of the virus is such that it prefers deep lung temperatures over cooler upper respiratory ones and thus is harder to transmit through the usual sneezing and coughing, etc.


45 posted on 09/17/2014 8:04:00 PM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing.)
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To: Smokin' Joe

http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2013/05/study-lab-made-h5n1-h1n1-viruses-spread-guinea-pigs

“Chinese scientists report that lab-generated hybrid viruses combining genes from avian H5N1 and pandemic 2009 H1N1 (pH1N1) influenza viruses can achieve airborne spread between guinea pigs, a finding that seems likely to renew the debate about the risks of creating novel viruses that might be able to spark a human pandemic.”

The bottom line is that *nothing* is preventing H5N1 from having a successful genetic swap that makes it prefer the URT. So even now, by several factors, it is a far greater risk than is Ebola.


50 posted on 09/17/2014 8:30:07 PM PDT by yefragetuwrabrumuy ("Don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative." -Obama, 09-24-11)
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