[JustDoItAlways]

One thing of note from the article is that viruses tend to mutate into less lethal forms. It does a virus no good to kill off its host.

So eventually the bird flu will develop into less virulent strains that will spread through birds easier without killing them and the lethal forms will stop spreading and will be replaced.

But that doesn't mean the "less lethal to birds" virus will be less lethal to humans. It might be that the milder virus just spreads easier and at an undetectable level across the world while continuing to kill off people and continuing to mutate into forms that can infect humans easier.

We really need an effective, easy to manufacture vaccine soon.

[Thermalseeker]

We really need an effective, easy to manufacture vaccine soon.

In other words, we need Tort reform......

[muawiyah]

The virus mutates according to processes that have nothing to do with the survival of the hosts. However, the versions that result in quick host death fail, themselves, to reproduce well. The versions that allow for a slow host death, succeed in passing themselves on to yet another host, and so on. They survive.

At the same time it is passing from host to host, the virus continues to mutate.