Posted on 05/07/2009 5:03:34 PM PDT by grey_whiskers
Beginning in March 2009, an outbreak of influenza in North America was found to be caused by a new strain of influenza virus, designated Influenza H1N1 2009, which is a reassortant of swine, avian and human influenza viruses. However, there are significant changes in both the hemagglutinin and neuraminidase proteins of the new virus, 27.2% and 18.2% of the amino acid sequence, from prior H1N1 isolates in 2008 and the current vaccine. Such a degree of change qualifies as an "antigenic shift", even while the virus remains in the H1N1 family of influenza viruses, and may give influenza H1N1 2009 significant pandemic potential.
(Excerpt) Read more at virologyj.com ...
Is North American H1N1 the same as the Mexican Swine Flu? /sarc
We already reformulate the influenza vaccine each and every year. So acting as if this is anything new, is just nutty.
The powers that be have a job to do. And that job does not include talking to the press every ten minutes.
Stick your noses back in your work, and develop the vaccine for this fall like you do every other year you idiots.
We don’t need a stupid inept report every ten minutes.
If it’s from Mexico and it is a variant of the swine flu, why don’t they call it the Carnitas Flu and ask you whether you want flour or corn tortillas with it?
y con queso!
LOL!
I thought the answer might involve running around in a circle, wringing your hands, and saying “fire, fire, fire” over and over.
To see how are enemies in the socialist public health establishment are playing us just like they are playing us re: global warming/climate change, see the following (and esp. my profile page)!
Swine Flu — It’s Not the Killer You Think It Is
It's the flu, folks, not the plague
The following email blast from Dr. Peter Duesberg several years ago on the endless hysteria created around a myriad of "impending" flu pandemics that never materialize is also instructive:
"The reason why the Flu was so successful in 1918 was primarily the “terrain”, namely the millions of immuno-deficient hosts and hostesses starved and stressed by 4 years of war.
Secondarily, one can speculate that the 1918 flu strain may also have been a “new” recombinant to the 1918 population and thus more successful than a more established seasonal strain may have been. As I found in 1968, flu, unlike practically all other animal viruses, has multiple RNA segments, equivalent to multiple chromosomes and thus can readily form new recombinants - the reason why we have seasonal flus, but have measles, mumps, polio, pox etc. only once in a lifetime.
Thirdly, the odds that the Centers for Disease Control alias World Health Organization ever predicts an epidemic prior to its arrival are not good: They have predicted in past several years numerous epidemics or “pandemics” such as the flu, the hanta-virus, anthrax, the rotavirus, the Ebola virus, the West Nile virus, “mad cow” epidemic, the Sars-virus epidemic, an epi-pandemic of “random, eg. heterosexual non-drug user-AIDS” - but none of these ever materialized (see, Inventing the AIDS Virus, Regnery publishing, Washington DC, 1996). The last one that came close to an epidemic was polio in the 1950s and that was not predicted by American public health scientists.
Fourth, the currently hyped prospective Flu pandemic has long missed its chances. It has been hyped almost daily in the San Francisco Chronicle since November. But all that happened was a dead chicken in Nigeria, a hamster in Germany, two sick (dead?) kids in Turkey, a euthanized swan in Sweden, several dead or euthanized chicken in Iraq (Yes Iraq!!) etc. That is not the pattern of a potential killer microbe. All “new” killer viral or microbial epidemics of the past have spread exponentially within weeks to months and then declined exponentially owing to the induction of immunity or death of susceptible hosts - take Albert Camus’ “Plague” as a classical example.
The current Flu propaganda is thus a mix of ignorance and and self-interest and an exploitation of general ignorance by the CDC, WHO, the vaccine, pill and test-kit manufacturers of our universities and pharma companies, and of our “science” journalists, who need to fill their daily columns - and must sell their aging vaccine stocks before they decompose and their Tamiflu pills before the summer. But despite hyping in dozens of microbial Godots - no Godot has come since polio. People are just too well nourished these days, and thus have optimally maintained immune systems, for microbes to attack more than just the fringes of the ever growing human herd. That in fact is their historical share. The 150 million+ Flu pandemics are hype for fund raising by the ever more costly science/health armies in search for real enemies. Their success is based on the invisible monsters of the microbial epidemics of the (earlier) times, when nutrition lacked vitamins, proteins and sanitation or was lacking all together - and on the never failing microbial and viral horror phantasies of our science writers, politicians and Hollywood producers.
Whether I would agree with everything said here or not, I will admit to thinking the writer is on the right track. He certainly has more credibility with me than some of the other folks addressing the topic over the last few weeks.
If this is yours GodGunsGuts, I appreciate your thoughts on the topic. Either way, I appreciate the ping.
Be sure to read about how our enemies in the Public Health Movement manufacture public health panics from behind the scenes in “The Medical CIA.” It’s time conservative started to wake up to the totalitarian alarmists in the public health movement in the same way they are mostly waking up to the same behind the scenes machinations re: global warming. Same enemy, different tentacle!
Thank you. I’ll bookmark that link and come back later. I appreciate the mention.
Sorry, Al Gore has the rights on that one.
Cheers!
I cannot help but wonder how many people will bother to read to the end.
Thank you for posting.
Great point! I think he also might chant, “manbearpig, manbearpig, manbearpig,” as he runs around wringing his hands :-)
Excellent and balanced article. Not only the politicians but the entire “what a hype” crowd here at FR should read AND UNDERSTAND this article in its entirety.
They likely won’t, though, as several that I’ve run into have been not only uninformed, not only closed-minded, but brutally and viciously repressive of anyone who doesn’t agree with their opinion that the current strain of influenza is absolutely nothing more than a way-overhyped attempt at political manipulation.
Some relevant quotes:
“...there is no evidence that a virus with a similar antigenic profile has circulated in the human population in over 100 years.”
“There is simply no way to tell where H1N1 2009 will evolve. The only honest answer to the question of how this outbreak will evolve over the next 6 to 18 months is: “I don’t know.”
“Conclusions
Influenza H1N1 2009 is a novel virus quite unlike even the other H1N1 influenza viruses that have preceded it as agents of human influenza. The fact that its hemagglutinin is 27.2% different and its neuraminidase is 18.2% different in amino acid sequence from the 2008 H1N1 and vaccine virus strains give Influenza H1N1 2009 significant pandemic potential, based on historical pandemics of the 20th century. However, it has yet to prove that potential in what is an outbreak with low community attack rates and modest virulence. Further evolution of the virus toward a more efficient agent of human disease may yet enable it to produce a major pandemic. The future course of the outbreak cannot be predicted, but prudence dictates that a new influenza vaccine, targeted to the novel influenza H1N1 2009 sequence be quickly developed and prepared for worldwide administration. In the absence of existing human “herd” immunity to this virus, only immunization provides a significant hope of suppressing the long-term impact of this newly emergent virus.”
ping...(Thanks, grey_whiskers!)
Here is a useful recipe to write down and keep somewhere, for when an influenza happens that causes Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS). This syndrome is person specific, and can be caused not just by influenza of about any kind, but other diseases, like SARS, and lung injuries as well.
What it means is that the immune system is overreacting because of damage to the lungs, and in doing so is damaging them further. It can cause oxygen deprivation to the internal organs and death, and usually needs a hospital ventilator to help you breathe.
There is a shortage of ventilators, so this recipe is good to keep around in case it is the only alternative you have to suffocating.
To start with, the first four ingredients have to be used together to work. Each of them calm a different part of the immune response.
The first is an Ace-2 inhibitor. Normally these are prescription blood pressure medications. However, 10,000 IU of Vitamin D also acts as both an Ace-2 inhibitor and an anti-viral agent.
The second is ordinary Benedryl, which is a Histamine-1 blocker.
The third is Tagamet, a Histamine-2 inhibitor and anti-viral agent, normally used for acid reflux.
The fourth is Advil. Ibuprofen also inhibits several histamines.
These four together may be a major lifesaver.
Add to that a fifth ingredient, if you can get it, of a prescription Statin drug, which are given for high cholesterol. These have been found to strongly improve survival in lung damage cases. No idea why.
And a sixth ingredient, a normal dose of Vitamin A, which has been found to slash amounts of a very important histamine, called TNF-1.
All together, these may keep a person from needed oxygen ventilation therapy, which matters if you can’t get oxygen ventilation therapy.
It is also critical to note that it is a late spring influenza. This fact alone has got the WHO scared, as these are often harbingers of much more severe influenza later in the year, in the July-December window.
The later influenza may not even be H1N1, but may be encouraged by whatever encouraged this H1N1 to emerge both in the spring, and in a place that almost never gets influenza epidemics, Mexico.
Think of it as warning flags. It is no guarantee, but an ominous warning.
Yes. I haven't seen a lot of talk about this, but I've wondered whether the timing gives viruses that emerge in late spring more opportunity to mutate.
I'm not a virologist, but it seems to me that there may be a window of opportunity for mutation in new viruses, and that window is early on, before a lot of people develop immunity. In any event, there seems to be a pattern of mild new viruses tending to return with increased virulence in the fall.
Think of it as warning flags. It is no guarantee, but an ominous warning.
Yes, I agree.
Here's what currently, at this day and this moment, is looking like the most likely course of events to me personally:
Health authorities heed the warning flags, take them seriously, and move forward on a vaccine with some urgency. I think they may try to walk a middle line between not disrupting the regular seasonal flu vaccine production and trying to make sure we have adequate stocks of the new vaccine.
The new flu is widespread enough to cause at least some notable problems in the southern hemisphere between June and October. During this time, it potentially becomes a bit stronger. How much stronger, I don't know.
It reemerges in the northern hemisphere this fall. Without a vaccine it could cause some big problems, but I think we have a vaccine by that time. So by and large we dodge a potential bullet. After a couple of flu seasons, it merges into the background.
This "confirms" to a lot of people that "there never was any real threat to begin with. It was all just a bunch of hype."
How reliable is that analysis? It's mostly a WAG from a reasonably well-read non-virologist, who hopes it at least pretends to be a SSWAG (semi-scientific WAG). And I may change my opinion at any time. But for the moment, it seems like a reasonable scenario.
Update: We’re up to 1,639 officially-confirmed cases in the US now, up from fewer than 900 yesterday.
I must confess that I don’t really like how the number of confirmed cases is increasing by an average of 40% every day. We’re okay for a couple more weeks of this, but we’d better not go much past that. Not that we should. In 2 weeks we’ll be close to June. Hopefully it’ll turn and start to go down. But still, I don’t really like the rate of increase.
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