[53convert]

OK folks,
I have searched and searched on several sites I visit and no one seems to have caught this

Am I nuts to be concerned over this

Researchers Reconstruct 1918 Flu Virus

By MIKE STOBBE
ATLANTA (AP) - It sounds like a sci-fi thriller. For the first time, scientists have made from scratch the Spanish flu virus that killed millions of people in 1918.

Why? To help them understand how to better fend off a future global epidemic from the bird flu spreading in Southeast Asia.

Researchers believe their work offers proof the 1918 flu originated in birds, and provides insights into how it attacked and multiplied in humans. On top of that, this marks the first time an infectious agent behind a historic pandemic has ever been reconstructed.

The scientists involved in the project contend there's no real risk to public safety. The vials of this frightening germ - about 10 of them - are locked away at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, said Terrence Tumpey, the CDC research scientist who constructed the virus.
http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story. ... 05bird_flu

I cant help but ask, what in the world is the MATTER with them. Probably the most deadly virus to attack in hundred s of years and kill so quickly and the damn FOOLS re-make it?

Im sorry but I really think the IDIOTS are in charge of the NUT HOUSE>

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('53convert', '
')The scientists involved in the project contend there's no real risk to public safety. The vials of this frightening germ - about 10 of them - are locked away at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta...

[53convert]

[QUOTE]How many vials do you think are locked away at the DoD in the biowarfare department?


Its superfulious on that point. maybe or maybe not, the thing is the idiots are admitting they have the crap like we are all supposed to jump up and down with joy. They gonna save us.

Im not trying to flame here, I am just agast at the stupidity of these people to be braggin they did a good thing.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('53convert', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ow many vials do you think are locked away at the DoD in the biowarfare department?


Its superfulious on that point. maybe or maybe not, the thing is the idiots are admitting they have the crap like we are all supposed to jump up and down with joy. They gonna save us.

Im not trying to flame here, I am just agast at the stupidity of these people to be braggin they did a good thing.

[k_semler]

Killer flu of 1918 caused by bird virus

[aldente]

Ksemmler you got to update your avatar...

[k_semler]

How about this for an avatar:



Sieg Heil Der Fuhrer. Mein volk, Mein Reich, Mein Fuhrer. Juden Raus!

[OilsNotWell]

Sheesh, convert, you really scared me!

I thought the thread title read: "1918 FLU BIGG"

and thought that BIGG had come back as a virus!! It'd certainly be head for the hills time then...

[something_awfull]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('k_semler', 'H')ow about this for an avatar:



Sieg Heil Der Fuhrer. Mein volk, Mein Reich, Mein Fuhrer. Juden Raus!

[VinceG]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('53convert', 'A')m I nuts to be concerned over this: Researchers Reconstruct 1918 Flu Virus

[Chocky]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')y best guess is that you´ve probably seen the movie Outbreak too many times, so you freak out after reading this piece of ´infotainment´...

Don´t spend the remainder of your life behind your pc-screen

[Curmudgicus]

The 1918 H1N1 virus has been reconstructed, and in doing so Taubenberger and his colleagues have managed to discover that the "swine flu" that had been thought to originate in swine was an avian flu that jumped to pigs and then humans. This is huge, because it establishes the 1918 virus as a bird flu, and so the mechanisms of the pandemic can be studied on that basis.

Here's quote about the danger of an H1N1 outbreak today.

"The reason the scientists believe their reconstructed virus poses no public health threat is that based on previous research, modern-day medicines are effective against the 1918 flu. And they think most people today are already at least partially immune.

The subtype of virus that caused the 1918 pandemic is now common, and so it would not be as unknown to the immune defense systems of people today. In other words, it would not be as deadly, said Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, microbiologist at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York."

H5N1 is our concern now. Maybe this will help.

[gg3]

Here's how the science sorts out:

The 1918 bug has been gene-sequenced. The result is that it appears this virus started as an avian virus and mutated to become human contagious. This is a highly alarming finding, because this is the more dangerous route from a purely avian virus to one that attacks humans.

There are two ways to get from an avian virus to a human virus:

1) Recombination. The avian virus mixes with a human virus in a common carrier such as a pig (or any animal that can catch both human and avian viruses). The avian virus picks up bits that are relevant to infecting humans.

2) Mutation. The avian virus evolves as viruses normally do, and at some point it becomes human contagious just by hitting the right combination of genes at random. That subtype of virus then proceeds to infect humans.

Of these two mechanisms, (2) is the more alarming.

In the case of (1), the picked-up bits of human virus are likely to be elements that humans have already encountered, and that have already adapted to humans by reducing their lethality somewhat in order to increase their transmission efficiency. That is, over time, viruses become less lethal because a person who is merely sick is a more efficient spreader than a person who is dead; and a person who is less sick is a more efficient spreader than a person who is more sick.

In this case (1), probability favors the outcome that the recombined virus would pick up elements that are mid-range on the scale of lethality. The result would still be a highly lethal virus, but less so than in (2).

In the case of (2), the mutating or evolving virus simply achieves human contagious status. The elements of it that cause illness have never been encountered by humans thus far. These events may happen with viruses that are anywhere on the scale of lethality: from those that are largely harmless or only mildly to moderately annoying, to those that are highly lethal.

Thus far, avian flu has a track record of high lethality. If the lethality does not decrease at the time when it becomes human contagious, this is the circumstance that would lead to the most deadly pandemic. This is why scientists are more scared today than yesterday: it appears that the 1918 flu behaved in this manner, and we are seeing the potential for the present avian flu to behave similarly, in a world where it can get to every continent in jet airplane time.

[Leanan]

There was some discussion of this yesterday in the bird flu thread.

[syncline]

[url-http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051003/images/437794a.jpg]link[/url]

[BrownDog]

I find the timing of this to be very odd, given the POTUS's speech advocating military powers to enforce a domestic quarantine for a bird flu outbreak. In particular, it bumps of the FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) factor of bird flu by tying the feared event to a known event.

...or maybe it's just a coincidence.