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Swine Flu Genetics Suggest a Vaccine Is Possible
Kristina at Science News writes "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced findings May 1 from genetic studies of swine flu virus from six different countries. A strong similarity from country to country suggests all the infections are from one strain, making a vaccine a strong possibility. It will be several months at least before such a vaccine would be developed, though."
Sofar it looks like this is just another influenza variant.
Stop panicking, it's really not interesting enough. What has taken us? Some irrational fear of death? No other news? Organisations beating their drum for self preservation?
Please?!
about those torture memos with all this swine flu brouhaha, haven't we?
I Want To Believe
I think we should rename AIDS so as to placate the hearing aids industry. We could call it Sean, or Christine.
I'm pretty sure it will kill millions around the world... eventually. Flu kills hundreds of thousands worldwide every year, and this novel flu virus will be around for tens or even hundreds of years. If this strain is responsible for a few percent of flu deaths and is around for only 100 years, that can easily add up to millions... eventually.
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
Too late for that. Everyone knows it as swine flu... having the media call it something else won't change a thing.
The real thing that the media needs to be putting straight is just how little of a threat this flu is. It hasn't been any more lethal than seasonal flu, nor is it really spreading as fast as was originally believed.
The media is causing a panic simply for ratings, which is quite despicable when you think about it.
Actually the H1N1 does not mean what you think it means.
The H stands for Hemagglutanin, a glycoprotein; the N stands for Neuraminidase, a glycosilated enzyme. Both are found on the surface of the virus which can expose them as a good target to use. There are actually other abbreviations referring to different parts of the influenza A RNA based genome.
H1N1 just indicates the type of Hemagglutanin and Neuraminidase... There are other H1N1 flu viruses as well, like the so called spanish flu which actually originated in the USA. H1N1 doesn't specify a strain originating from pigs and so swine flu might even be a better denomination.
Liberty.
The drift from pigs to humans (and therefore no vaccine in production) caused the initial concern. Furthermore, this could come back more virulent in the winter. The 1918 flu was also H1N1, and it had three waves. The second wave was the big killer.