[bkepley]

Wolf!

[AntiGuv]

...leading to tens of millions of human deaths, or one third of the global population.

Umm.. It's a rather huge leap between "tens of millions" and two billion deaths!

[Mark was here]

Now we can have Y2K hysteria, with out being tied o the calender!

Who said Y2K was for the birds?

[pleikumud]

Algore is working on a new book titled "Birdflu Brain"

[The Duke]

"A good vaccine will only save [people] from death and complications, but not from the illness itself," he said.

What is wrong with the above quote? :)

[Paloma_55]

I was speaking with the Chief of our local fire department who had returned from Emergency Management Training and he was talking about this issue.

If the pandemic takes off, it would make New Orleans look like a tea party.

First off, 50% of adults from 24-55 would die. The virus attacks the stronger people worse because their bodies fight it harder. The body raises temperature to fight a virus and when this flu hits, the body raises to 104 or higher to kill the virus and in the process, kills the brain. He didn't say it, but most likely, emergency services will receive the first anti-virus available.

Barring an effective antivirus, half of the firefighters, police, and government officials would be hit, and people would be dropping like flies, the society would very likely break down and anarchy would reign.

Apparently there was a flu like this a hundred years ago and a lot of people died. We have more people, higher density, and worse yet, jet travel.

Also, he said it comes in waves. Every six months or so, it will return and strike a large portion of the population in a slightly different strain.

If the flu transitions to a human-human flu without losing its virility, we have a big problem.

[Smokin' Joe]

"A good vaccine will only save [people] from death and complications, but not from the illness itself," he said.

What? being saved from death and complications is not a good thing?

[SALChamps03]

The sky is falling! The sky is falling!

[righttackle44]

If you're not prepared to die, you're not prepared to live.

"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man. pluck them out of My hand"- John 10:28."

[little jeremiah]

I thnk that's my mini pinglist.

I haven't pung you to articles I've seen lately but figured I'd start again since it may be in Alaska in a while...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

I have no doubt that terrible things are going to happen in the future, but they will be things the self-appointed soothsayers and doomsday cultists never say coming.

[goldstategop]

I recall the panic over SARS. People need to calm down and stop hyperventilating. We all die eventually, some later and some sooner. That's a fact of being mortal and all men are mortal.

(Denny Crane: "I Don't Want To Socialize With A Pinko Liberal Democrat Commie. Say What You Like About Republicans. We Stick To Our Convictions. Even When We Know We're Dead Wrong.")

[shield]

Sambucol...elderberry kills flu virus. Stock up, folks.

[kittymyrib]

Makes human beings seem rather puny and disposable, doesn't it? We are one amino acid replacement away from distruction. Our secular saviors better hop to and come up with the magic bullet, oh, and in the meantime, buy stock in casket makers. You'll make a killing, if you survive.

[festus]

Any day now something might happen eventually even if its just higher sales this quarter for the flu vaccine.

[Modok]

Please send us billions of dollars to spend on this or we will all die.

[woofie]

Microbe: Are We Ready for the Next Plague? (Alan P. Zelicoff and Michael Bellomo)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1594187/posts

[AdmSmith]

Lvov is thinking about just a single change of an amino acid, maybe the G228S that Niman is worried about. G228 is a glycine to serine change in position 228 of the hemagglutinin protein chain HA1. The S227N described below is a serine to asparagine change in position 227, and it increases the ability of the virus to attach itself to mammalian respiratory cells (like in you and me)

http://www.recombinomics.com/PR/021706.html

"The donor sequences are again on the H, but in H1N1 European swine sequences. The new genetic change, G228S, has also been previously shown to increase the affinity for human receptors. Like H9N2 in the Middle East, H1N1 is endemic in swine populations in Europe. Infection by H5N1 in H1N1 infected swine will allow the viruses to exchange genetic information via recombination and allow H5N1 to acquire S228N. The region of identity between H5N1 and H1N1 is downstream from the S227N position, so H5N1, with and without the S227N change, can acquire this new sequence. This sequence acquisition by the H5N1 virus will also lead to more efficient transmission to humans."

Not nice!