[AdmSmith]

Update: doctor friend also says that what is also unusual is that this type/combination virus is the based on the same strain as in the 1918 Spanish flu virus (H1N1) outbreak (extremely deadly, 25 million dead in 25 weeks; total dead 50-100 million dead; 2.5%-5% of the world population). This makes the virus extremely deadly. The likelihood that this combination with the most deadly strain would happen naturally is very, very low.

No, this is not correct. Your doctor friend is mixing up different subtypes of Swine H1N1 and Human H1N1 they are not the same. Furthermore the 1918 flu strain was a subtype of Avian strain H1N1. However, we should be concerned about this and I am very interested to check out the sequence of the strain that is circulating now. Ping me when you see that it is sequenced.

[FreedomFighter1013]

Thank you for the comment, but according to Reid, etc., published in Journal of Virology, Vol. 78, 12462-12470, in 2004, the 1918 Spanish Flu virus is more related to swine flu than Avian flu, based on the sample from Brevig Mission, Alaska.

Here is the paper

And here is the a picture of the phylogenetic tree: Larger version here Larger version here

Am still working on finding the new sequence.

[little jeremiah]

I’ve read on FluTrackers and PFI that it has been seqenced, it is deposited at GISAID, and Niman has apparently seen it.