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It's Time To Worry About the New Chinese Bird Flu: Op-Ed
Live Science ^ | 26 April 2013 | Jeff Nesbit

Posted on 04/29/2013 1:17:39 PM PDT by LucyT

It's time for the world's public health officials to pay very close attention to the new bird flu outbreak in China first detected in March. To put it bluntly, there are now some seriously dangerous developments occurring around the new disease outbreak in China that infectious disease specialists and international public health specialists need to track closely.

Let's start with three new developments reported on earlier this week by Jason Koebler, U.S. News & World Report's science and technology correspondent: the first reported case of the new bird flu strain outside China; the fact that any potential vaccine tests in animals (not humans) may be up to six weeks out; and, more ominously, that Chinese officials suspect that there may be cases of human to human transmission in the 100-plus reported cases (which include 22 deaths).

"The situation remains complex and difficult and evolving. When we look at influenza viruses, this is an unusually dangerous virus for humans," Keiji Fukuda, the World Health Organization's assistant director-general for health security, said Wednesday at a briefing.

This new strain is, in fact, a mixture of three different types of bird flu variants and "seems to have been quietly spreading in chickens without anyone knowing about it,"

"If this new bird flu strain does, in fact, become capable of human-to-human transmission, and it takes awhile for a suitable vaccine to be developed, then international public health officials are going to start sweating. And the public, rightly so, will be worried.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: birdflu; china; h7n9; influenza; novaccine

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1 posted on 04/29/2013 1:17:39 PM PDT by LucyT
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To: LucyT

I’m beginning to sense the “chicken little” effect here.


2 posted on 04/29/2013 1:20:37 PM PDT by Da Coyote
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To: LucyT

Double up on the D3 for a while when it shows up on this side.


3 posted on 04/29/2013 1:20:54 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
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To: LucyT

Just what we need: Another swine flu, bird flu scare. We get these every couple of years when the media wants 24/7 coverage of some event. It is strictly commercial, and there will be fewer deaths from this flu than from the regular flu that goes around every year.


4 posted on 04/29/2013 1:21:07 PM PDT by webheart (King of the Passive Voice)
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To: Da Coyote

I thought China was going to fix this problem where it’s people were sleeping with the birds and starting these bird flu’s( ? )


5 posted on 04/29/2013 1:23:52 PM PDT by molson209
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To: LucyT

Is this the potential human ‘pandemic’ that scientists have feared ?
And we let so many from third world countries come into this country..
and yet , since it frequently isn’t marked on the package we don’t even know which country grows our food !


6 posted on 04/29/2013 1:24:41 PM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt ("Political correctness is tyranny with manners." - Charlton Heston)
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To: webheart

“the first reported case of the new bird flu strain outside China;”

Wasn’t this a case of someone returning to Taiwan from China? If so, I’m not sure I would completely call it “outside China.” He contracted it in China, not Taiwan. At least if I understood an earlier report correctly.


7 posted on 04/29/2013 1:30:45 PM PDT by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
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To: LucyT
"It's Time To Worry About the New Chinese Bird Flu: Op-Ed"

.... Naw .... the timing for the "looming crisis" isn't politically expedient yet. I am sure the Whitehouse has it's eye on this developing story but doesn't want to address the situation yet. When the administration is forced to seriously squirm about something that the public needs some answers on (ie ... Benghazi-Gate) ..... I am sure this will suddenly become an Extinction Level Event that must be acted upon immediately.... thus changing whatever news narrative they are trying to evade.

8 posted on 04/29/2013 1:37:35 PM PDT by R_Kangel ( "A Nation of Sheep ..... Will Beget ..... a Nation Ruled by Wolves.")
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To: LucyT; null and void

Sooner or later it will be “bring out your dead” for real.


9 posted on 04/29/2013 1:41:11 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: LucyT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CooTTAfii-8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT9ctpQNXRE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J83DZQcDFy8


10 posted on 04/29/2013 2:15:44 PM PDT by Bobalu (It is not obama we are fighting, it is the media.)
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To: BenLurkin; neverdem; ProtectOurFreedom; Mother Abigail; EBH; vetvetdoug; Smokin' Joe; Global2010; ..
Bring Out Your Dead

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

11 posted on 04/29/2013 6:00:45 PM PDT by null and void (Republicans create the tools of oppression and Democrats use them. Gun confiscation enables tyranny.)
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To: Dr. Bogus Pachysandra
He contracted it in China, not Taiwan.

I think I read another report that said he had not come into contact with any poultry - so I'm wondering how he got it? They "say" that it isn't contagious yet. I don't believe anything China says about it - I'm sure there are tons more cases than they're reporting.

12 posted on 04/29/2013 6:32:51 PM PDT by Veggie Todd (Hey, Idiot Kid - pull up your pants!!!!)
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To: arthurus

It seems that short term dose augmentation may not get the job done — possibly needs to be continuous up to a year. Still unanswered questions and inconsistencies in research.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D_and_influenza


13 posted on 04/29/2013 6:48:04 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by Nature, not Nurture™)
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To: Da Coyote

I’m equally unimpressed by both the “Run around, scream and shout” and the “d’Nile is not just a river in Egypt” reactions to this sort of thing.


14 posted on 04/29/2013 6:56:42 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by Nature, not Nurture™)
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To: steve86

I don’t see the sun much winter or summer because I work at night so I take 10k units daily all year. If nasty stuff is “going around” especially if in my teacher wife’s school I double it for a while. If this new thing is still as virulent if/when it gets to this hemisphere I will double or more for a long time.


15 posted on 04/29/2013 7:05:54 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
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To: steve86

P.S. Neither my wife or I have had any virus for almost 4 years, as long as we have been taking D3, and we do not get flu shots.


16 posted on 04/29/2013 7:07:34 PM PDT by arthurus (Read Hazlitt's Economics In One Lesson ONLINE www.fee.org/library/books/economics-in-one-lesson)
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To: arthurus

I’ve had very, very few respiratory infections the ten years or so, but much of that can be attributed to increased age and ensuing resistance to families of pathogens, as I wasn’t taking much in the way of D supplementation during most of that time. But it seems prudent to step up the D3 dosage and make it more consistent even year-round, even though I get plenty of solar exposure in the summer.


17 posted on 04/29/2013 7:16:01 PM PDT by steve86 (Acerbic by Nature, not Nurture™)
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To: LucyT

Time to stockpile Vitamin D and antihistamines.


18 posted on 04/29/2013 11:50:36 PM PDT by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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