Call me jaded, call me skeptical--and blame the media!--but *every* summer for the last few years there's been a new thing that has the potential to kill us all and to end the world.
Call me jaded, call me skeptical--and blame the media!--but *every* summer for the last few years there's been a new thing that has the potential to kill us all and to end the world.
But just because there is an annual summer 'thing', that is no reason to dismiss it.
The first reported case was in California 22nd march. This is odd.
http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/panflu/news/apr2209swine.html
Good Question!I want to know, how did this virus end up with strings of dna from several different viruses, all sewn together? Do viruses interbreed somehow?
I always thought they just self-replicated with occasional mutations (utilizing the machinery within a hijacked cell), but that wouldn't explain how strings of dna from several distinct viruses could fuse together, which is what this new strain is.![]()
A certain amount of caution is justified in this situation.
I don't get why so many of you are writing this off because it's "just the flu." The flu can kill people, you know, and when antigenic shifts or reassortments occur it can kill LOTS of people. This is probably a reassortment (swine gets infected at the same time by both human and avian influenza strains; the genetic material gets mixed up and out comes a new virus) . This means epitopes that our immune systems have never seen before, which can be deadly.
Before y'all mock people for taking influenza epidemic's seriously, take a virology class or two.
A certain amount of caution is justified in this situation.
Like what? Seriously, what should we do? Wash our hands? Most of us already do that. Try not to get sneezed on? Most of us probably do that already, too.
I'm sure people of certain ''religious beliefs'' would agree with you!I'm going to be seriously ticked off if I die from something named "swine" anything.
It also doesn't hurt to have both acetaminophen and ibuprofen in the house so you can use both to fight a high fever. If you have kids get the kid's versions to make it easier to dose them.
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