Bird flu and cats

health experts warn, us isn't reacting fast enough to bird flu, cdc pushes back: 63296570

 

Yes to death, but ideally not from causes that can be sensibly mitigated.

HPAI is highly pathogenic avian influenza. Saved ya looking it up.

A large impact of this disease so far has been (chicken) egg scarcity in US and some other countries. About which there have been many complaints.

 

The new flu. Time to rollout BL4 isolation and mandatory "vaccines"...again.

 

If the assertion is that medical responses to H5N1 human-to-human transfer will mirror those to COVID, I see reasons to expect otherwise.

H5N1 has been important in birds for decades while COVID popped up suddenly. The former’s learning curve is mostly behind us.

Vaccines have already been designed, manufactured and in some cases stockpiled before first H-to-H transfer. They may be re designed for better immunological fit, if human attachment sites present good mRNA targets. mRNA was novel technology prior to COVID. Not now.

Mandatory vaccination has been subject of much recent ink in medical and medical-ethics literature after COVID. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-023-01615-8 is an accessible and free-to-read summary of govt policies worldwide. It could be said that governments were making policies up as they went along during COVID, but this time, rational bases for policies are available for implementation.

Two important things have not changed. Vaccine approvals still require 2 (or 3) phases of study for efficacy and safety. They would not begin until after proven H-to-H transfer, and those take time. As they should.

People still differ in reliance on medical science vs. informal internet sources for information for health-care information. If this leaves some folks with their (metaphorical) pants down, again, ain’t nothin’ I can do about it.

 

You forget Sir, we received said mandatory shots and followed mitigation...that did not work.

Your zippers open.

 

Countries worldwide had mandatory and voluntary policies to limit COVID infections. There are also statistics on defined deaths and apparent excess mortality from COVID for many countries.

US for example had about 1.1 million COVID deaths narrowly defined. I regret it is impossible to either of our satisfactions to know if different policies would have led to less or more deaths. I only see that you wish that things in US had gone otherwise.

US for example had >104 million COVID cases diagnosed. Mortality seemingly not much above 1% GOOD. But as some recall, the entire US healthcare system moved to treating that, instead of everything else. In other words, it's not all about deaths.

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If any can discern from all countries' responses to COVID how better to respond to H5N1 if it jumps, GREAT. MY guess includes obviously effective high levels of vaccination and obviously effective limiting of public H-to-H transfer.

 

In the wide world of internet chatgroups, many may hold to laissez faire and high-markup nostrums for medical challenges. Here we are blessed to have at least a few such representatives. How else/better to know how 'the world' thinks?

 

I have no doubt that govts of the world are planning now for H5N1. Most trying to make sense of what medical research taught about COVID. Fewer planning for laissez faire and high-markup nostrums.

None coming to PriusChat to see what brains here offer.

 

Thanks for confirming you do not practice/teach Government, Medicine and/or Virology...as it applies.

 

Encouraging to read that a Canadian teen made a full recovery, after being treated only with three antivirals, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, and daily replacement of blood plasma.

"Worrisome" mutations found in H5N1 bird flu virus in Canadian teen - Los Angeles Times

The severity seemed to result from mutation of the virus inside the patient.

The last source quoted in the article seems to hold the opinion this is not a good virus to get.

 

LA Times did not provide the journal link, so here:

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2415890

It is as expected a technical read, but those with some interest in viral genomics will manage.

 

I am surprised by age-group distributions there.

 

Seasonal influenza (in part descended from cytokine-storming-suppressed 1918 epidemic influenza) is an odd one. With about 700 thousand global mortality it remains a 'player'. But its success might be better seen from >10 million annual global infections (we really don't know how many more). This viral genome is amazingly well hosted by humans with vast lung surface area and vast social interacts.

Vaccine-targeted because of its persisting mortality, and variable enough to stay a step ahead.

'Cold' viruses may be the only ones who have better utilized humans to keep a lot of their DNA in play. If viruses had a goal, this would be it.

Epidemic viral outbreaks with higher mortality seem metaphors to angry teenagers. Kill humans before they can get lotsa DNA manufactured and spread. Enrage humans to create vaccines targeting not-yet-variable hit points. Compel humans to limit social interacts. Extreme example Ebola, which kills you bad, but will never become a pandemic. Classic overreach.

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Here we consider HPAI H5N1, that seems not yet to have made human-to-human transfer. Vaccine design is way out front of this with its variants. It could only 'pandemic' if broad vaccine availability is not provided, or if social interacts don't get controlled. In other words it could only 'pandemic' if we fail to apply lessons learned from COVID.

 

Sialic acid is my word or phrase of the year for 2025. Study it out.