Bird flu scare

There is some concern that the bird flu has just made the evolutionary jump to transmit between human easily.  It’s too early to say for certain but it looks like that concern is unfounded:

“This is not the first time, and we cannot conclusively discard or prove this to be human-to-human transmission,” Mehta said, echoing a statement made by the WHO.

On Tuesday, the WHO said limited human-to-human transmission of bird flu might have occurred in the family, but there was no scientific evidence that the virus had mutated to allow it to spread easily among people.

“What is reassuring is two of the human samples from Kubu Sembilang have shown no evidence of reassortment or significant mutations. The lineage of these viruses are very similar to H5N1 viruses from avian specimens from north Sumatra,” Mehta said.

It’s things like the bird flu that cause me to have near zero concerns about global over-population.  The glass is half-full, right?  I’m just naturally an optimist.

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One thought on “Bird flu scare

  1. The main point of course is that in order to justify ever increasing levels of funding, they must generate ever more elaborate and terrifying doomsday scenarios.

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