Hold my beer - from The Beeb:
Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China
A new strain of flu that has the potential to become a pandemic has been identified in China by scientists.
It emerged recently and is carried by pigs, but can infect humans, they say.
The researchers are concerned that it could mutate further so that it can spread easily from person to person, and trigger a global outbreak.
While it is not an immediate problem, they say, it has "all the hallmarks" of being highly adapted to infect humans and needs close monitoring.
As it's new, people could have little or no immunity to the virus.
A bit more:
So far, it hasn't posed a big threat, but Prof Kin-Chow Chang and colleagues who have been studying it, say it is one to keep an eye on.
The virus, which the researchers call G4 EA H1N1, can grow and multiply in the cells that line the human airways.
They found evidence of recent infection starting in people who worked in abattoirs and the swine industry in China.
Hmmm - the 2009 Swine Flu pandemic - was also an H1N1 variant. It killed over 570,000 people worldwide. Remember the masks? Remember the scramble for ventilators? Remember the lockdown? Remember how the media excoriated President Obama for his piss-poor handling of the event? Remember how it caused a huge spike in unemployment? Remember the travel bans and the quarantines?
Me neither...
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