New Swine flu of interest

The new flu strain that has been identified in China is similar to 2009 swine flu, but with some new changes.
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.
Current flu vaccines do not appear to protect against it, although they could be adapted to do so if needed.
Prof Kin-Chow Chang, who works at Nottingham University in the UK, told the BBC: "Right now we are distracted with coronavirus and rightly so. But we must not lose sight of potentially dangerous new viruses."

TRex2 wrote:There are so many times that new strains of the flu start up in China, that I don't pay much attention until they begin to spread to places other than Asia. Asia, especially China, is a big mixing bowl for flu DNA.

rick1 wrote:10% of workers in the China pig industry have tested positive for the new swine flu, but no evidence of person to person transmission (according to FOX news). This article discusses the possibility of another pandemic from this new swine flu strain:


https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-06-swine-flu-strain-china-poses.html

dmwalsh568 wrote:No human to human transmission so far...that we know of. But with Covid-19, it took just two weeks to go from no H2H to well, maybe there is some, and then another week to confirmed H2H transmission.
...

TRex2 wrote:

dmwalsh568 wrote:No human to human transmission so far...that we know of. But with Covid-19, it took just two weeks to go from no H2H to well, maybe there is some, and then another week to confirmed H2H transmission.
...

I don't pay much attention to what they say. True, you guys tipped me off to Covid a couple weeks before it would have hit my radar, but it was the fact that it broke out of multiple  quarantine zones that made me realize the whole world was in trouble.

These things hit my radar when they spread outside China and SE Asia. Too many of them (about 20 per year) rise and fall inside that zone. The reason everyone in the MSM is talking about this one, is that they are the MSM, and right now, that means they have to keep the focus off of what is really happening. This round of the flu is, at this time, a diversion, plain and simple.

Always look for what the magician is doing with his other hand.

rick1 wrote:...
Well TRex, I used to be a doubting Thomas too, until the COVID-19 hit, it opened my eyes a little more.

Although avian influenza viruses generally score highest on the pandemic threat scale (see CDC Adds 3 Novel Flu Viruses To IRAT List) - mostly because they tend to produce a greater lethality in humans - swine influenza viruses start out with an important evolutionary advantage; they are already adapted to a mammalian host.

Every summer for the past decade, we've seen anywhere from a handful to several hundred swine-origin influenza cases turning up in humans, primarily connected with state and local agricultural fairs. Less well documented, we've also gotten reports of swine-origin influenza jumping to humans in Europe and Asia.