Meet the New Pandemic..Same as the Old Pandemic

[madsircool]

New strain of flu found in China has potential to become a pandemic,...

Please let this not come to pass. Civilization as we knew it would be gone for decades.

Scientists have identified a new strain of flu carried by pigs in China that they say has the potential to become a pandemic.

The new strain is descended from the type of flu — known as “swine flu” — that emerged in 2009 causing the first global flu pandemic in 40 years.

The scientists published their peer-reviewed findings in U.S. science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday. They said the new strain of flu, which they called “G4 EA H1N1,” is a variation of swine flu, and includes the “G4” genotype that has become predominant in swine populations since 2016.

As with swine flu, the new strain has been identified as having “all the essential hallmarks of a candidate pandemic virus.”

[Fretful_Porpentine]

A couple of good Twitter threads by scientists discussing this here and here. (Short version: don’t freak out.)

[madsircool]

Thank you for this. Nothing to see in the OP…for now.

[WildBlueYonder]

yup, as I have said in the past (not here) we’re doomed…sooner rather than later

[Lumpy]

If only because we have so much more experience with strains of flu, developing/updating our vaccines would be much quicker than dealing with a novel coronavirus.

[Beckdawrek]

That scared me when I heard it on the news.
We’re still reeling from COVID. We need this new thing like another hole in the head.

[VOW]

China, specifically Beijing, is either in the second wave of COVID, or the first wave took a leisurely stroll from Wuhan to Beijing. The police have got the entire city on lockdown.

~VOW