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China Medicine Science

Flu Virus With 'Pandemic Potential' Found in China (bbc.com) 241

A new strain of flu which has the potential to become pandemic has been identified in China by scientists. From a report: 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. 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 bad new strain of influenza is among the top disease threats that experts are watching for, even as the world attempts to bring to an end the current coronavirus pandemic. The last pandemic flu the world encountered - the swine flu outbreak of 2009 that began in Mexico - was less deadly than initially feared, largely because many older people had some immunity to it, probably because of its similarity to other flu viruses that had circulated years before.
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Flu Virus With 'Pandemic Potential' Found in China

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  • by Major_Disorder ( 5019363 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @06:00PM (#60244706)
    I am starting to think mother nature has decided we humans were a bad idea and has decided to get rid of us.
    • Natural selection. Those who survive will be stronger. And there will be fewer people on the planet, so the nature will recover a bit.
      • Umm...no. the people who survived Malaria were certainly not better than those who didn't, but for their environment they were. I am NOT referring to skin tone, I am referring to the shape of their blood cells conferring relative immunity
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Mother nature had nothing to do with it. We are a bad idea, but we chose to be, all by ourselves.

      • by alvinrod ( 889928 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @07:10PM (#60244950)
        Human beings are the only animal that cares at all about their own impact on the planet.

        Do you think fire arts or some strain of virus care at all if they take over and devastate every ecosystem?
        • by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Monday June 29, 2020 @07:50PM (#60245076) Homepage Journal

          That's convenient, humans are also the only animal with the technology to render the biosphere incapable of supporting humanity.

          Unfortunately, not enough of humanity cares about our impact to prevent it.

          Bend over, here comes mother nature

          • That's convenient, humans are also the only animal with the technology to render the biosphere incapable of supporting humanity.

            Nature can quite easily render the biosphere incapable of supporting not just one species but millions. Just look at the dinosaurs or, even more scary, the Permian mass extinction which killed 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial ones.

            Human technology might be dangerous but nature can do much, much worse.

          • Mother nature / biosphere doesn't give a f if humans survive or go extinct. It keeps on playing - blind watchmaker.
        • given what we know about ants and how they live within their ecosystem. Might want to do some googling on that topic is all I'll say...
        • Quite true that humans are the only ones that care... but were also the only ones that impact intentionally. iE wolves don't think about the fact that they've killed off a bunch of deer.... but then when there aren't enough deer... they either starve, or have less kids etc... and an equalibrium forms. Humans are kind of unique in that when we run out of food, we just say screw it, and adjust whatever the heck we want to keep growing.
    • by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @06:39PM (#60244834) Journal

      The list of possible things that can kick humanity in the nuts is large. Here's just a sample:

      Astronomical:
      - Meteor/Comet
      - Supernova pointing the wrong end at us
      - Black hole or brown dwarf passes by and bleeps up Earth's orbit. (We'd spot a brighter star by now.)
      - Sun pukes giant plasma storm, knocks out mass wiring

      Earthly:
      - Large volcano
      - Plagues
      - Giant methane bubble burst

      Artificial:
      - Intentional nuclear war
      - Mistakes that lead to nuclear war (been close multi times)
      - Mass hacking that jams most systems
      - Artificial plagues
      - Global warming
      - Justin Bieber becomes President

      Depressed yet?

      • - Justin Bieber becomes President

        Which is worse, a pop boy star, or a reality TV star?

        • by Kokuyo ( 549451 )

          Him being an artist makes the possibility of him being a leftist nightmare quite substantial.

          Frankly, I believe if people vote Biden this year, America is fucked sideways. Not that Trump is a good man but damned if this isn't the choice between Newspeak/thought crimes and individualism.

          I sure as hell would have preferred a better champion for individualism but the alternative scares me way more than I'd like to admit.

          • The choice in the USA is between the center right and the far right. If you really are so scared, you can thank the siege mentality propaganda of your chosen party for that. They want you to be because scared voters are easy to manipulate.

            • The US is on a different axis than Europe. "Far right" in Europe means something like "power to the leader," but in America it doesn't mean that.
              • The main difference between the far right in Europe and the far right in the USA is that bible thumpers are less common here, except for Poland, that is.

      • I was fine til the Bieber part...Thanks for the nightmares!

      • I was really depressed there for a minute. Then I remembered that Bieber was born in Canada so he's not eligible.

        • Yet - the constitution can be amended. Don't let your guard down.
          • by HiThere ( 15173 )

            Easier. Just merge the two countries. Canada could be about 6 or 7 states. Then he'd be a native born citizen. I expect Quebec might hold out for separatism, though.

      • You can easily construct a list of crazy things that could wipe us out, but it only sounds scary until you put probability numbers next to each of those lines.

        The astronomical threats are astronomically unlikely to occur within the next thousand years, let alone the next hundred.

        Global warming and pandemics are the only real threats to mankind, but keep in mind 50% of people still survived the black plague. A pandemic won't be rosy but it won't wipe us out either.

      • by Syberz ( 1170343 )
        You really think that Bieber as President would be worse than Trump? I'd be more curious about the process that lead to a non-american becoming President though.
      • You forgot superintelligent AI that decides we're in its way.
    • I am starting to think mother nature has decided we humans were a bad idea and has decided to get rid of us.

      Agent Smith [wikipedia.org] had the same idea:

      I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species and I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment but you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure.

    • https://www.amazon.com/Giant-M... [amazon.com]

      "giant meteor 2020: just end it, already"

      kinda says it all.

    • by TheInternetGuy ( 2006682 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @07:21PM (#60244994)
      At least for a brief moment in time, we created great value for share holders.
    • by cunina ( 986893 )
      100 million humans are a great idea. Eight billion, not so much.
    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by iggymanz ( 596061 )

      Oh really? That's your stupid conclusion to a pandemic of a virus that's similar to many others that have been around for millions of years? Hell there have been flus and colds in the past that have killed more than this thing.

      Meanwhile, people are living longer than in the past and our quality of life has skyrocketed upwards, clearly nature is loving us more and more.

      Those who died from corona mostly are those with one foot in the grave already, they'd have died in the next flu season or next. But peop

    • it's a concept we invented for the sake of poetic license. Try not to get in the habit of personifying biological processes. There are people who will read your comments and take them as an excuse to do nothing, let the chips fall where they may or "leave it in God's hands"...

      We know exactly how to solve these pandemics and we know it works because we've done it before. It takes large scale, decisive and expensive action. We haven't been doing it because we didn't want to spend the money on it, and beca
    • by khchung ( 462899 )

      It is simply because technology got so good that we can identify and detect these different viruses. 30 years ago, we simply would have no mechanism for even identifying Covid-19, much less different variants of virus in pigs.

      Without the capability to test, Covid-19 would be just another (very bad) flu/pneumonia. After some weeks/months, most doctors may notice a trend in the symptoms and identify it as a new disease, but only those 10% patients that needs to go to hospital would be diagnosed, so the numb

    • by stikves ( 127823 )

      Nah... I would take my Gamma Ray Burst (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamma-ray_burst) for one shot kill. A supernova explodes lightyears away, and as soon as we see it, our oceans start boiling.

      Better yet, a false vacuum correction (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_vacuum). There won't even be a warning, or notice. The reality itself will unwind, and there will be new kind of physics. It would then be a problem for an entirely different brand of universe.

    • I'm starting to thing vast segments of the population known as "hippies," such as yourself, are objectively retarded.
    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I am starting to think mother nature has decided we humans were a bad idea and has decided to get rid of us.

      Crap. Final Fantasy 7 was REAL!? (Spoiler warning for a 23 year old game: humanity doesn't exist anymore. Not commenting on the remake since it's just all speculation).

    • Itâ(TM)s starting to feel like we are a simcity city some kid got bored with and just started spamming random disasters. Weâ(TM)re just missing like the giant spider or the volcano.
    • by cusco ( 717999 )

      Never in history has so many of a single species of large (>20 kilos) mammal had this large of population. The worldwide numbers of the seemingly "unending" herds of reindeer and wildebeest are smaller than the population of Shanghai. Do you know what happens when rabbits arrive on an island where there are no predators? Their population grows out of control until they've eaten everything, at which point it collapses and they may go extinct.

  • by Zuriel ( 1760072 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @06:03PM (#60244720)
    The same measures we have in place for COVID19 work on pretty much every other virus, so if this flu does start spreading among humans it's not going to spread very quickly.
    • We're well practiced now. However this new skill is unevenly distributed, only a handful of countries have crushed Covid-19 with successful strategies and others still have running outbreaks, second waves or even first waves that weren't properly put out. There's still a lot of pathways for the flu to spread globally and many governments ill equipped and disorganized to respond. So yes, it will not spread very quickly, but it will spread.
    • It's going to really suck if we get a COVID vaccine and then have to continue in lockdown (of some sort) another couple years until we have a vaccine for this second virus.
    • The same measures we have in place for COVID19 work on pretty much every other virus

      In other words, the U.S. is screwed. That's all you had to say.

    • No, we're not going to do all the absurd bullshit we're doing now for a mere influenze virus. If it looks like it will be a problem we'll put it in the next flu season vaccine batch, problem solved. *yawn*

      • by HiThere ( 15173 )

        Poe's law is strong in this one. I *think* you were being sarcastic, though I'm not sure. Unfortunately, lots of people will react in just the way you state, despite the fact that influenza can be worse than COVID-19. That hasn't happened within the century, but it can happen.

        OTOH, we are fairly well practiced at building influenza vaccines, so once we know it's coming it should be possible to prepare. But we *do* need to pay attention.

    • Second week back at school - and with 0 new cases of covid within our state, and half the teachers and stacks of kids including all three of mine came down with a nasty cold... We are doomed.
    • I was unclear that we had already deployed flame units to all infected locales. Bold thinking there Ted
    • by Chrisq ( 894406 )

      The same measures we have in place for COVID19 work on pretty much every other virus, so if this flu does start spreading among humans it's not going to spread very quickly.

      Or perhaps we are favouring the evolution of more highly infectious diseases

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Fortunately it's just a case of bad reporting. The paper is behind a paywall but this Twitter thread has lots of extracts and some commentary: https://twitter.com/CT_Bergstr... [twitter.com]

      TL;DR it's been around since 2016 and no need to panic.

  • The important part: (Score:5, Informative)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @06:07PM (#60244740)

    While this new virus is not an immediate problem, he says: "We should not ignore it".

    There is currently no outbreak and it's not spreading like crazy but it's something that will be a problem if we ignore it. This is a variant of influenza, so it's not going to take nearly as much effort to develop a vaccine for it. No need to panic... yet.

    • by DogDude ( 805747 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @06:15PM (#60244776)
      it's something that will be a problem if we ignore it.

      It's going to be a problem for the US.
    • This is a variant of influenza, so it's not going to take nearly as much effort to develop a vaccine for it.

      just out of curiosity where did you get your Ph.D in Immunology?

      If it was so fucking easy to make a vaccine we wouldn't still have upwards to 60 thousand people dying of Influenza every year.

      There were warnings years ago that a corona virus from bats could make the jump to humans and start killing people.

      Do you know what was done with that warning?

      That is right; nothing.

      And here we are.

      • If it was so fucking easy to make a vaccine we wouldn't still have upwards to 60 thousand people dying of Influenza every year.

        Those 60 thousand people aren't being killed by a strain of influenza that they have been vaccinated against.

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        If it was so fucking easy to make a vaccine we wouldn't still have upwards to 60 thousand people dying of Influenza every year.

        Based on our average life expectancy, we (USA) have better than four million dying every year of all causes. So the flu amounts to 1.5% of our annual deaths. And Covid-19, so far, is 2.5% of our annual deaths. If we continue the trend of the first six months through the next six months, covid-19 and the flu combined will be maybe 5% of our total deaths for the year.

        In other word

        • by jbengt ( 874751 )

          Based on our average life expectancy, we (USA) have better than four million dying every year of all causes.

          You are off by over a million. About 0.8% of the population of the USA dies each year. In 2019 it was about 2.8 million. [cdc.gov]
          Also, if left to spread uncontrolled, CoVID-19 would infect 60% to 80% of the population and could easily kill 2% of those infected (the case fatality rate* for the world stands at 5%, more for areas that had their hospitals overwhelmed), for around 4 to 5 million dead in the U

    • how governments are clearly unwilling to spend money to address a problem before it's a disaster. Also many, many countries have put people in charge of government who want to tear down government. If you put somebody in charge of something they hate and despise it's no surprise when they do a bad job at running it.

      It'd be like putting a vegetarian in charge of a steak house. It's not going to end well for anyone involved.
    • by Tailhook ( 98486 )

      There is currently no outbreak and it's not spreading like crazy but it's something that will be a problem if we ignore it.

      Ok. Let's not ignore it.

      Step 1. Ban travel to and from China.

      "Oh Noes !!! you Rasist boogoolua boy ban him ban him noooooWWww!! Impeach that racist Russian plant too for everything including his illegal China travel ban !!"

      Well. That escalated quickly.

      • Yeah, you've had enough to drink tonight.

        • by Tailhook ( 98486 )

          Yeah, you've had enough to drink tonight.

          Hardly. What really concerns my quite sober self is the most important thing of all. Step 0, in fact.

          What shall we call this new virus??

          Don't you dare allow yourself to even suspect it should in any way, directly, indirectly or even tangentially closer than three orders removed reference China. We must first identify the very first non-Chinese site where the virus appeared, preferably in some fly-over red state. The Wyoming Influenza 15-A!

          No. No! I have it! The Mar-a-Lago 11-B! YES

          That's it

          • by jbengt ( 874751 )

            What shall we call this new virus??

            How about calling it something descriptive, straight from TFA, like:

            The virus, which the researchers call G4 EA H1N1 . . .

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion
          • quite a long history of naming bugs after where they first popped up, see Ebola, Spanish flu, etc.

            The likelihood of the Spanish flu having originated in Spain is less than that of it originating in the US, or England.

            It was called Spanish only because most other affected countries were in war, and controlled their media because announcement of a pandemic in the middle of a war would have been disastrous. So Spain, the one neutral country between many warring ones - became famous for it as they declared their problems as they saw.

            So no, the long history is of naming bugs after whoever loses the informat

          • "ohh and they are also being VERY Careful to ignore China forcing birth control on minorities it don't like"

            I literally just watched a segment on that on the broadcast news last night. You don't know what you're talking about. Look at my surprised face!

          • by jbengt ( 874751 )

            dispite quite a long history of naming bugs after where they first popped up, see Ebola, Spanish flu, etc.

            You do realize that the "Spanish flu" didn't first pop up in Spain, don't you?

    • If they kill off a lot of pigs in China, it'll probably never spread. Question is whether they've got the balls to do it.

  • Please no! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Joe2020 ( 6760092 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @07:05PM (#60244922)

    Kill me, but please don't take my bacon.

  • Flu Virus With 'Pandemic Potential' Found in China

    Trump has already labeled the coronavirus (aka: COVID-19) the "Kung Flu" so what's he going to call this one?

    [... gets popcorn ready ...]

  • by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @07:14PM (#60244970)

    This story seems like business as usual for the people who do influenza monitoring... researchers look for new strains which might become problematic; see which known strains are continuing to spread; and finally decide which strains should be included in the next round of vaccines.

    I suspect the main reason this particular story is getting air time now is because everyone is hypersensitive regarding COViD-19.

    • by HiThere ( 15173 )

      No, it's a bit more worrisome than usual, as it appears to be a novel flu virus to which people won't have had prior exposure. Some of those can be quite deadly. That said, if we recognize it in time, i.e. pay attention, then we can have a vaccine ready in time to deal with it. The key here is "pay attention to this and don't put all your attention on COVID". Do it right and there should be no big problem. do it wrong.... Well, best not to do it wrong.

    • This year is an election year with a highly popular candidate vs a senile and geriatric one who can't manage to form more than a sentence (on a good day) without looking mentally retarded. In addition, the politics of the incumbent ensure that China, the third most powerful nation on Earth, has two paths ahead of them: stand idle and become a third world shithole again due to inability to siphon tech off the more advanced nations, or screw up the economy and elections and have a shot at the #1 spot. And m
  • Dupe? (Score:5, Funny)

    by superdave80 ( 1226592 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @07:52PM (#60245090)
    Seriously, /., this was already posted from way back in December!
  • Don't we have a flu pandemic every year?
  • But, does it know precisely what you are protesting? Will it leave you alone if your politics are correct?

    I mean, that seems like an important characteristic for a virus.

  • Oh no! (Score:5, Funny)

    by The_mad_linguist ( 1019680 ) on Monday June 29, 2020 @10:26PM (#60245434)

    It's the aporkalypse!

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