This seems worth watching.
“A/H5N1 virus can also infect mammals (including humans) that have been exposed to infected birds; in these cases, symptoms are frequently severe or fatal.[2]”
“Due to the high lethality and virulence of HPAI A(H5N1), its worldwide presence, its increasingly diverse host reservoir, and its significant ongoing mutations, the H5N1 virus is regarded as the world's largest pandemic threat.[16]”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Influenza_A_virus_subtype_H5...
Yes. Not all H5N1 is created equal, but several strains have shown a frighteningly high severity.
Thinking of established seasonal flu as reference could easily be very misleading.
From Stat (via another submission):
The fact that the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services is still finding such individuals weeks after the H5N1 patient was released from hospital is raising concerns about the rigor of the investigation that the state is running. The CDC cannot send investigators to a state unless its help is requested, and that hasn’t happened.
<https://www.statnews.com/2024/09/27/bird-flu-missouri-four-m...>
One of the factors that strongly contributed to a previous pandemic's early spread was exceedingly poor track-and-trace epidemiological surveillance. Finding that particular failure being repeated so soon afterwards is indeed distressing.
If indeed it's human-to-human transmission, it doesn't mean it's likely to be as transmissible as Covid, or even other flu strains. What really set Sars-CoV-2 apart was its high transmissibility right off the bat.
The most important thing is tracing and isolating the carriers before it spreads, and before it's had a chance to evolve and become more transmissible yet. Influenza in general is one of the hardest pathogens to contain.
4 infected trained professionals from a bit of contact by is high
> To date a total of seven people who were in contact with the confirmed case have been identified as having been ill — a household member and six health care workers. One of the health workers tested negative for influenza when he or she was ill.
If all cases of illness are from the flu, that sounds pretty transmissable to me.
We know they were in contact, but we don't know the extent of the contact. Did they just walk into the room once and leave after 2 minutes? In early 2020 in Wuhan that would have been enough.
> What really set Sars-CoV-2 apart was its high transmissibility right off the bat.
...
Pun unintended. Freudian slip? OK, right off the Pangolin then.
They really need to use positive-pressure helmets or full face masks of some sort. SCBA or PAPR.
We'll merge that one hither.
COVID-24?
My uncle works for Nintendo. He says Bird Flu is going to start getting real bad in two weeks, like REAL BAD.
Gotta wonder what regional epithets our politicians are gonna use for this one.
Maybe something related to Cardinals.
What does that mean?
Meaning: Someone will politicize the outbreak. This will involve coming up with some pernicious label to promote their agenda.
For some reason, klyrs thinks this is an interesting basis for a conversation. I am self-aware enough to understand that my own comment breaks HN guidelines.
People are learning in this thread; I don't regret how I spent my 5 karma.
Politicians like to make things personal! The last major pandemic originated in China, which illicited a lot of political hay about China, named the disease after old things that people used to call Chinese people, and generally did their level best to make people of Asian descent feel welcome and celebrated. I'm just wondering if the same politicians have that kinda love for Missouri. Ya know what I mean?
Like when Ebola was discovered near the Ebola River, it got the name "Ebola", which made everyone hate and loathe residents of the area around that river. Or Marburg, Germany, which became anathema after the Marburg Virus emerged. Or the "Hong Kong Flu" which nearly killed Lyndon Johnson (and did kill many others) and whose name resulted in the longstanding economic depression in Hong Kong. Even today people avoid Spain because of the dreaded Spanish Flu. I could go on.
Wow, that's a really interesting point. I guess I've never stopped to think about the impact these names have. I of course saw how Asian people were treated during COVID times and the impact that had. One does have to wonder if the media would have that same smoke for Missouri.
Sensitivities around regions should have limits. I still remember people attacking Trump as racist for suggesting that flights from China be suspended very early in the pandemic. No one wants to talk about it now, but that was absolutely the right thing to do and it was a shame people politicized an otherwise common sense suggestion.