Just as a friendly warning, the Editor would like to point out that having a little snack in the evening, and researching haemorrhagic fever outbreaks, are not necessarily two occupations which go together. This is simply a suggested rule of thumb, which the Editor, moments ago, decided to break. Uhh, the Editorial stomach isn't taking it too well, I must say.
However, I did come across several articles about recent cases of avian flu in Vietnam, which were most interesting. I would like to state quite clearly, avian flu is NOT a haemorrhagic fever at all. Just got some news, is all, and what sloppy, bass-ackwards reporting it is. I really liked this quote from one of my news sources:
Bird flu has killed 32 people in Thailand and Vietnam, and millions of chickens across Asia this year. The World Health Organisation has warned it could combine with a human virus and spawn the next flu pandemic, killing millions.
Several things: we really enjoyed the "32 people . . . and millions of chickens" bit. Something about the phrasing caught our eye. And another: I would like anyone who reads this, who knows more about molecular biology than the research staff of Overground (I know there's plenty of you out there; we mainly have pycologists), to please explain how one virus "combines" with another. We are familiar with the basic progression of retrovirus infection. (Quick refresher: a retrovirus, HIV being a prime example, essentially cuts and pastes its RNA into the DNA of a host, thus producing more virus proteins when the host expresses its own DNA. At some point, there is no cell within the host (or bacterium within the colony; most retroviruses attack bacteria, and the Editor could discuss this for hours, but will spare the readers) which is not infected, and whammo! you're effed. It's an exceptionally elegant form of attack.) However, avian flu is not a retrovirus, and even if it were, as far as we know, there are no virus-specific retroviruses, which is the only way that two viruses could "combine" by this method. Then, there's mutation, which involves the adaptation of a virus, semi-accidentally, to its new environment (read: host, or host species) thus becoming a different virus through natural selection. That's still one virus, not a combination.
The writer of the article, or perhaps WHO, though I hope not, seems to think that if you toss a couple of viruses in a martini shaker, preferably without ice, one evil super-virus is liable to come out the other end, intent on world domination. It is very possible that the avian flu virus could mutate into a human flu virus, and then kill a lot of people. For now, "it could . . . [kill] millions"; yes, it HAS killed millions, of chickens, dumbfuck, like you just said a sentence ago. It's a chicken virus. If it mutates into a stable, reliable human virus, well, then we'll see.
This isn't a really big issue. The point is, it's bad reporting, and ignorant reporting, and sensationalist reporting. The Editor is not happy with journalists or statisticians right now, but then, what else is new.
And one more thing. The media, and our friends the statistical experts, seem to think that someone ought to be shocked every time a "new" virus emerges. Okay, well, there's lots of things in the universe, and on our planet, which haven't necessarily been observed scientifically. Let me just faint dead away. And dare we suggest that historically, and logically, and deductively, and every other kind of adverbial phraseology we can think of, packing large groups of any species into an increasingly small and unhygienic space kind of invites infection? Anything any member of the group has, every other member will, very soon. Any viral mutation gets spread increasingly quickly. Any heretofore unobserved viral strain can be spread instantaneously. So, you put millions of chickens in miserable cramped spaces, and they'll get sick. You put millions of miserable chickens in the same cramped spaces as millions of humans, and eventually, something will mutate and everyone, feathered and not, will be miserable together. THIS IS NOT NEWS, at least not to anyone who's ever heard of the bubonic plague (rats, not chickens, but same idea), for fuck's sake!!! The Editor is enraged by this, and will not accept any suggestion of calming the fuck down and getting over it, so don't even bother.
So, I'm going to go and spit in a cup and stir it for a while, and wait for the next deadly super-virus to emerge. Cause I'm a scientist, and stuff.
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