It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
This is an interesting question – would it be better to allow a first wave of swine flu infection spread in order to build immunity to a more deadly strain should the virus mutate?
The question is prompted by groundbreaking research published in the Journal of Infectious Diseases on the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. The research suggests that it may be better to allow a first wave of swine flu infection in order to prevent deaths on a mass scale especially if the swine flu virus mutates in a similar process to the flu pandemic of 1918.
The research found that people who were initially infected by a mild form of the Spanish flu virus were better inoculated against the deadly strain that soon emerged to kill 40 million people worldwide. The death rate amongst this group was approximately 70 per cent lower.
"The further back you go in time, the more likely you are to have been exposed to H1N1 virus back before 1957, and there is a possibility that having exposure to that virus many years ago may allow you to have some [antibody] reaction to the new H1N1 that's now circulating," Dr. Daniel Jernigan, deputy director of CDC's Influenza Division, said during a teleconference.
Originally posted by Kevin_X2
iv heard of this happening already. like a chicken-pox party but for swine flu. Personally, at this point, i wouldn't be willing to risk it. after that 12 year old girl died from it in 2 days here in Canada, the strain you get could be the last one.
Originally posted by ActuallyActuary
reply to post by kiwifoot
It sounds like pretty stupid idea. Why not just get a vaccine, which is a weakened form of the same crud?
Would you rather inhale somebodys infectious snut?!
WMR previously reported on the genetic manipulation of the 1918 flu from tissue extracted from an Inuit woman who died from the pandemic in Alaska. On May 6, WMR reported: “WMR has obtained information from biological researchers that the 1918 Spanish flu genetic sequences were ‘manipulated’ in order to effect transmission capability....
WMR has now learned from virus researchers that the current A-H1N1 strain strongly appears tied to vaccinations for the seasonal form on influenza. The hybrid flu began in countries where seasonal vaccinations are commonplace and where A-H1N1 did not respond to the normal seasonal flu vaccination antibody, according to researchers studying the new virus.
What has some researchers alarmed is that the engineers of A-H1N1 purposely planned to make the virus non-responsive to any available vaccine. There is also a suspicion by researchers that the A-H1N1 vaccine under development will trigger a more deadly mutated form of the virus for which the A-H1N1 vaccine will be ineffective.
Originally posted by ActuallyActuary
reply to post by kiwifoot
It sounds like pretty stupid idea. Why not just get a vaccine, which is a weakened form of the same crud?
Would you rather inhale somebodys infectious snut?!