Media – birdflustocks.com

Favorite News Sources

https://afludiary.blogspot.com/

https://www.fiercepharma.com/

https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/

https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu?page=1

https://www.statnews.com/staff/helen-branswell/

https://www.reddit.com/r/H5N1_AvianFlu/

https://flutrackers.com/forum/

https://fluradar.substack.com/

Introduction (2024)

https://news.mongabay.com/2024/08/animal-apocalypse-deadly-bird-flu-infects-hundreds-of-species-pole-to-pole/

A Bird Flu Pandemic Would Be One of the Most Foreseeable Catastrophes in History (2024)

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/29/opinion/bird-flu-pandemic.html

We might be fine. Viruses don’t always manage to adapt to new species, despite all the opportunities. But if there is a bird flu pandemic soon, it will be among the most foreseeable catastrophes in history.

Source: A Bird Flu Pandemic Would Be One of the Most Foreseeable Catastrophes in History

The global H5N1 influenza panzootic in mammals (2024)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08054-z

In recent years, an H5N1 problem that was once mainly confined to Asia and poultry has now spread globally, and into new species of mammals, endangering wildlife, agricultural production, and human health. The problem began in 2020, when a new genotype of H5N1 viruses belonging to clade 2.3.4.4b emerged that spread rapidly in wild birds from Europe to Africa, North America, South America, and the Antarctic. At first, H5N1’s arrival in North America seemed manageable. Back in 2014, when an earlier H5 virus was introduced to North America from Asia, US poultry farmers successfully eliminated the virus through intensive monitoring and culling of 50 million chickens and turkeys, ending the largest foreign animal disease outbreak in US history. This time, despite culling ~90 million US domestic birds since 2022, poultry outbreaks continue to be reseeded from wild birds. Wild birds also introduced H5N1 to dairy cattle and marine mammals. Images of seal carcasses decaying on Argentine beaches and yellow, curdled milk on H5N1-affected dairy farms show how the 2.3.4.4b H5N1 panzootic is different and previous control strategies are not working.

Source: The global H5N1 influenza panzootic in mammals

HPAI A(H5) Scenario-Based Human Health Risk Assessment (2024)

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/sites/default/files/2024-11/CORI_RA-Narrative_HPAI_11.19.24.pdf

While the immediate risk to the general public and healthcare workers is still currently low, the long-term consequences of continued, uncontrolled transmission presents a high risk to all populations.

Source: HPAI A(H5) Scenario-Based Human Health Risk Assessment

Inside the Bungled Bird Flu Response, Where Profits Collide With Public Health (2024)

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/inside-the-bungled-bird-flu-response

In May, Medgene informed the USDA that it had an H5N1 vaccine for cows and already had half a million preorders from desperate farmers. To develop the vaccine, the company relied on USDA regulations formulated in 2018 to accelerate vaccine approval in the event of an agricultural emergency. But as it struggled to get sign-off, the company kept hearing that trade restrictions stood in the way. Meanwhile, the USDA kept stating that vaccine development was still in the early stages. Says Medgene CEO Mark Luecke: “We’re screaming at the top of our lungs, ‘We have an H5N1 vaccine for cattle ready to help farmers and ranchers today!’”

Source: Inside the Bungled Bird Flu Response, Where Profits Collide With Public Health

From bad to worse: How avian flu must change to trigger a human pandemic (2023)

https://www.science.org/content/article/bad-worse-avian-flu-must-change-trigger-human-pandemic

“This clade … is most of all and more than all previous clades an avian virus,” says virologist Martin Beer of the Friedrich Loeffler Institute. That is why it has spread so far and wide in birds, he says, and why it is so poor at infecting people. Beer and his colleagues in Berlin and Münster, Germany, have been using lung tissue taken from cancer patients undergoing surgeries, for instance, to see whether the virus can efficiently infect the human cells. So far, it cannot.

Source: From bad to worse: How avian flu must change to trigger a human pandemic

Why hasn’t the bird flu pandemic started? (2024)

https://www.science.org/content/article/why-hasn-t-bird-flu-pandemic-started

In fact, some researchers thought the virus might just be unable to swap an amino acid at position 226 outside the lab. But then came the mysterious case of a severely sick teenager in Canada who has been hospitalized with H5N1 since early November. Virus sequences from that patient suggest some H5N1s had changed the amino acid at position 226 whereas others had not, says Jesse Bloom, an evolutionary biologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. “It looks like during the infection of this individual, the virus could have been evolving towards at least some of the mutations that would adapt it to humans.” This was not the feared 226L mutation: The amino acid had changed to a histidine instead of leucine. Still, “It showed that those sites are mutable in these viruses,” says Tom Peacock, an influenza virologist at the Pirbright Institute. And the glutamine substitution, together with another mutation in the same virus at position 190, could have the same effect as the 226L. For Peacock and others, the finding upped concern about an imminent pandemic.

Source: Why hasn’t the bird flu pandemic started?

Mammalian infections with highly pathogenic avian influenza viruses renew concerns of pandemic potential (2023)

https://rupress.org/jem/article/220/8/e20230447/214173/Mammalian-infections-with-highly-pathogenic-avian

H5 influenza: A virus that takes, then takes some more (2024)

https://www.jdscommun.org/action/showPdf?pii=S2666-9102%2824%2900151-0

Influenza viruses do not follow our human rules. Instead, they follow the biology defined by a negative-sense, single-stranded, segmented RNA genome and interactions with their environment and hosts. They will not wait for us to work through our politics, our man-made rules, or even our science to exert their damage. They will merely follow their biology. This is a point we humans often fail to recognize, one that allows a virus, such as H5 influenza, to wreak havoc, leaving us in the dust. This is where we went wrong and where we need to do better.

Source: H5 influenza: A virus that takes, then takes some more

Avian influenza death of Alaska polar bear is a global first and a sign of the virus’ persistence (2023)

https://alaskabeacon.com/2023/12/30/avian-influenza-death-of-alaska-polar-bear-is-a-global-first-and-a-sign-of-the-virus-persistence/

Aside from the large and wide-ranging death toll in the wild, the current outbreak has some other differences, particularly its durability, as seen in its persistence away from domestic flocks.

Source: Avian influenza death of Alaska polar bear is a global first and a sign of the virus’ persistence

The Story of Influenza (2005)

The Story of Influenza

Virtually every expert on influenza believes another pandemic is nearly inevitable, that it will kill millions of people, and that it could kill tens of millions—and a virus like 1918, or H5N1, might kill a hundred million or more—and that it could cause economic and social disruption on a massive scale. This disruption itself could kill as well.

Source: The Story of Influenza

Primary Pandemic Prevention (2021)

Primary Pandemic Prevention

How can we stop the emergence of pandemic viruses in the first place? Whenever possible, treat the cause. (...)Indeed, factory farms are a public health menace. In addition to discontinuing the intensive confinement practices of animal agriculture, we should continue to research, develop, and invest in innovative plant-based and cultivated meat technologies to move away from raising billions of feathered and curly-tailed test tubes for viruses with pandemic potential to mutate within.

Source: Primary Pandemic Prevention

Endangered Species

California condor preservation efforts

California condor study update

More California condor study updates

Wild bird vaccinations in New Zealand

ECDC "Avian Influenza Overview"

https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data

Example report, April-June 2023

CDC Basic Information

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/basics/faq.html

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/avian-flu-faq.htm

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/avianflu/timeline/avian-timeline-background.htm

CDC H5N1 Mutation Information

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pdf/avianflu/h5n1-inventory.pdf

APHIS Detections of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Mammals

https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/mammals

Universal Influenza Vaccine Technology Landscape

A great vaccine database with a different focus is the Universal Influenza Vaccine Technology Landscape by CIDRAP.

Ebola documentary

A terrifying documentary on Youtube showing the psychological impact and resulting chaos of a very lethal outbreak .

Long-term effects of viral infections

Cancers caused by infections are more common than you might think

Serious infections linked to dementia risk, study shows

It Isn’t Just Long COVID. Post-Viral Illnesses Are More Common Than You Think

‘Long flu’ has emerged as a consequence similar to long COVID

Adenovirus 36 prevalence and association with human obesity: a systematic review

Covid-19 may increase the risk of heart attacks, strokes and deaths for three years after an infection, study suggests

Disaster Bonds documentary

A documentary on Youtube about how tail risk hedge funds calculate risks for disaster bonds.

"The Pandemic That Lasted 15 Million Years" documentary

A documentary on Youtube about a pre-historic panzootic being so severe that traces of the virus can still be found in the DNA of humans and many animals.

Covid-19 Is Not the Spanish Flu (2020)

This article is about the replication of false data at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and remains relevant.

Numbers and charts convey a reassuring sense of certainty. But in the midst of an evolving crisis, that certainty is too often an illusion. A single, imprecise statistic generated more than a decade ago can suddenly proliferate, inciting panic and senseless hoarding that diverts resources from those who need them most. When experts and journalists uncritically pluck numbers from careless studies and clutch at fluctuating figures, hastily offering them up as beacons, they may do more to confuse than illuminate.

Source: Covid-19 Is Not the Spanish Flu

Both newspapers and scientific journals frequently state three facts about the Spanish flu: It infected 500 million people (nearly one-third of the world population at the time); it killed between 50 and 100 million people; and it had a case fatality rate of 2.5 percent. This is not mathematically possible.

Source: Covid-19 Is Not the Spanish Flu

The Phrase "No Evidence" Is A Red Flag For Bad Science Communication (2021)

While Slate Star Codex author Scott Alexander wrote this blog post in the context of Covid-19, it is still highly relevant. It is impossible to monitor billions of people, domestic and wild animals. The absence of evidence shouldn't be confused with the absence of infections or mutations.

In an extremely nitpicky sense, these headlines are accurate. Officials were simply describing the then-current state of knowledge. In medicine, anecdotes or hunches aren’t considered “real” evidence. So if there hasn’t been a study showing something, then there’s “no evidence”. In early 2020, there hadn’t yet been a study proving that COVID could be airborne, so there was “no evidence” for it.

Source: The Phrase "No Evidence" Is A Red Flag For Bad Science Communication

8 things US pandemic communicators still get wrong (2021)

Risk communication expert Peter Sandman writes about mistakes of public health communication in the Covid-19 pandemic context.

Infectious Respiratory Particles

The distinction between "droplets" and "aerosols" has worsened the outcome of the Covid-19 pandemic as this article explains. As a result a new terminology has been introduced by the WHO, "infectious respiratory particles". This exemplifies how language can become a disadvantage while viruses don't care about human concepts and distinctions.

All pandemic long, scientists brawled over how the virus spreads. Droplets! No, aerosols! At the heart of the fight was a teensy error with huge consequences.

Source: The 60-Year-Old Scientific Screwup That Helped Covid Kill

These particles should be described with the term ‘infectious respiratory particles’ or IRPs.

Source: Leading health agencies outline updated terminology for pathogens that transmit through the air