The really big news is not the latest election results, but it’s the possibility of H5N1 Avian flu mutating and spreading between humans. The virus has already made the leap between species and that was the difficult part.
Unfortunately, human behavior has helped the virus along. In poorer countries, birds are a major source of protein and so you see human interaction with birds on a huge scale! I saw one photo showing farmers sleeping with their flocks. We think it’s novel to see a flock of chickens along the side of the road and point them out to our children. In the rest of the world, that’s the most common sight. No one even notices. Ducks and chicken can be found crowding the roads and pathways everywhere.
And Tamiflu? Although it is being seen as some sort of “magic bullet”, there are signs that the virus has already mutated and become resistant to the drug. Here is a case where science can only watch and guess what will happen next, along with the rest of us. History tells us that it happened before, many times.
No comments:
Post a Comment