Flu season

Now we have the US press telling us that bird flu really is not that great a risk, after all. Well, that is more bullshit. The risk was and remains the same: if it mutates, we are in great peril. As most people are finding out, this particular virus likes to propagate in the lungs, the mucous membranes of the nose and throat are not inviting to this virus. We might have already deduced this when it was observed that only those in close contact with poultry contract H5N1. And this also makes inter-human transmission difficult (short of hacking up a green one, or a deep chest cough).

But whether the present variation like the receptor site on the throat and nose or lungs, it is the mutation that concerns us. As it did before. So don't relax your guard, this is a difficult and dangerous threat and will remain so. What the latest research might mean is that we have more time to come up with solutions before that mutation does strike. Pandemics strike every century, though the source (avian or swine) might change. We are not out of the woods and need to stockpile drugs and work hard for progress towards vaccinations.

But a nice spread of puts on Perdue and Tyson might also be good medicine.