Want some more media hype? This time from the UN: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/20/swine-flu-costs-un-report
Is the hype justified? We'll see. If the virus does not mutate into a more lethal form, this level of hype might not have been justfiied, even though the characteristics of the currently circulating variant of H1N1is not yet fully understood. If it does mutate into a more lethal form, there will be hype galore. BTW, it appears that some of the readers on this list do not fully understand how complex the influenza virus is, and how many opportunities there are for mutations. Take a quick look at the pictures of the sequence evolutions of these virus strains for a tiny bit of insight. http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v422/n6930/fig_tab/nature01509_F1.html As Roger points out, the descriptor "H1N1" covers a lot of territory. --Doug On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 12:28 PM, Roger Critchlow <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sun, Sep 20, 2009 at 12:04 PM, Jochen Fromm <[email protected]> wrote: > > Fact is: there was a strong hype around H1N1, > > although H1N1 itself is known since 1976. > > Probably longer than that. H1N1 simply means the virus contains the > first identified hemagglutinin (H1) and neuraminidase (N1) variants. > There have been and will be many different strains of influenza named > H1N1. > > This one wasn't any fun, I spent four days lying around watching > video, reading, and sleeping, because standing up and walking around > were not advisable. > > -- rec -- > >
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