Nature reports on swine 'flu
Maxine Clarke
Wednesday, 29 April 2009 12:46 UTC
A new strain of swine flu that appears to be able to spread from person to person has sparked concerns that the outbreak is the start of a pandemic. In its swine ’flu News special, Nature reports on the latest developments and examines what might be done in the event of a pandemic. The Special consists of three sections: news; dealing with pandemics; and history (bird flu and the 1918 flu pandemic). Lots of articles and other material are included; the Special will be updated regularly with new content. The Great Beyond , the Nature news blog, is carrying regular round-ups and links to significant articles and information published elsewhere. Here is today’s round-up; keep checking back for updates.
Updated 29 April 2009 12:47 UTC
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Thanks Maxine, having done a little research for a potential novel on bird flu last year I am feeling decidedly neurotic about the whole thing, and have already started to compile and emergency supply kit as advised by the CDC.
The rest of the household thinks I am over-reacting, and I just hope that they’re right!
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Apologies in advance if this is inappropriately frivolous, but to cheer you up, here’s a post at Improbable Research with the title Anti-terrorist bra mask to fight swine flu. Love the picture of the bank note.
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Great idea! …I’m actually wondering if that would work! Padded are probably better.
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That just can’t be comfortable.
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Travelling home on the train last night, I saw a headline on someone’s free paper “94,000 London deaths from flu predicted” – nearly 100,000 people in London alone predicted to die from swine flu? I wonder where those figures come from? [I refuse to read the free papers so I did not investigate the actual article further – the headline took up the whole of the front page.]
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Yes, I saw this as well, puzzled how they reach such conclusions. They also said that the borough I live in (Barnet) is predicted to be the worst hit without any explanation! What kind of journalism is that? In the article they actually say that the death rate could also be just a few thousand in case of a pandemic, again without any explanation on what this is based on. Putting the worst case into the headline is truly irresponsible.
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I read The Times at lunchtime today, Joerg (instead of lunch), and I was not enlightened! Nothing like this anywhere to be seen (unless it was deemed unimportant and relegated to a brief, which if so I may have missed ;-) ).
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Maxine, while The Times may feed your mind, it is hardly going to provide any physical nutrition and is not an alternative to eating lunch! :-)
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I wanted to point out that both the WHO and the CDC are on Twitter so you can get press release information from them before it even hits the papers. It is interesting to what the flow of information and mis-information with respect to this very important event.
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Sorry I should have included this CDC link.
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