Will the next Wuhan be in the US?
There’s no question that SARS-CoV-2 jumped from bats to humans. Whether that jump was direct or indirect and whether it occurred in a lab or in the Wuhan wet market is unknown. The Chinese government has been less than completely forthcoming about the COVID 19 epidemiology.
There’s no question that bird flu can jump from birds to humans. Whether that jump is direct or indirect, tracking the virus and infections in livestock, pets and humans is paramount. The Trump/Musk Administration firings at the CDC and censorship of CDC publications is making our government less than completely forthcoming about the bird flu epidemiology.
““I think we know very little about what’s happening with the peridomestic animals,” Cardona added. “So, skunks, raccoons, rabbits, they’ve all been experimentally shown to get H5 influenza and be able to transmit it. In addition, we’ve seen many, many cases in foxes around the country. And so, we’ve seen it in bears. We’ve seen it in all kinds of species.”
“Cardona said that one area of particular concern was domestic pets, particularly cats. We know that they’re susceptible to H5N1 after outbreaks in farm cats and domestic cats exposed via contaminated raw food. If it becomes clear that spread from cats to humans is a big factor in transmission, that immediately opens up the pool of at-risk people far beyond those who regularly come into contact with cows and poultry.
“The fear born out of this latest study is that our current surveillance mechanisms may not be doing a great job of tracking these human cases.
“We do not know the extent of this outbreak in the US. There are clearly infections happening that we’re missing,” Emory University virologist Seema Lakdawala told the New York Times.
“The need for better monitoring was echoed in the CDC’s conclusion to the study: “These findings suggest the possible benefit of systematic surveillance for rapid identification of HPAI A(H5) virus in dairy cattle, milk, and humans who are exposed to cattle to ensure appropriate hazard assessments.”
“As the situation continues to develop, it’s important to remember that if this virus did reach pandemic levels, it would not be a carbon copy of the situation we saw with COVID-19.
“We’re in a very different spot with avian flu,” Dr Robert Murphy, executive director of the Robert J. Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University, told IFLScience.
“We [have] to support the public health people that are working on the vaccines, better treatments and better surveillance.”
Actually, thanks to the Trump/Musk Administration, we have fewer public health people working on vaccines, treatments and surveillance and a Secretary of HSS who is openly hostile to vaccines.
Bird flu spreads to humans in the US
There’s no question that bird flu can jump from birds to humans. Whether that jump is direct or indirect, tracking the virus and infections in livestock, pets and humans is paramount. The Trump/Musk Administration firings at the CDC and censorship of CDC publications is making our government less than completely forthcoming about the bird flu epidemiology.
““I think we know very little about what’s happening with the peridomestic animals,” Cardona added. “So, skunks, raccoons, rabbits, they’ve all been experimentally shown to get H5 influenza and be able to transmit it. In addition, we’ve seen many, many cases in foxes around the country. And so, we’ve seen it in bears. We’ve seen it in all kinds of species.”
“Cardona said that one area of particular concern was domestic pets, particularly cats. We know that they’re susceptible to H5N1 after outbreaks in farm cats and domestic cats exposed via contaminated raw food. If it becomes clear that spread from cats to humans is a big factor in transmission, that immediately opens up the pool of at-risk people far beyond those who regularly come into contact with cows and poultry.
“The fear born out of this latest study is that our current surveillance mechanisms may not be doing a great job of tracking these human cases.
“We do not know the extent of this outbreak in the US. There are clearly infections happening that we’re missing,” Emory University virologist Seema Lakdawala told the New York Times.
“The need for better monitoring was echoed in the CDC’s conclusion to the study: “These findings suggest the possible benefit of systematic surveillance for rapid identification of HPAI A(H5) virus in dairy cattle, milk, and humans who are exposed to cattle to ensure appropriate hazard assessments.”
“As the situation continues to develop, it’s important to remember that if this virus did reach pandemic levels, it would not be a carbon copy of the situation we saw with COVID-19.
“We’re in a very different spot with avian flu,” Dr Robert Murphy, executive director of the Robert J. Havey Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University, told IFLScience.
“We [have] to support the public health people that are working on the vaccines, better treatments and better surveillance.”
Actually, thanks to the Trump/Musk Administration, we have fewer public health people working on vaccines, treatments and surveillance and a Secretary of HSS who is openly hostile to vaccines.
Bird flu spreads to humans in the US
If the next Wuhan occurs in the US, what are the odds that Fort Detrick be the most likely point of origin?
“Detrick is today one of the world’s cutting-edge laboratories for research into toxins and antitoxins, the place where defenses are developed against every plague, from crop fungus to Ebola…Some of its secrets have been revealed in declassified documents, through interviews and as a result of congressional investigations. Together, those sources reveal Detrick’s central role in MK-ULTRA and in the manufacture of poisons intended to kill foreign leaders.”
The Secret History of Fort Detrick, the CIA’s Base for Mind Control Experiments – POLITICO Magazine
Remember the anthrax attacks of 2001?
@John,
“Remember the anthrax attacks of 2001?”
I do. I knew Bruce Ivins. He was a postdoc in the lab where my wife was a grad student. He weaponized anthrax for his own purposes and committed suicide as the feds closed in on him. Allegedly, he did the attacks in an effort to revive an anthrax vaccine program he was working on that was being shut down. Read “The Mirage Man.” Bruce was a psychologically disturbed man and had been for decades.
Of course the Wuhan Institute wasn’t a lab researching bioweapons. As for the next Wuhan, it will likely be the result of a jump of a virus from animal to human, like the Spanish flu, Ebola, HIV and SARS-CoV-2.
“As for the next Wuhan, it will likely be the result of a jump of a virus from animal to human…”
What makes you so sure?
@John,
I’m a research scientist. I have a BA in microbiology and a PhD in genetics. I’ve been a medical school professor and professional molecular biologist for 37 years. I keep up with the published science in the area. I know how viruses are transmitted. And I have a preference for data and evidence over conspiracy theories and wild speculation. YMMV.
Given the current state of bioengineering, specifically gain of function research, how close (in time) do you estimate the United States is to being able to create a bio weapon that could result a pandemic? How about Israel?
Given Fort Detrick’s history of creating deadly poisons and toxins and Wuhan’s work with gain of function virus SARS research and specifically the furan cleavage in the spike protein, I find it hard to believe that researchers are further away timewise than, say, Iran in making a deliverable nuke.
@John,
The US and Israel could create a bioweapon any time they want. Dozens of nations could do the same. The fact that they can isn’t proof that they are.
There’s no evidence that the furan cleavage site in SARS-CoV-2 was engineered. None.
SARS-CoV-2 furin cleavage site was not engineered
“Recently, Wu and coworkers identified a bat virus (Bat CoV CD35) that harbored a furin cleavage site identical to that found on SARS-CoV-2 (Zhu W, Huang Y, Gong J, et al. A novel bat coronavirus with a polybasic furin-like cleavage site. Virol Sin. 2023 May 2;S1995-820X(23)00047-0). The authors concluded, “This study deepens our understanding of the diversity of coronaviruses and provides clues about the natural origin of the furin cleavage site of SARS-CoV-2” (abstract).
“There is now abundant evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was an animal-to-human spillover event that occurred in the western section of the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market that housed several live animals that were susceptible to the virus. Indeed, the early cases of COVID-19 centered on that section of the market.”
In the Journals: More Evidence Informs Origin of SARS-CoV-2
You know nothing about that topic. Why should anyone care what you find hard to believe?
Can we trust the CIA? It appears they still have some doubts.
Wiley:
You are commenting to a person with a background in immunology.
It is amazing how that pops up now after a change in presidency. That story was carried by the news years ago, There is no foundation for it. Amazing how the light is showing on this when the new president arrives and wished to discredit everything done in the past.
“CIA now believes the virus responsible.” “Supposedly” and a big supposedly this was caused in a Wuhan wet market.
@Wiley,
The CIA has doubts and low confidence in its own findings. The weight of genomic and epidemiological evidence points to animal-to-human spillover. Science doesn’t deal in proof, it deals in the weight of evidence. Doubt isn’t evidence, particularly when the doubt has low confidence.
“The US and Israel could create a bioweapon any time they want…The fact that they can isn’t proof that they are.”
The fact is also that there is no proof that they aren’t.
You are incredibly cavalier about this…particularly since you know that the US is the only country to have dropped a nuke; the US infected nearly 400 men from Tuskegee, AL with syphilis without their knowledge and without treatment, and that the FY 2023 budget request for Chemical and Biological Defense Program was $1.7 Billion. IOW an enormous amount of money is being thrown at dual use technology, almost entirely out of public view…like the Manhattan project and the Tuskegee program.
The Wuhan lab may or may not have been the source of COVID. Expert opinion differs. That debate is moot.
What should have been learned from COVID and its emergence in Wuhan, the home of WIV, were a clear warning that today’s bioengineering technology is totally capable of creating a pathogen that can cause a pandemic. The insistence that COVID did not emerge from a biolab serves to obscure the horrifying possibility that our government is working on such dual use viruses–offense under the guise of defense.
Don’t worry. Be happy!
@John,
LOL! There’s no proof that any of dozens of countries aren’t either. I’ve been doing genetic engineering in bacteria, viruses and insects for decades. I’ve published my work in refereed journals. The technology is simple, relatively cheap and not secret.
Conspiracy theories like yours illuminate nothing. The “possibility” of bioweapons is well-known and has been for decades. The Soviet Union was falsely accused of using chemical weapons in the “yellow rain” hoax. Saddam was falsely accused by the US of having mobile anthrax labs. Conspiracy mongering is not a search for truth.
Biowarfare is not new. In 1763, British soldiers at Fort Pitt gave smallpox-infected blankets to Native American leaders to spread the disease among their tribes.
The latest bioweapons development program in the US appears to be to officially promote vaccine denialism while shutting down the CDC, blinding Americans to the next pandemic.
BTW, the Tuskegee syphilis study was not a bioweapons development program. Your attempt to smuggle it into a comment on bioweapons programs is either ignorant or dishonest.