In The Blogs

The Good Flu Still Needs Stopping

| Thu Apr. 30, 2009 12:37 PM PDT

— Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

It’s been interesting to watch the media ramp-up to hysteria over the new influenza strain and now drop it like spoiled news because it’s not deadly enough for the headlines. Too bad that's wrong twice.

First off, during the initial discovery of influenza A(H1N1)—no, it’s not swine flu anymore—many outlets were far too quick to diagnose and prognosticate, when all anyone could reasonably do was take a breath and wait a second for the science to sort through the fiction. That didn’t happen. Instead, imaginary death tolls mounted.

Now it’s clear this new flu is more gentle than ordinary flu. Yet this is just the moment when it’s potential for lethal harm blossoms.

Why? Because the farther the virus spreads, the more chance it will mix or reassort with other flus and turn into something more lethal. Already the unusual A(H1N1) flu combines strains from three species—swine, avian, human—from three continents—North America, Europe, and Asia. That’s new.

The mix provides an order of complexity we don't yet understand, says Kennedy Shortridge of the University of Hong Kong. AAAS’s ScienceNow reports that Shortridge led investigations into the initial emergence of H5N1 avian influenza in 1997.

Shortridge is concerned this newly-hacked virus might prove unstable and ready to reassort with other viruses encountered in a human or animal host. It’s already arrived in Asia where the H5N1 virus is circulating and where strains of Tamiflu-resistant human H1N1 are circulating. He speculates that swapping genes between these viruses could result in one that is more pathogenic or more easily passed from person to person or both. The prospects for change in the virus are considerable and truly worrying.

But this is just the moment when the media is sheepishly casting around for a bigger news story. They’ve already cried Wolf and infected everyone with boredom. Now, when we drop our vigilance, is just the moment when a good flu can go bad.

And, btw, I can’t help in the midst of all this to picture a world where for the sake of atmospheric health we all become vegetarian. You know, just to reduce our carbon footprint by a whopping 33 percent. I know, it’s a fantasy. But imagine it anway. Without the brutal disease-making factories of pig and fowl farms, we’d all be healthier—people and planet.

Advertisement

Julia Whitty is the Environmental Correspondent for Mother Jones. Her latest book DEEP BLUE HOME : An Intimate Ecology of Our Wild Ocean will be out in July. For more of her stories, click here.

Comments

Vegan, not vegetarian. Or at

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu Apr. 30, 2009 1:46 PM PDT.

Vegan, not vegetarian. Or at least Bittmanian.

What's wrong with vegetarianism vs. veganism?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat May. 2, 2009 5:54 AM PDT.

I used to be a vegan, until a visit to my doctor for anemia, fatigue, lethargy, slow wound healing, and related symptoms showed that depleting my body's stores of vitamin B12, a vitamin that ONLY comes from the consumption of animal products. So I started adding a bit of dairy; otherwise I keep vegan. As an anthropologist, I must say, however, that as a species our dentition, musculature, and stomach and nutritional requirements suggest that Homo sapiens evolved as an omnivorous creature, albeit one that didn't survive only meat alone. In other words, we are NOT carnivores, but neither are we strict herbivores, so being a vegan -- while it involves not using animal products as much as not eating animal products -- isn't healthy for us as a species. My ancestors came from Scandinavia and northern Asia, where low sunlight increased the need to get vitamin D from other sources, and the need to maintain the calcium in bones from other sources. Cows milk provides both -- but better make that organic non-fat for me.

Woulda coulda shoulda

Submitted by Trippp on Thu Apr. 30, 2009 5:44 PM PDT.

Why is there the assumption that a mutation of this virus would be something worse? Doesn't "We don't know" mean, um, "it could be better, it could be worse, we don't know?" I know why the media fans the flames but are you writers under the same pressures? This is starting to sound like the trailing off of Y2K when 'experts' were saying "OK, nothing happened, so far, but something really bad could be rippling through and we haven't seen it yet. Be ever vigilant." Tripp

Don't Get On Airplanes

Submitted by Raul (not verified) on Fri May. 1, 2009 9:38 AM PDT.

It must be real bad because Joe Biden said he wouldn't let his family get on ANY commericial airline. Or is it just Joe "diarrhea mouth" Biden trying to make himself feel important again. I'm not a fan of Obama but it's scary to think that if Obama died, Joe would be president.

Oh to be a Vegan

Submitted by cchute on Fri May. 1, 2009 10:05 AM PDT.

In 2000 I tried to become a vegan and when that didn't work, a vegetarian. I failed miserably in that I could not find a source of protein that didn't fill my stomach with enough gas to lift a blimp. I tried eliminating wheat, dairy, and soy, still with no luck. Why do I feel so inclined to share? Lately I've been hearing a lot about how dropping meat from my diet is the environmentally responsible thing to do. While that may be true, my experience has lead me to believe it may not always be the humane thing to do. I think some people, my gassy self included, just aren't built to digest beans and other such proteins. We need our animal products! (sorry, eggs and cheese just aren't enough). I've had many private conversations about this very personal subject and they always seem to end with that silly little song "beans beans the musical fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot." So, before you ask all of us to trade our meat for beans, please consider that for some us that may mean that the ramifications are rather combustible!

Gary Schneider Who really

Submitted by gdsnide on Fri May. 1, 2009 6:41 PM PDT.

Gary Schneider Who really gives a damn if it mutates ot not. Sounds to me like another stunt by the Government to get the attention off the economy & other things that cocern the US Public I refuse to be Henny Penny & run around & say the sky is falling I for one wonder if this is as bad as it sounds or mostly propoganda. The Goverment will wind up taking a load of your money no matter how this plays out. I for one do not want to live forever so bring it on HA

mistake

Submitted by dude (not verified) on Fri May. 8, 2009 11:34 AM PDT.

You have a line in the story that says that Tamiflu resistant H1N1 is circulating in Indonesa. I think that Tamiflu resistant H5N1 is circulating in Indonesia.

sound terrible! thanks to

Submitted by Ivy (not verified) on Fri May. 15, 2009 10:36 PM PDT.

sound terrible! thanks to the local government, we don't even have one case. hut i think for the present time the best way is that we need enhance the international efforts to stop it becoming ubiquitous..

cannlitv

Submitted by cannlitv (not verified) on Thu May. 28, 2009 4:54 AM PDT.

thanks for.

Everything in Moderation

Submitted by Panic Away Review (not verified) on Sun May. 31, 2009 3:12 AM PDT.

Its true that diet affects people in different ways. But the most common elemnt of having a healthful lifestyle is to have the right balance - incorporate vegetables and fruit into your daily diet, more LIVE water based food is btter than the junk at McDs et al. Incorporate some FAT into your diet and carbs and Protein. Monitor your progress! Its all about balance at the end of the day.

The problem, or one of them,

Submitted by minkef (not verified) on Wed Jun. 10, 2009 6:35 AM PDT.

The problem, or one of them, is that the usual flu season involves a variant of last year’s bug. The population has some measure of immunity to it. This particular strain appears to be new to us, and therefore we have no natural immunity. It doesn’t appear to be as nastily virulent as H5N1 but it doesn’t have to be in order to have significant impact.