US detects H5N1 bird flu in swine for the first time | Hacker News Reader

US detects H5N1 bird flu in swine for the first time

reuters.com

32 pointsamichail12 comments

This means the virus has now mutated enough that it was able to jump from cow or another source to pig which is not good news. Pigs are mixing chambers for this sort of thing where flus become fitter for human hosts.

This one is going to do damage if it becomes more fit. It is almost 100% lethal to ferrets due to central nervous system issues. Ferrets like mink have similar respiratory systems to humans.

We are not ferrets, but if it starts spreading it would be wise to not automatically assume that it can just be ignored. Most people already have damaged immune systems due to SARS2 and you've all heard of the idiom of the straw and the camel's back.

> Most people already have damaged immune systems due to SARS2

Can you support that statement?

Yes, t-cell depletion which has resulted in a rise in the rates of other diseases showing up that were lower or under control before.

The UK government publishes data with counts of various things that you can make graphs from.

Could that T cell depletion have been caused by isolation and masking during the pandemic rather than covid directly?

In what way would this hypothesis make sense?

Decreased exposure to pathogens

While in a way true, I highly doubt it would be that significant unless there are studies showing that.

One of the studies is mentioned here, there have been others as well:

https://time.com/6265510/covid-19-weaken-immune-system/

> Most people already have damaged immune systems due to SARS2

How do you figure?

The article mentions 36 people have already gotten it and their symptoms were mild.

There's been a bigger outbreak in Washington it seems - https://nitter.poast.org/richardhirschs1/status/185164171224...

While that’s true it’s good to be vigilant.

Viruses are constantly evolving and flu can also exchange parts of its genome with other flu strains (reassortment).

It may become more (or less) virulent by chance while evolving more fitness for human bodies so past results don’t guarantee future results.

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