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Comment by Kilo-byte | Hacker News Reader

it's the usual flu season people, no need to fear this thing

Pandemic strains of influenza are noted for, among other things, their tendency to utterly ignore the routine seasonal patterns of flu. See: The 2009 pandemic, which kicked off in late spring, when the major wave of seasonal influenza is on the way out, if not over entirely.

It's also a lot harder to create vaccines for, as a virus that kills poultry doesn't work well with existing production methods that almost exclusively involve poultry eggs.

This flu is a bit worse than the standard one; you have a 3/10 chance of dying. As always, stay away from live birds...no pet chickens...think twice about buying that parrot.

> As always, stay away from live birds...no pet chickens...think twice about buying that parrot.

What? No!

This virus doesn't just magically show up in a bird, the bird has to catch it from another bird.

Stay away from large flocks, sure. But home pets? No problem at all.

Don't live/eat/sleep in close proximity to fowl pens.

Have you ever smelled a chicken? That is good advice regardless.

I was talking about my own rules being a resident of the PRC. If you live outside the PRC, you can probably follow more lax rules to stay alive.

It should be noted that transmissibility and virulence (your chance of dying) aren't particularly correlated, if at all, so while you don't want to get this, there's nothing yet to suggest wide-scale person to person transmission.

Indeed, there's some evidence to suggest avian strains of influenza (vs. pig strains) have a little bit of a disadvantage when it comes to kicking off pandemics.

Also, early mortality estimates are super unstable.

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