Scientists fear Chinese researchers may cause global pandemic killing millions

Senior scientists have criticised the “appalling irresponsibility” of researchers in China who have deliberately created new strains of influenza virus in a veterinary laboratory.

They warned there is a danger that the new viral strains created by mixing bird-flu virus with human influenza could escape from the laboratory to cause a global pandemic killing millions of people.

Lord May of Oxford, a former government chief scientist and past president of the Royal Society, denounced the study published today in the journal Science as doing nothing to further the understanding and prevention of flu pandemics.

“They claim they are doing this to help develop vaccines and such like. In fact the real reason is that they are driven by blind ambition with no common sense whatsoever,” Lord May told The Independent.

“The record of containment in labs like this is not reassuring. They are taking it upon themselves to create human-to-human transmission of very dangerous viruses. It’s appallingly irresponsible,” he said. Read more >>

Bird Flu Fears Mount in China as Herbal Remedies Run Out

A popular herb called ban lan gen, or blue root, has been flying off pharmacy shelves across China as local governments encourage people to consider traditional remedies to ward off the latest bird flu virus.

With scientists so far unable to pinpoint the H7N9 influenza virus’ animal host, locals are preparing for a possible pandemic by stocking up on popular plant remedies as well as face masks and hand sanitizers and other over-the- counter medicines.

“Chinese people associate ban lan gen with anti-virus,” said Shen Jiangang, assistant director for research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s School of Chinese Medicine. “So when they hear about bird flu, they immediately think it might be effective to protect themselves although there is no experimental evidence.”

Ayurvedic and Chinese medicines have used the remedy for centuries. Scientists have proved it can relieve bacterial conjunctivitis in eye drops and found it has an antiviral effect in test tubes. There is no test to show it works against influenza. Read more >>

A/H1N1 has mutated to something more deadly - 1918 RBD D225G in Lung Cases in Ukraine and Norway

Image via Wikipedia

1918 RBD D225G in Lung Cases in Ukraine and Norway
Recombinomics Commentary 11:29
November 21, 2009

For the two 1918 HA variants, the South Carolina (SC) HA (with Asp190, Asp225) bound exclusively alpha2-6 receptors, while the New York (NY) variant, which differed only by one residue (Gly225), had mixed alpha2-6/alpha2-3 specificity, especially for sulfated oligosaccharides.

The above description is from a paper analyzing receptor binding domain differences in sequences from the 1918 pandemic. The New York variant had D225G, the same change found in lung tissues from fatal swine H1N1 sequences in Brazil, Ukraine, and Norway. The above result clearly demonstrated a change in receptor specificity for D225G, which was present in A/New York/1/1918 and A/London/1/1919, demonstrating the same change I 1918 that has been described in 2009. Although WHO stated that this change was "not significant" in the Ukraine samples, it was associated with the fatal cases and is cause for concern. The concern was increased by the announcement from Norway indicating the same change was found in fatal H1N1 lung infections there also.

Although there have been comments that this change was "spontaneous" and did not spread, the finding of the same change in all four deceased patients in Ukraine from two distinct locations, indicates it did spread, as did the finding of the same change in multiple cases in Brazil and Norway. Although the concept of "random mutation" has been used to explain away the sudden appearance of the same polymorphism on multiple backgrounds, the appearance via recombination is a much stronger argument for the same change to appear at multiple locations at the same time.

The spontaneous mutation theory, which is the foundation of WHO policy and statements on significance of changes relies heavily on a "selection" component, arguing that the same change keeps appearing on different backgrounds because of string selection pressure. However, this same phenomenon was described for a silent mutation on H5N1, which offers no clear selection pressure. Similarly, a silent change was also found in seasonal H1N1 in sequences that had acquired the Tamiflu resistance marker, H274Y. Thus, these silent (synonymous) changes string argue against a coincidental spontaneous mutation, and instead argue that this acquisition is concurrently acquired because of a widespread common donor.

The concept of acquisition via recombination has serious implications for the current pandemic. It was used to predict the D225G change, in part because the change was "in play" and appearing in July/August sequences at increasing frequency, even though the H1N1 sequences represented different genetic backgrounds. Similarly the clusters of Tamiflu resistance in Wales and North Carolina are also driven by recombination, as happened when the identical change was acquired in H1N1 seasonal flu in patients who were not taking Tamiflu (oseltamivir).

Thus, the concept of recombination predicts that the D225G receptor binding domain change, and the H274Y Tamiflu resistance change, which continue to spread via recombination

U.S. Govt targets kids with massive swine flu ad campaign

The Washington Post reports three federal agencies are teaming up with the colorful muppets of Sesame Street to teach children and families how to prevent the spread of swine flu. These videos ostensibly help kids practice habits such as washing their hands and sneezing into their elbow. The CDC is also selling cuddly stuffed toys of the deadly H1N1 microbe complete with a pig-like nose and eyes.

While these government awareness campaigns serve to inform children, they also indirectly condition children and parents to be more receptive to receiving the toxic swine flu vaccination. If the swine flu virus recombines into a new strain as many in the medical community suspect, the H1N1 vaccines such as Tamiflu will be useless, and only serve to enrich drug companies.

According to a study published online by the British Medical Journal, more than half of healthcare workers surveyed in Hong Kong said they would refuse to be vaccinated against swine flu because of a fear of side effects and doubts as to efficacy. Additionally, GP newspaper, a weekly newspaper for UK family doctors, conducted a survey of UK physicians regarding the swine flu vaccine and found that up to 60% of GPs may choose not to be vaccinated against swine flu, with many concerned about the safety of the vaccine.

Three Polish doctors and six nurses are facing criminal prosecution after 21 homeless people died following medical trials for a vaccine to the H5N1 bird-flu virus, according to The Telegraph's Matthew Day in Warsaw.

Natural News reports that "Aside from the dangerous ingredients many people already know about (like squalene or thimerosal), one of the key ingredients used in flu vaccines (including the vaccines being prepared for the swine flu pandemic) is the diseased flesh of African Green Monkeys. This is revealed in U.S. patent No. 5911998 - Method of producing a virus vaccine from an African green monkey kidney cell line. (http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5...)

"As this patent readily explains, ingredients used in the vaccine are derived from the kidneys of African Green Monkeys who are first infected with the virus, then allowed to fester the disease, and then are killed so that their diseased organs can be used make vaccine ingredients. This is done in a cruel, inhumane 'flesh factory' environment where the monkeys are subjected to a process that includes 'incubating said inoculated cell line to permit proliferation of said virus.' Then: 'harvesting the virus resulting from step (c); and... (ii) preparing a vaccine from the harvested virus.'"

Twenty-one homeless people die after bird flu vaccine trial

Three Polish doctors and six nurses are facing criminal prosecution after 21 homeless people died following medical trials for a vaccine to the H5N1 bird-flu virus, according to The Telegraph's Matthew Day in Warsaw.

The medical staff, from the northern town of Grudziadz, are being investigated over medical trials on as many as 350 homeless and poor people last year, which prosecutors say involved an untried vaccine to the highly-contagious virus, says Day. The victims received £1-2 to be tested with what they thought was a conventional flu vaccine but was actually an anti bird-flu drug.

Day claims Polish authorities have not established a direct link between the deaths and the medical staff, but Poland's health minister, Ewa Kopacz, said the doctors and nurses involved should not return to their profession. "It is in the interests of all doctors that those who are responsible for this are punished," he said.

In a chilling-to-the-bone revelation regarding Poland's national health service, Day claims that in 2002, "a number of ambulance medics were found guilty of killing their patients for commissions from funeral companies."

Natural News reports that "Aside from the dangerous ingredients many people already know about (like squalene or thimerosal), one of the key ingredients used in flu vaccines (including the vaccines being prepared for the swine flu pandemic) is the diseased flesh of African Green Monkeys. This is revealed in U.S. patent No. 5911998 - Method of producing a virus vaccine from an African green monkey kidney cell line. (http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5...)

"As this patent readily explains, ingredients used in the vaccine are derived from the kidneys of African Green Monkeys who are first infected with the virus, then allowed to fester the disease, and then are killed so that their diseased organs can be used make vaccine ingredients. This is done in a cruel, inhumane 'flesh factory' environment where the monkeys are subjected to a process that includes 'incubating said inoculated cell line to permit proliferation of said virus.' Then: 'harvesting the virus resulting from step (c); and... (ii) preparing a vaccine from the harvested virus.'"