Is the CDC for real?

[Finnster]

Originally Posted by lutach

Animals are known for their immune system's ability to kill viruses and/or diseases and that's why some antidotes are obtained by injecting horses I believe (And a crazy man in Florida I think lol). So my questions are: How did the pigs get it? How did the birds get it?

Are you talking about monoclonal antibodies?

As far as the latter is concerned, animals are common reservoirs to many diseases. Some viruses can move between species quite easily, and may linger in one animal population, fairly innocuously to that animal, then be spread to another species with much more devastating results.

EG. West Nile Virus has a reservoir in birds, and can be transmitted to humans and horses via insect vectors (ticks and mozzies..) WNV has had some human casualties, but it has been much more devastating to horse populations in the US.

Really it looks like we've been quite lucky w/ SF. It could have been much worse, and there certainly have been very deadly flu outbreaks. Considering just how small and interconnected the world has become, as well as far more populated since the last major outbreaks, a truly lethal strain could be extremely devastating. Given enough time, one will emerge.

The media may be over-hyped it, but no one really knew wth was going on, plus the media over-hypes everything. (eg: y2k.) Esp given the time back in March when everyone thought the world was ending, a deadly global pandemic just seemed apropos.