Chance (16 Jun 2024)
"Is Bird Flu, H5N1, Our Next Pandemic?"


 
Hello John and Doves,
 
The birdflu is in the news a lot now.  And there is a vaccine for this.
 
The EU has 40 million doses lined up - when needed.  It's mainly for 'at risk' people in certain professions - those that deal with animals.
 
Looks like Finland will be the first to get this vaccine to 'at risk' people -  mink and fox farm workers, among others.  They are especially concerned about the mink - and their relation to ferrets - ferrets are used in flu research because of their use in human flu research.  They don't want the H5N1 to mutate from mink to ferrets - because ferrets are so like humans when it comes to flu - so that could start a human flu pandemic.  
 
I found an article that stated that back in 2011, two labs had done gain-of-function and created an H5N1 virus that spreads between ferrets!  So that virus already exists.  It's been thirteen years since that research - bet they have an H5N1 that spreads between humans now - probably an NIAID research gain-of-function project that American taxpayers paid for.
 
In this letter I wrote a little bit about CDC lab "accidents" and the Canada BSL-4 incident with the Chinese.  Also, I wrote about a federal lab sending Spanish Flu to health clinics by 'accident'.
 
And the NIH said that they found infectious H5N1 virus in pasteurized milk.  I question anything they say - especially on this virus surviving after pasteurization.  And I question WHY would they even report this?  Tests have been done ad nauseam on pasteurization of dairy milk and virus viruses - even H5N1; and even the NIH admits our milk supply is safe from H5N1 after pasteurization.  So why report this pointless research?  Since I don't trust them, I think they are up to something.....with our milk supply.
 
The FDA is preparing for a bird flu pandemic - vaccine, antivirals, testing, etc.  The testing is with the infamous PCR technology.  Lots of false positives.  Finding 'bits and pieces' of a virus is NOT positive for finding a virus.  Too, too sensitive and very inaccurate.  But that's their gold standard for Covid-19 and Bird flu...and probably Monkeypox or anything else they've picked....
 
IF this becomes THEIR next pandemic - they will get the numbers (again) with the PCR tests.  And they'll add  'scare tactics' that more testing showed H5N1 infectious viruses in pasteurized milk and cooked burgers!  And they'll cull the dairy cows and chicken farms as they "try to contain the spread".  
 
European Union Orders 40 Million Bird Flu Vaccines:
 
 
"The European Union ordered more than 40 million bird flu vaccines from manufacturer CSL Ltd, as governments step up efforts to prevent the potential spread of the virus to people."
 
The virus "jumped from infecting millions of birds over the past two years to now sickening dairy cattle, prompting fears that the disease could spread further."
 
The EU will get 665,000 doses (of vaccine) for 15 member states "with an option for a further 40 million doses if needed."
 
The doses are for those with the biggest risk - poultry farm workers and veterinarians.
 
"..more than 80 dairy herds and three dairy workers have tested positive for the virus since late March according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."  The U.S. government have a contract for 4.8 million doses of the CSL vaccine.

EU Secures More Than 40 Million Bird Flu Vaccines
 
Looks like Finland will be the first country to offer the vaccine to people at risk.  They will offer it to "poultry farmers, veterinarians, scientists who study the virus, and people who work on fur farms housing animals like mink and fox and where there have been outbreaks."
 
The vaccines will be available as soon as they arrive - 20,000 doses.  The virus isn't very good at infecting humans or spreading among them - but that could change.
 
Finland to offer bird flu vaccine to select groups of people, a possible global first
 
Finland had a "highly pathogenic avian influenza, H5N1, hit about 24 farms (mink and fox) - they found lots of dead birds and dead and dying foxes and mink.  They noted the spread from mammal to mammal.
 
"Trying to predict an H5N1 pandemic is almost like warning about an earthquake.  It could very well happen, perhaps next year, or in five years or who knows when.  Or never."
 
Mink are "thought to be not so different from people, at least from a flu perspective.  They are closely related to ferrets, which are used as a model for humans in flu research because they develop similar symptoms and have similar receptors that flu viruses use to infect human cells."  ((note the ferrets))
 
"Mink, more so than any other farmer species, pose a risk for the emergency of future disease outbreaks and the evolution of future pandemics..."
 
"...the H5N1 clade (strain) currently spreading around the world is dubbed 2.3.4.4b - may have actually made the virus less adept at cracking into human cells, even if it's better at spreading among birds."  
 
"Worldwide, there have been few reported cases in people in the past several years, and many of the seeming infections were so mild that there is some debate over whether they were true infections or the person just had bits of virus in their nose after an exposure."
 
H5N1 would need to pick up more than a mutation or two before it could take off among people, scientists think.  it might also require changes in several parts of its genome.  For one, the virus' polymerase - the bit that enables the pathogen to make copies of itself once it establishes an infection - would need to be altered to work better in mammalian cells.  The virus would also need to tweak its hemagglutinin, the protein on its surface that locks onto host cells to initiate an infection.  That protein on the H5N1 virus is currently better suited to attaching to avian cells than mammalian ones.  Other changes to the virus might be necessary as well for it to spark a pandemic."

Bird flu researchers hone in on Finland’s mink farms

Don't give NIAID any ideas.  They've made enough of a mess with Covid-19 SARS-CoV-2 and Monkeypox Clade IIa.  Actually, I'm sure they've already done gain-of-function research on H5N1.

And in this Science article from 17 Oct 2014, "Three years ago, two separate research teams revealed that they had made a version of the H5N1 avian influenza strain that spread between ferrets.  ((gain-of-function spread between ferrets) Many scientists worried that if the potent new lab strains were accidentally or deliberately released, it could result in a deadly pandemic."
U.S. halts funding for new risky virus studies, calls for voluntary moratorium | Science | AAAS
 
That was gain-of-function on H5N1 back in 2011 or so!  Before any voluntary moratoriums on gain-of-function research with pathogens of pandemic potential.
 
Lab "accidents" happen - and non-accidents happen. 
 
The CDC at one time "closed two labs and halted biological shipments in the wake of several recent incidents in which highly pathogenic microbes were mishandled by federal laboratories.  The cases include an accidental shipment of live anthrax; the discovery of forgotten, like smallpox samples; and a newly revealed incident in which a dangerous influenza strain was accidentally shipped from CDC to another lab."
 
Lab incidents lead to safety crackdown at CDC | Science |
 
And that article is from 2014.  How many more 'goofs' since then?
 
A few years ago, the Colorado University Student Health Center laboratory received samples from the CDC or NIH (one of these sent the samples) for CAP accreditation.  This lab and three others had been sent Spanish Flu by mistake.  Before the lab opened all the specimen bottles for testing they got a notice from the CDC to stop all handling of the specimens immediately.  The CDC had "accidentally" sent out Spanish Flu to the four labs.  Spanish Flu is BSL-4 lab stuff.  How could this have ever happened?  This was a HUGE error!  (unless on purpose)
 
 
There are also Chinese researchers working with NIH, CDC, etc.  I doubt they are all good Americans. They have access to pathogens.  I wrote a letter a few weeks ago about Canada's BSL-4  where two Chinese/CCP researchers took Ebola and Nipah virus from the lab and moved these to China.  This ended up being Canada's largest national security breach ever.  Only this year did our Congress become interested in this case and called on Canada to explain what happened.  Too late.  Long over with.  The researchers returned to China with no charges.  But China now has Ebola and Nipah virus in their gain-of-function hands.
 
Obviously, as per the Finland article above, the testing for bird flu isn't very good.
 
My other letter today is about the NIH, NIAID, HHS lying to Congress and covering up gain-of-function research on Monkeypox...so why would they tell the truth about any gain-of-function research done on H5N1 - that's been around a long time and lots of research has been done on it - as an above article shows with gain-of-function research done by two labs resulting in the spread of H5N1 from ferret to ferret (ferrets are the model for humans in flu research because they develop similar symptoms and have similar receptors that flu viruses use to infect human cells. per the Finland article above.  This is exactly what the Finnish article expresses concern about - maybe they aren't aware that gain-of-function H5N1 ferret to ferret virus already exists - via a lab!).
 
And a "voluntary moratorium" on gain-of-function research is really pretty worthless.  As we've seen with Covid-19.  Lots of gain-of-function research was already done long before someone thought about making a moratorium voluntary.
 
"The voluntary moratorium on gain-of-function research related to the transmissibility of highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus should continue, pending the resolution of critical policy questions concerning the rationale for performing such experiments and how best to report their results."
Research on Highly Pathogenic H5N1 Influenza Virus: The Way Forward - PMC
 
 
Milk Pasteurization and H5N1 (Nothing the NIH says is believable.)
 
As for this news about milk pasteurization and H5N1 virus, I have my doubts as to the validity of their results...
 
"A "small but detectable quantity" of infectious H5N1 bird flu virus was able to survive a common approach to pasteurizing milk, according to new research co-authored by scientists at the National Institutes of Health.  These findings were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
 
"The researchers note this is not the same as finding infectious H5N1 virus in milk from grocery stores."  So why report their pasteurization results (if they are even authentic) to the public??  Of what value are their findings?  
 
"Infections have been detected in cows across farms in a dozen states, with most of the positive tests coming from raw milk samples that were teeming with the virus.  Authorities have called on states to curb raw milk sales that could spread the virus and have warned consumers against drinking raw milk."
 
Personally, I really doubt this virus can withstand pasteurization temperatures and pasteurizer times plus the other steps to treat the milk.  The FDA looked at 297 samples of "retail dairy products like milk and yogurt and did not turn up any infectious virus.  Earlier tests found only some harmless fragments of the virus leftover from pasteurization."
 
The testing the NIAID did was heating milk to about 161 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds "similar to the "high temperature short time" method that is used widely across the dairy industry.  "This yielded milk...that had "minute amounts of infectious virus".
 
"You're talking about like 10 virus particles, whereas the initial starting dose would be something like 10 million or 100 million virus particles..."   Such small numbers - 10 virus particles - is insignificant.  If it takes 10 million or 100 million virus to cause an infection.... And how would they find and count 10 virus??
 
The study noted that "there is an initial period in the dairy milk pasteurization that the milk needs to get from ....."  39 degrees to 162 degrees Fahrenheit. "And obviously once it starts hitting around 133 degrees Fahrenheit, it already starts inactivating the virus." 
 
"The second pasteurization approach" - a half hour at 145 degrees Fahrenheit -"was more effective.  Infectious virus was undetectable within minutes, long before pasteurization was over."
 
The FDA said that "their testing data so far shows the pasteurization processes used by U.S. dairy companies are effective at killing H5N1."   The commercial milk supply is safe.

Infectious bird flu survived milk pasteurization in lab test. Here's what to know.
 
One would think that the FDA and USDA already knew what pasteurization of milk was capable of doing...with bacteria and viruses.  But they once again, NIH had to prove the milk supply is safe.  Odd that they keep finding a need to test and retest and retest...."FDA noted additional testing was still being done."  Yah, right.   Reminds me of the 'additional' testing they do on chicken farms until they finally find a positive bird flu test....so they can cull that entire flock.   I do not trust the NIAID, NIH, FDA, HHS, USDA, etc.    The NIH is up to something with the milk supply....

FDA Says New Round of Tests Prove the U.S. Milk Supply is Safe From H5N1 Virus | Bovine Veterinarian
 
Ground Beef  - No Bird Flu Found in Cooked Burgers:
 
They also looked into ground beef and H5N1.  If 'innoculated with bird flu' ground beef is cooked  to medium (145 degrees F) or well-done (160 degrees F), they found no viable bird flu.  "The new testing, which produced results ahead of Memorial Day, was part of an effort to reassure people that ground beef in the United States is safe to consume."
 
"The USDA previously said it tested 30 samples of ground beef from retailers and all tested negative for H5N1..."
 
They also looked into wastewater.  The CDC has detected high levels if Influenza A (of which H5N1 is a subtype) in Illinois and Florida.
USDA Tests Find No Bird Flu in Properly Cooked Burgers | The Epoch Times
 
 
FDA Preparing for Bird Flu Pandemic:
 
"FDA says it's preparing for a bird flu pandemic in people that could kill one in four Americans."  The FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said H5N1 mortality rates among those infected had been 25 per cent in other parts of the world.
 
"We got to have the testing, got to have antivirals and we need to have a vaccine ready to go so we've been busy getting prepared for it the virus does mutate in a way that jumps into humans on a larger level." he said.

Fact Check: Could Bird Flu Kill One in Four Americans?
 
They are working on a mRNA vaccine - testing it on animals and people.  They want to begin testing it on calves.
 
"The government has hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses in pre-filled syringes and vials that likely could go out in a matter of weeks, if needed, federal health officials say."

Scientists Are Testing mRNA Bird Flu Vaccines | TIME
 
 
Testing for H5N1:
 
The CDC uses PCR testing for H5N1 - just like for Covid-19 virus.  I'm sure it has the unusually high false positives and lots of cross reacting and it's set to be super sensitive to lots of things so lots of things will test positive.  This is how they find 'bits and pieces' of a virus.  Like the "10" viruses mentioned above in their pasteurized milk.  Ridiculous!!
Clinical Testing and Diagnosis for Detecting H7N9 Using rRT-PCR | Bird Flu | CDC
 
 
We'll see whether this bird flu pandemic pans out for them.  I'm sure something is coming.. Disease X....they've worked too hard with gain-of-function to let their precious viruses/bacteria/ languish in a petri dish.
 
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!
 
Maranatha!
 
Chance