It’s the pigs, people…

The pigs are the ones we have to worry about.

Not the chickens.

The next pandemic, and there WILL be a ‘next’ one (so says science)…

[via CosmosMagazine]There is a well-known medical saying that things always look clearer through the retrospectoscope: what is self-evident in hindsight is hidden to us in prospect. It is impossible to predict the course of an epidemic with any degree of precision during its earliest stages. The complexities of human behaviour, unpredictability of the immunological response of the population and our rudimentary understanding of the basic biology of the influenza virus mean an epidemic is only truly understandable after it has occurred. If the 2009 pandemic had turned out to have the same death rate as the Hong Kong flu, Australia could have expected up to 4,000 deaths; if it had mirrored the 1918 pandemic, this number would have been 10 or even 20 times higher.[Read More - Whole Article Worth The Read...Fantastic!]

Will come from the pigs.

Which?

Is decidedly a GOOD thing.

Well…

OK, kinda.

[via Yahoo] US health officials on Friday warned the public to be careful around pigs after an outbreak of flu among visitors to county fairs.

The virus does not appear to have evolved to the point where it spreads easily among humans, but it does contain a gene from the pandemic H1N1 flu that sickened millions worldwide in 2009 and 2010.

“We are concerned that… may confer the potential for the virus to infect or spread among humans to a greater extent,” said Joseph Bresee, an influenza epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The virus was first detected in July 2011 and there have since been a total of 29 known cases — 16 of them in the past three weeks — in the United States.

It is a relatively mild flu — everyone recovered and only three people were hospitalized. As a result, many more cases have likely occurred without being reported to health officials.

The bulk of the reported cases were among children, who are more susceptible to swine flu.

With county fair season in full swing, health officials expect more people will get sick.

“We also expect some of the cases may be severe,” Bresee cautioned.

Bresee urged people to go to the doctor if they feel flu symptoms after coming into contact with pigs so that public health officials can better track the outbreak.

“What we’re really going to be looking for is evidence that the virus has made that change to spread efficiently among humans,” he explained.[Read More]

At least when one considers how much I love me some fried chicken.

Unless, however, one considers we are talking about a swine flu outbreak of pandemic proportions?

Yeah…

Then not so much a ‘GOOD’ thing, I suppose.

Oops.