Guest guest Posted May 19, 2006 Report Share Posted May 19, 2006 " Bill Kingsbury " <b.b.bb Thu, 18 May 2006 20:06:00 -0700 [Mr_Tracys_Corner] Suspicious Origins of " Bird Flu " -- May 2006: US not prepared for bird flu pandemic America Not Prepared For Flu Pandemic Bird Flu Pandemic Coming, US Not Prepared -- Eight and one-half years ago: ------- Original message ------- Das GOAT Thu, 1 Jan 1998 Suspicious Origins of " Bird Flu " Am I the only one who smells something " fishy " about the origins of " bird flu " ? Chronology of the FIRST INFORMATION AVAILABLE on " bird flu " --------------------------- BEFORE December 1997: Dr Robert Webster wrote an article in the Journal of Infectious Disease, warning that a worldwide influenza epidemic is a certainty in the near future. He urges establishing an early warning system of flu testing in what he says will be the epicenter of a new flu epidemic -- South China. Webster has created an experimental vaccine technology based on DNA injection. When there had so far been only ONE or TWO victims of " bird flu, " Webster had already written an article in " Nature " on the unprecedented transmittal to humans of influenza virus H5N1, " against which the human immune system is defenseless. " EARLY December 1997: Major pharmaceutical companies hold an international (marketing) conference in which they announce new products -- most of them anti-viral vaccines, most in need of testing on a large population. The international press is suddenly, for the first time, filled with " experts " arguing the NEED for those vaccines -- a new AIDS vaccine, a polio immunization program, even a vaccine for DIARRHEA -- " in view of the looming health crisis in the Third World. " The CDC begins reporting on " unidentified viruses " causing death in Kenya and in other remote areas. The virus is alleged to be anthrax. The Pentagon warns the public of the potential use of anthrax or other agents in CBW attacks on US by Iraq. All US servicement are to be " inoculated " against it. Sites are set up IN HONG KONG to begin testing experimental anti-viral vaccines. A World Health Organization team and the CDC suddenly descend on Hong Kong. Webster, marketing his technology, just happens to arrive with them... Webster is credited with being the first to identify " bird flu " as the H5N1 virus. Total number of victims of this virus? TWO. Dec 11: First official mention of " bird flu " in the press by AP and Reuters. Dec 15: Only 6 confirmed cases of the bird flu, with 2 of the victims having already died earlier in the year, in May and in November. Only FOUR current cases -- and the world is warned it's " a potential pandemic. " " It's increasing at an alarming rate! There's nothing we can do to contain it! " Webster holds a press conference alarming the world -- then immediately reports back to the conference of pharmaceutical companies, still in session. Dec 16: " Hoffmann-LaRoche [has begun] a clinical trial program including treatment studies in the United States, Europe, Canada and HONG KONG designed to determine the effect of [a newly developed, previously untested flu vaccine]... " It is a " flu shot " that will be given only to those who already HAVE flu symptoms. The infected poultry said to be the cause of the virus are identified as chickens imported from China. Yet China itself had NO KNOWN CASES of " bird flu. " ======================================================= December 12, 1997 MEMPHIS, Dec. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Robert G. Webster, Ph.D., who played a key role in helping to identify the new Hong Kong influenza virus found in a human for the first time as H5N1, will be available to the media Monday morning, December 15, via telephone conference call following recent news of additional infections and a second death. He has been in Hong Kong this week and, on Monday, will be joining the call from London where he will be participating in a conference on anti-viral drugs. The teleconference scheduled for Monday, December 15, 1997, will begin at 11 a.m. EST/10 a.m. CST. Call 800-289-0730 and give the confirmation number, 410960, or ask for the St. Jude conference. A teleconference replay will be available beginning later on Monday by calling 888-566-0825 during the week following, or visiting < http://www.audionet.com/> during the month following. Writing recently in Nature on the unprecedented transmittal to humans of influenza virus H5N1, against which the human immune system is defenseless, Dr. Webster said: " Typically, new influenza viruses pass through and are genetically modified in other mammals, like pigs, before reaching humans. A unique feature of this new virus of the H5 subtype found in Hong Kong is that it managed to cross the avian-human species barrier without prior adaptation in another mammalian species. " < http://www.stjude.org/pr/websterflu971008.htm> In another recent article appearing in the Journal of Infectious Disease and commenting more generally on current status of influenza in the world, Dr. Webster warned that a worldwide influenza epidemic is a certainty in the near future, noting that there already are enough susceptible people to support such a global epidemic, or pandemic. He called for establishing an early warning system of flu testing in what could be the epicenter of a new flu epidemic -- South China. < http://www.stjude.org/pr/nrbtflu970818.htm> Dr. Webster is a co-inventor of a new vaccination method that could dramatically reduce the lead time required to produce new influenza vaccines. Instead of using the actual virus -- either dead or alive -- to induce the express of antigens that trigger protective immune responses, Dr. Webster and research collaborators have developed a method termed DNA immunization to induce cell production of precisely desired antigens by introducing DNA that is encoded specifically for that purpose. Dr. Webster is chairman of the St. Jude Department of Virology and Molecular Biology and is a Fellow of the Royal Society, the United Kingdom's prestigious 337-year-old Academy of Science. ======================================================= Hong Kong Bird Flu a Real Threat, Expert Says December 15, 1997 WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - A new strain of " chicken flu " that has killed two people in Hong Kong poses a real threat of a global epidemic and officials are right to be taking it seriously, a U.S. virologist said on Monday. The flu has showed no sign of being passed from one person to another but could quickly mutate into a more infectious form, Rob Webster, who helped identify the new virus, said. Webster, who went to Hong Kong last week with a team of World Health Organization (WHO) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) experts, said it was highly dangerous. " It's still small but it's increasing at an alarming rate, " he told reporters in a telephone conference. " There's no way it is contained. There is nothing we can do to contain it. " Webster, who chairs the department of virology and molecular biology at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, said the race was on to develop a vaccine that would work against the new strain, which goes by the scientific name of H5N1 " We are going to do our very best to monitor it and prepare for it. If it starts spreading from human to human we have to have an armament to prepare for it, " he said. " The very nature of this virus... is that it will acquire this property. It's only a matter of time. " WHO said earlier on Monday it was stepping up international surveillance but there was no need for travel restrictions or quarantine because there was no sign of an epidemic and no evidence of human-to-human transmission. Webster said the antiviral drug amantidine worked well against H5N1 and it was possible other antivirals would, too. WHO said it did not recommend the development of a special vaccine at this stage but it was working to prepare a seed virus, used as the basis of a vaccine, just in case. " We are gearing up as though this is the real event, " Webster, who was working under WHO auspices, said. " The pandemic plan is being rolled out. " There have been six confirmed cases of the bird flu, all in Hong Kong. None of the victims has been related in any way. " As far as we know they are normal, healthy people, " Webster said. H5N1 has perplexed doctors because it does not seem to have taken the usual flu route. Most strains of flu go from the intestinal tracts of birds such as ducks, who do not get sick from the virus, through pigs and then to people. Experts believe that China is the source of many new strains because it has large populations of pigs, ducks and people in close proximity. But H5N1 does not seem to infect pigs. " It may be in other things besides chickens, " Webster said. " We are a little fixated on chickens. This thing kills chickens in two days. " Natural hosts of a virus are not killed by it. " Maybe there are silent partners that we don't know about, " Webster said. " All aquatic birds and all birds have to be somewhat suspect at this time. " Worried Hong Kong officials closed the city's biggest chicken market on Monday and warned people not to touch pet birds, which are widely kept in Hong Kong. In addition, although there was no evidence that mice were infected, they were a possible source because they are found so widely, Webster said. Influenza, which causes fever, diarrhea and vomiting, can be a real threat. It kills 20,000 people in the United States each year and a global epidemic killed between 20 million and 40 million people in 1918 and 1919. --- The homepage and the place to sign up for Tracy's Corner is: Mr_Tracys_Corner For complaints or assistance contact xootsuit26 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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