So, now there's a new swine flu. 2020 just keeps on giving!

[MRex]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53218704

I don't know much about vaccine creation. Presumably someone can be spared from working on coronavirus vaccines to work on adding this to the flu vaccine and someone can confirm that it won't be that hard of a job? Will there be capacity for creating enough flu vaccines this year though given that far more people may decide to vaccinate? Can we book ahead of time? Will coronavirus precautions naturally cut this flu off from new infections?

I’m not sure but I am going to buy a bit of extra loo roll just incase.
I don’t know the answer to any of your questions but it doesn’t appear to be a direct threat at the moment and it appears that scientists can add it to a vaccine if they need to, so it’s not all bad.

Yeah, I think I'll get a few extra tins before September and some of those nice long-dated wraps.

Don’t forget wine.

Good grief.. can you imagine 😩 we need to stop eating meat I think!

It looks like we need to rethink the way we farm and process meat. I’m not a expert in it so I don’t know how to make it safer or if the powers that be will care enough to do so.

Oh another one from China how nice of them

Well we need something else to look forward to......

@Noextremes2017 that made me laugh out loud!

Don't panic on this one yet, lots of emerging flu viruses have pandemic potential, but fortunately few make the jump to sustained human to human transmission.

I suppose viruses are very en trende atm which is why they’ve bothered writing an article about it.

Another virus from China. What a surprise!

I agree with OhYouBad and Daphne.

We don't know how many times this normally pops up as a possible concern. The mms are loving creating extra drama and panic right now!

And this is how Covid started, a little snippet on the news, small outbreak in China, nothing to worry about..... I feel particularly negative tonight, ignore me.

Have you seen the picture at the top of the bbc news story. No wonder viruses are spread so easily.

I wouldn’t worry about it yet. Pandemics are very topical at the moment. It’s like whenever there’s a plane crash the newspapers are filled with near miss stories for the few weeks afterwards.

The flu strain for this year will already have been decided. It’s not going to be any protection against the pandemic anyway. If only it was that simple.

@DaphneFanshaw

I’m not sure but I am going to buy a bit of extra loo roll just incase. I don’t know the answer to any of your questions but it doesn’t appear to be a direct threat at the moment and it appears that scientists can add it to a vaccine if they need to, so it’s not all bad.

Bog roll not an issue here.

It would be pretty tough for any new epidemics/ pandemics to gain momentum at the moment with all the international travel restrictions and reduced social contact.

Oh dear