New pandemic-potential flu found in China 😳

[BabyLlamaZen]

BBC News - Flu virus with 'pandemic potential' found in China
www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53218704

[LastTrainEast]

It's certainly click-bait, but we should be thinking and planning ahead for the next one. Whether that is next year or in 2100. We need less crowding, we need to get away from 'Just in time' ordering - especially essentials and medical items. We need more working from home.

We need plans for different scenarios on shelves in hospitals and local authorities so next time we're ready and not running around in panic.

[LastTrainEast]

[quote ThisShitDontMatter]@MrsTerryPratchett

I think China are taking the piss and its not because I dont get the whole factor of how big the population is, or anything as such but the fact they caused SARS, Covid and now possibly this? It doesnt stay in China either, it comes here and causes a shit house! When do we say enough is enough with it? And by that I mean ceasing much to do with them, till such times they stop their pandemics! People have a go at anti vaxxers for this reason! I know why because we will then be accused of racism. Yes we had mad cow disease but did we make the whole world ill with it? And then again and again with something else? Sometimes I think there really is a darker side and its about world domination! Also I get mad at ourselves, why do we need CHINA to make masks for our PPE? Why do we not make our own PPE to deal with the shit caused by them!? Its like getting attacked, then offering that attacker tea and biscuits afterwards!

Sorry for any grammar mistakes... funnily enough I am just off nightshift from a COVID ward.[/quote]
"Yes we had mad cow disease but did we make the whole world ill with it?" we spread it to France, Spain, Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and Canada I think, but you can check if there were more.

And we caused it not by bad luck, but by disgusting practises which we knew were risky.

"why do we need CHINA to make masks for our PPE?" because they work for cheap and we like cheap. Which may be one reason poorer people there are eating bats.

[FizzFan]

Big hugs @Annierose293 x

[BigBadVoodooHat]

This isn't new. It's been around at least 2 years already, maybe as many as 9. People have already been infected by it, yet there are no reports of death or serious illness as a result. Alright, it could mutate in future - so could any other disease. Nothing about this story is "news".

Indeed. As the article says "In theory, a flu pandemic could occur at any time, but they are still rare events."

This isn't new 'news'. It's the way the world has always been. However, disease transmission is currently very topical, so news outlets are exploiting people's anxiety with shameless click-bait headlines, as well as exploiting people's knee-jerk panic response and tendency to read non-analytically.

[Annierose293]

This has sent my panic attacks through the roof.
It was swine flu that almost killed my baby in 2010.
Six weeks on life support in an induced coma. He had to be brought back to life twice.
He has a disability already so it was a miracle he survived.
This news scares me beyond belief.

[Buttybach]

2020 is a literal dumpster fire!

[Desiringonlychild]

@IcedPurple lived in a rural Chinese village in yunnan for a week in my teens as I was volunteering...no toilets, hole in the ground for pooing, had to brush teeth using bottled water. It was on a mountain. The food was very bland and actually not much meat, only chicken.they slaughtered a chicken in our honour and it was very skinny not much flesh. We ate with the local people and there wasn't exotic meats at all.

Also 1 thing to remember was that from 1600s to 1911, china was ruled by the Manchus who were a nomadic tribe and ate a lot of game as a result. Manchus absorbed a lot of Han culture but they still retained a lot of their cultural practices esp eating of game i.e. Manchu Han Imperial Feast. But eating wild game isn't mainstream in china.

[IcedPurple]

I worked in China for 8 years and spent quite a lot of time travelling through rural areas. Bats are really not that "often" consumed by poor peasants as you think. In fact, I've never come across a Chinese restaurant that served bats

I never said bats were served in restaurants. The type of people who need to eat bats for protein couldn't afford restaurants. Read the work of virologist Peter Daszak about how many poor Chinese people, especially in the south, eat bats - often going to caves to hunt them themselves - as a source of protein.

[Aprilstory2]

@IcedPurple

I worked in China for 8 years and spent quite a lot of time travelling through rural areas. Bats are really not that "often" consumed by poor peasants as you think. In fact, I've never come across a Chinese restaurant that served bats.

"According to some sources bat meat was never sold in the market,[28][29][30] and it has been reported that the bats are not a common food source in the city of Wuhan.[31][32][33] Some media outlets, including Daily Mail and RT, promoted a video that showed a young Chinese woman eating a bat and suggested it was shot in Wuhan, but later it was confirmed that the footage was filmed by travel vlogger Wang Mengyun in the island country of Palau in 2016, to showcase local cuisine.[24][33]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_as_food

[BabyComeBacks]

I think that researcher is trying to ger a bit of self promotion with that headline.

[IcedPurple]

I have no idea why you're so invested in this argument Iced since it wasn't you saying the plague originated in China.

Why does that matter? Why is it relevant?

I'm not sure how providing a link - at your request - equals being 'invested' in an argument (whatever that means) but I'll let that slide.

And why is it relevant? Well, you clearly thought it was relevant since you asked someone to provide a link with the information. Although you could have done your own research.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

I have no idea why you're so invested in this argument Iced since it wasn't you saying the plague originated in China.

Why does that matter? Why is it relevant?

[itsbetterthanabox]

Exotic meat eating is a delicacy and it is rich people buying it and eating it in China. This is about poverty.

[IcedPurple]

Everything I've read has said 'in or near China' which is a MASSIVE area and not precise

I'm not sure what level of precision you want about the exact origins of a 13th century disease. We don't even know for sure where the Spanish flu originated. However, there does appear to be consensus that the plague originated in China. And China is a massive country, so not sure what your point is.

And China wasn't China back then anyway

That's a daft argument. Most modern nation states only date back to the 19th century.


But if it helps you feel like China is to blame for everything, knock yourself out

You knock yourself out with the strawman arguments when you're shown to be wrong. I've never 'blamed' China for anything, it's you tying yourself up in knots here.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Everything I've read has said 'in or near China' which is a MASSIVE area and not precise. And China wasn't China back then anyway.

But if it helps you feel like China is to blame for everything, knock yourself out.

[IcedPurple]

Because central or Eastern Asia isn't 'China'

No, but China is China.

"The plague that caused the Black Death originated in China in the early to mid-1300s and spread along trade routes westward to the Mediterranean and northern Africa. It reached southern England in 1348 and northern Britain and Scandinavia by 1350."

www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death

[FirstClassFlightHome]

There is no need to eat meat AT ALL. Plenty of alternatives. All of the recent pandemics have come from animals.

[Desiringonlychild]

@ThisShitDontMatter why don't you throw away your smartphone then and buy a new one with all the parts made in the UK? You can do the same with all your clothes too.

You would truly be supporting Britain.

[ThisShitDontMatter]

Also so you dont believe in paying that bit extra to Buy British and support your own country..or give jobs to fellow countrymen and women when so many have been made unemployed due to the lockdown. You think its xenophobia to support your home country..and would Rather buy cheap, shoddy imitations of PPE that would not pass muster in health and safety checks and which mainly are not any good for the virus anyway because the fabric weave is too wide and let's the smaller virus molecules through anyway, I could go on.....but lets keep calling me xenophobic - have a good evening cos Im certainly not arguing this piffle all night.

[rosie39forever]

I'll just leave this here

[ClaudiaWankleman]

No, I’m just pointing out that you’re not spouting sense, just unintelligent conjecture.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Link?

Because central or Eastern Asia isn't 'China'.

[GruffaloandMouse]

The plague originally came from China too.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Yes we had mad cow disease but did we make the whole world ill with it?

You do understand this is pure luck. The virus either does or does not mutate. If Ebola mutated to have a longer incubation person, or CJD mutated to become pneumonic, we'd all be buggered.

China doesn't 'make the world world ill'. The virus does.

[JustAnotherPoster00]

Truth makes someone xenophobic

Nope being xenophobic tends to do that, not truth