Bad news for everyone who thought the worst was behind us: scientists have recently discovered a flu with “pandemic potential” in China. They say that it is carried by pigs, but can infect humans as well.
Right now they are just in the monitoring stages of the virus, but say that a common and simple gene mutation could let the virus easily jump from person to person, and could quickly spread. It would not take much for this to become a global outbreak.
This virus is similar to the Swine Flu that went around in 2009, the last global outbreak before the coronavirus happened. Swine Flu was less deadly than scientists expected, mainly because it was similar to previous years’ flu, lending some older people with an unexpected immunity.
They suggest that this new virus, called G4 EA H1N1, is different enough that people may not have that same immunity to it.
Professor Kin-Chow Chang who is studying the virus and potential outbreaks says that we “must not lose sight of potentially dangerous new viruses… we should not ignore it.”
