Wednesday, December 2, 2009

The first pandemic since 1968 - a timeline for 2009

2009 – November 29th. The virus is mutating. No need to worry….at least for now, says WHO.

2009 – November 29th. More than 1,000 deaths in the past week.

2009 – November 28th. Swine flu vaccination is vital (The Guardian)

2009 – November 25th. China expert warns of swine flu virus mutation. “China must be alert to any mutation or changes in the behavior of the H1N1 swine flu virus because the far deadlier H5N1 bird flu virus is endemic in the country…”



2009 – November 20th. The swine flu virus activity may have peaked in the U.S. and some European countries, while other countries report sharp increases.

2009 – November 17th. Novavax, Inc., announced it will begin studies in Mexico on a new vaccine against H1N1. Initially, about 1,000 people will participate.

2009 – November 12th. Headlines state CDC officials calculate over 4,000 deaths (as opposed to about 1,200 currently reported) are due to H1N1 flu.

2009 – October 25th. Obama declares a national pandemic emergency in the US

2009 – September 17th. The new H1N1 virus was also detected recently in turkeys in Chile, proving that it has the capacity to jump to birds, another potential source for reassortment. + “the CDC recently launched experiments in the agency’s labs [University of Maryland] in which they infected ferrets with both the new H1N1 virus and the highly lethal H5N1 avian flu virus to see if they might “reassort” to create a new hybrid…. Other experiments conducted so far suggest the new H1N1 virus isn’t terribly prone to doomsday changes. Viruses can change through either mutation of genetic material, or by reassorting with another flu virus. The new virus is lacking certain characteristics that would allow it to mutate to become more virulent, said Nancy Cox, chief of the CDC’s influenza division…[BUT] “Influenza is really unpredictable,” Cox said

2009 – July 30th. Military to Deploy on U.S. Soil to "Assist" with Pandemic Outbreak

2009 – June 23rd. Experts were concerned about how the flu was developing in Australia and South America, said Joerg Hacker, head of the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases. "It's possible the virus has mutated…. According to WHO’s latest figures, more than 230 people have been killed by the flu worldwide from 52,000 confirmed cases, mostly in the United States and Mexico.

2009 – June 11th. WHO declares the global flu outbreak a pandemic and given the highest possible alert level. This was the first pandemic on this level since 1968. WHO declares swine flu pandemic – “WHO chief Dr Margaret Chan said the move did not mean the virus was causing more severe illness or more deaths.” The last pandemic was in 1968 when a million people were killed… There is concern that the virus might mutate in the southern hemisphere over its winter and become more virulent, but there's no sign of that yet.

2009 – May 5th. Why the flu may turn deadly

2009 – May 1st. What scientists know about swine flu

2009 – April 29th. WHO raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 5 – pandemic imminent.

2009 – April 27th. Swine flu outbreak threatens pandemic. “In April both the WHO and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) expressed serious concerns about this novel strain, because it apparently transmits from human to human, has had a relatively high mortality rate in Mexico, and because it has the potential to become a flu pandemic……The new strain is derived in part from human influenzavirus A (subtype H1N1), and in part from two strains of swine influenza as well as an avian influenza.”

2009 – April 17th. The first cases of the pandemic flu in the U.S. were reported in Southern California.

2009 – early in the year. Baxter pharmaceuticals is reported to have sent out a mix of two different live viruses in a flu vaccine.

2009 – February 19th. Novartis Pharmaceuticals of Basel, Switzerland worked with scientists at the U.S. Army Institute of Pathology ­ Ft. Detrick, Maryland, to create a "novel" strain of weaponized "influenza" virus by means of "reverse engineering" the deadly 1918 killer strain ­ ...Novartis applied for just such a patent on Nov. 4, 2005, and the U.S. Patent Office accepted this application and granted US 20090047353A1 for a "Split Influenza Vaccine with Adjuvants" on February 19, 2009.


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