The swine flu virus that is responsible for an outbreak in Mexico and has been detected in the southwestern United States has the potential to cause a pandemic, a top international health official said today.
“It has pandemic potential,” Margaret Chan, the director-general of the World Health Organization, told reporters during a telephone briefing. “It is infecting people.”
Chan held the briefing after cutting short a trip to the United States so she could rush back to the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva to convene an emergency meeting of the organization’s experts to decide what steps should be taken to contain the virus.
So, this is a strain unlike any they have seen before, including DNA fragments of avian, swine and human flu viruses. Anybody besides me think it’s a mite suspicious this appearing right now and right on our southern border? I wonder if this is a naturally occurring mutation or a potential “man-made disaster” to use the officially approved DHS terminology. Anybody remember the recent [url=”http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/algeria/4294664/Al-Qaeda-cell-killed-by-Black-Death-was-developing-biological-weapons.html”]story[/url] about the Al-Qaeda facility in Algeria where they were doing some bioengineering and about 40 of them (what is the official DHS term for a terrorist these days!?) died due to poor containment procedures for the “thing” they were bioengineering?
There was also a story in the news, this week or last, that said THREE vials of virus samples were missing from a US military lab.
Anyone think this might be a good time to have an actual, enforcable border on our southern flank?