- The breaking news is in.
A new flu virus has been identified with pandemic potential.
- Chinese researchers have discovered
a new strain of swine flu.
- Called the G4 strain of H1N1.
- You'll always have the possibility
that you might have another Swine Flu type outbreak
as we had in 2009.
- As the world starts to emerge from lockdown,
and over 10 million cases
of Coronavirus have been confirmed.
We find this week that another viral strain
has been identified that has potential
to cause the next pandemic.
In a study published in the US science journal "PNAS."
The new virus is named G4-EA-H1N1.
It's a genetic variant of the H1N1 strain
that caused a pandemic in 2009
and possesses quote unquote,
"All the essential hallmarks
of being highly adapted to infect humans."
And this is why it's scary
because in 2009 swine flu outbreak
killed approximately 300,000 people.
We now know COVID-19 killed over 500,000 people
but what if the G4 virus is just as infectious
but with a higher fatality rate.
Based on data collected from pigs in slaughterhouses
in 10 Chinese provinces,
the G4 virus has been observed to be highly infectious.
Humans have no immunity to G4.
And once infected,
the symptoms are more serious than other viruses.
Antibody tests showed that more than one in 10 workers
in pig farms in the Chinese provinces studied
have been infected.
And 4.4% of the general population have tested positive,
which means the virus
has already passed from animals to humans.
The question now is whether it can be passed
from human to human.
It's too early to tell how fatal the G4 virus could be.
But if we take the Nipah virus,
which is identified in pig farms in Malaysia in 1998,
the fatality rate among humans was a staggering 40 to 75%.
Thankfully, the virus wasn't contagious.
So, human to human transmission was low.
But with G4 or another potential virus,
there's always the possibility of it being
both highly contagious and deadly.
So, what can we do about this?
Aside from monitoring pigs
and practicing strict bio-security?
The answer has to be more fundamental.
Over the last 20 years, there have been six major threats.
SARS, Avian influenza, MERS, Ebola, Swine Flu,
and finally COVID-19, which turned into a major pandemic.
And where did these outbreaks come from?
Animals, either in factory farms or meat markets.
Some may point out that many of these came from Asia,
which has become notorious for animal cruelty.
And there is some truth in this.
China is a major contributor
to the world's infectious disease burden
because of its population size
and growing dependence on meat.
As wealth has increased demand for meat,
particularly chicken and pork has increased rapidly.
Between 1968 and 2005,
the human population in China increased less than two fold,
whereas the pig population increased almost 100 fold
and the chicken population increased more than 1000 fold.
China is now the world's biggest producer
and consumer of pork.
So, it's not surprising
that most recent outbreaks have come from pigs.
But this is a global issue.
As Bill May has pointed out recently.
- Americans should not get too high
and mighty about wet markets
while we are doing this.
Most if not all, infectious diseases are zoonotic,
meaning they start in animals and jump to humans.
- The bottom line is this we're continuously taking a gamble
of our future because we think we need to eat meat
when we don't.
The sobering fact is that three out of every four
infectious diseases come from animal farming and trading.
The cramped, unsanitary and stressful environments
in which we keep animals
make it easier for viruses to spread.
Can we afford yet another lock down?
Yet another financial crash?
Yet more deaths due to a virus
it could have been avoided if we addressed the root cause.
How as a society can we continue
to justify eating animal products,
especially as we live in an age
where there's so many alternatives.
We know we can survive and thrive on a plant based diet.
But now for taste purposes.
We even have products that been built up
from the molecular level to mimic taste
and texture of meat, dairy and eggs.
But the alternative
I guess is to accept that pandemics
will become the new norm.
(gentle music)