On Wednesday, the Daily Mail reported that the World Health Organisation warns a new strain of bird flu has jumped to humans with “potential for high public health impact” as a man in Mexico tests positive before dying from bird flu.
“Tests showed the man, who suffered multiple underlying conditions, was infected with a strain of bird flu called H5N2, marking the first time this type has ever been detected in humans,” the Daily Mail said.
Two things are key to understanding the story that is being widely publicised. Firstly, what test was conducted and secondly the cause of death.
The Daily Mail stated: “PCR tests carried out on 24 April revealed he had been infected with a flu virus, and later it was confirmed that the patient had H5N2.” It’s not clear, but can we assume PCR tests were the basis for the “first laboratory-confirmed human case” of H5N2 as is being widely spread by corporate media?
Or perhaps laboratory-confirmed means antibody tests? The Daily Mail went on to say, “Blood tests are now being carried out to screen for antibodies against H5N2, which would indicate a previous infection.” An antibody test doesn’t tell us much about current infections either. A previous infection could mean the person had an infection decades ago.
In 2008, a study of the blood of people who survived the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic revealed that antibodies to the 1918 H1N1 flu strain had lasted a lifetime. Nearly 90 years after the pandemic, the study participants, aged between 91 to 101 years, still had antibodies to H1N1.
Dr William “Bill” Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, said that it was likely that increasing cases of bird flu are being detected due to a rise in the number of tests. “We are looking very hard for bird flu infections, as a consequence of H5N1, around the world,” he told the Daily Mail.
As it was with covid, bird flu is starting to look like another “test pandemic” dubbed a “casedemic.”
Hellbound and Down 