As I wrote in my last substack, this wouldn’t be a “good news” piece, and indeed, thankfully I had a meeting yesterday with a good close friend because today a rather pertinent news article was published. In case you aren’t aware, here is a good starting point on the subject from my perspective.
Yet, not only persistent or long-lasting, it is now going throw a somewhat accelerated adaptation phase.
Following the recent trend of mammal adaptation, not only this avian flu strain is wreaking havoc in both wild and domestic bird populations, the last months it has been slowly (but surely) adapting to mammals. Similar to the article above, Nebraska also had a bear die of avian flu (plus a cougar and two tigers).
The most concerning aspect of this strain of HPAI (highly pathogenic avian influenza) is its neurotropism, meaning the capacity of the virus to invade the brain, and since it is highly pathogenic, it does damage at an alarming speed. Influenza is well-known for its damaging effects on cells, and you do NOT want the immune system in your brain and central nervous system to get activated very fast or too aggressively. Late last year a domestic cat had to be euthanized because of severe neurological damage from this flu strain.
A few days ago this was published, in line with current events.
Bird flu outbreak in mink sparks concern about spread in people
A variant of H5N1 influenza that can spread between mammals could pose an increased risk to people and wild animals.
An outbreak of avian influenza on a mink farm in Spain provides the strongest evidence so far that the H5N1 strain of flu can spread from one infected mammal to another.
The outbreak of H5N1 flu, described in a report in Eurosurveillance on 19 January1, occurred on an American mink (Neovison vison) farm in Carral in October 2022. Genetic sequencing showed that the animals were infected with a new variant of H5N1, which includes genetic material from a strain found in gulls, as well as a genetic change known to increase the ability of some animal-flu viruses to reproduce in mammals.
The new variant puts bird flu in “uncharted territory”, says Wendy Puryear, a virologist at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts. Researchers have warned that, without careful precautions, the disease might eventually spread among people.
Jumping species
Over the past year, H5N1 has shown an increasing ability to jump from birds to mammals. In the United States, infections have been found in about a dozen species, including raccoons, foxes, seals and grizzly bears.
Early in the pandemic, there was this whole trend of minks and transmission to humans (one example from late 2020 here), and whole mink farms were shut down and the animals sacrificed fearing this exact scenario, and now we are living a repeat of this dynamic, not without cause for concern. And a signal for governments to start paying attention, earlier this month a 9-year-old was diagnosed with this specific strain of avian flu.
No co-morbidities, no known issues, yet got infected. There are many possible mechanisms and reasons for this continuous trend of human infection with “novel” viruses, and one of them can be proved “scientifically” in a way. The exact microbe in our guts that the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron strain disrupts long-term is the exact microbe that modulates our response to influenza infections. You can read more below.
The second one is my usual observations, too “out there” yet often proved to be correct after months. It has been my opinion that SARS-CoV-2 has the capacity to partially “erase” your immune memory, but also new evidence demonstrates the virus can also disrupt specific proteins in your B cells, directly impacting how your body deals with common infections. This nut will take some time for me to crack though.
Last but not least, China has announced a new infection from H10N3. Sadly I do not have access to this journal, nor this paper is available somewhere else, so I can quite the entire paper.
If you want to understand my perspective and why I focus so much on avian flu and have been tracking it for the last 3 years, you can read how aggressive and incredibly fast H10N3 attacks your body and lungs. It makes the SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain looks like a walk in the park in comparison. Inside there are also some good treatments against influenza infections, but the most effective one is… a low carbohydrate diet.
Take good care of your gut health, metabolism, and nutrients, therefore making your immune system work perfectly, the best tool we have. In for the long haul, as they say.
Since it is the weekend, allow me to indulge in some conspiracy, will you ? Ok, thank you.
Bird flu researchers want to create deadly virus in lab
H7N9 bird flu has killed 43 people in China%2C sparking fears of an epidemic.
Only one case of person-to-person transmission is known.
Researchers want to study how it may become infectious between people%2C under new safeguards.
Researchers said Wednesday they want to create a lab version of a deadly emerging bird flu in order to study a strain that might be more infectious to people. Responding to past concerns about such research, the U.S. government said it will require extra safety measures.
The H7N9 bird flu virus has killed 43 people in China. The 22 international researchers from 15 institutions say the infectivity research "is necessary and should be done," a statement in Science magazine said. They promise to follow enhanced lab safeguards. Similar efforts to study a more transmissible flu virus, for H5N1 bird flu, triggered a research moratorium and controversy in 2011.
I wish you all a great and happy weekend.
I am grateful for the support of all of you, thank you !
Just read this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6223323/
Specifically section 7 titled "Metformin consistently increased A. muciniphila abundance".
Possibly another benefit of Berberine?
What can I say to that? As I am done with any jabs, I can only put faith in our Creator and the Divine Intervention, at some point in the not-so-distant future. Worked every time so far, at least for those that are still around.