New Strain of Swine Flu (H3N2v) Detected in U.S. with Potential for H2H Transmission

by John Galt
January 11, 2012 21:30 ET

Just when everyone thought it was safe to shake hands, kiss babies, and meet politicians again, the story from US News and World Report caused me to take a deep N-100 filtered breath:

12 Infected With New Swine Flu Strain

(click on the link above to read the full story)
Why is this story so disturbing? Because of the timing, an election year with radical Islamist terrorism on the rise, and the worldwide economy facing collapse on any unanticipated event. These two sentences from the story are alarming to anyone who remembers the Avian Flu and prior Swine Flu scares:

The 12 people with the new swine flu strain live in Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Officials for the Centers for Disease Control say the sample size of H3N2 infections is too small to know whether it will pose a threat to the population at large.

“It's a very small sample and it's geographically spread, which makes it more difficult to get a handle on it,” says Jeffrey Dimond, a CDC spokesman. “Most of the cases have come through direct contact with the animals, through the 4H Club and that sort of thing.”

Let's hope that the unusually warm winter does not provide the fertile ground necessary for this virus to become virulent and expand rapidly with H2H (Human to Human) characteristics.