Scientist Repeats Swine Flu Lab-Escape Claim in Published Study
November 25th, 2009From where did the 2009 ‘swine-origin’ influenza A virus (H1N1) emerge?
Virology Journal 2009, 6:207 doi:10.1186/1743-422X-6-207
Adrian J Gibbs, John S Armstrong, Jean C Downie
Via: Bloomberg:
Adrian Gibbs, the virologist who said in May that swine flu may have escaped from a laboratory, published his findings today, renewing discussion about the origins of the pandemic virus.
The new H1N1 strain, which was discovered in Mexico and the U.S. in April, may be the product of three strains from three continents that swapped genes in a lab or a vaccine-making plant, Gibbs, and fellow Australian scientists wrote in Virology Journal. The authors analyzed the genetic makeup of the virus and found its origin could be more simply explained by human involvement than a coincidence of nature.
Their study, published in a free, online journal reviewed by other scientists, follows debate among researchers six months ago, when Gibbs asked the World Health Organization to consider the hypothesis. After reviewing Gibbs’ initial three-page paper, WHO and other organizations concluded the pandemic strain was a naturally occurring virus and not laboratory-derived.
“It is important that the source of the new virus be found if we wish to avoid future pandemics rather than just trying to minimize the consequences after they have emerged,” Gibbs and colleagues John Armstrong and Jean Downie said in today’s eight- page study.
Gibbs and Armstrong are on the emeritus faculty at the Australian National University in Canberra and Downie is affiliated with the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services at Sydney’s Westmead Hospital, according to the study.
While the exact source of the new H1N1 strain is a mystery, their research has “raised many new questions,” they said. The authors compared the genetic blueprints of flu strains stored in the free database Genbank and found the pandemic virus’s nearest ancestors circulate in pigs.
‘Simplest Explanation’
While migratory birds may have acted as conduit for their convergence, human involvement in bringing them together is “by far the simplest explanation,” Gibbs said in a telephone interview today.
Research Credit: Zenc
Wow, seriously, time and time again Bloomberg comes through.
This is huge.
Just last night I happened to run across this posting I’d done at Deconsumption back in Feb. 2005 regarding a swine flu “outbreak” in South Korea: http://deconsumption.typepad.com/deconsumption/2005/02/try_the_tonyukk.html
Basically, Dr. Henry Niman, a founder of flu-antibody research who also attended Harvard to study infectious diseases — had examined the genetic details of a swine flu strain (WSN/33) that had suddenly crossed-over into humans in 2005, and his conclusion was that it was definitely a human-created strain, derived from the infamous 1918 virus — and that it’s appearance AT A PIG FARM in South Korea was so unaccountable as to only be attributed to a “terrorist” act.
So to recant: now 4 years later, we see this H1N1 strain derived from the same 1918 parent (which, keep in mind, was only recently revived when virologists specifically exhumed the remains of infected victims in order to sample it) being apparently “seeded” into hog farms in overpopulated, third-world Mexico.
Unfortunately, though, Dr. Niman seems content to deliver updates on the H1N1 virus via Rense.com, which seriously clouds his respectability in my book…