Operation Bird Flu: The making of a pandemic narrative
The Bird Flu narrative is changing, like many of us knew it would.
…Hospital officials told POLITICO they’re dismayed that they don’t feel better prepared, just four years after Covid-19 caught them unawares. They’re not confident that the health care system — including the government agencies that have wound down Covid responses — can avoid the missteps around tests, bed space and communication that plagued the last public health emergency, should this strain of flu, H5N1, become more of a threat.
“I don't think that we would do well if we were to be hit by a pandemic right now,” said Dr. Payal Patel, an infectious disease specialist at Intermountain Health in Utah. “What we’ve learned over the last few years is that it’s really hard to predict what turn things will take — and also that it's important to learn from the past.”
For many of us it’s shocking that they would so flagrantly attempt this playbook again. But once you see how much time, money and research has already gone into this narrative, it makes a little more sense. (We’re also weeks away from a World Health Assembly meeting that will be pushing the WHO Pandemic Treaty… and months from an election. There are people who REALLY need a pandemic crisis right now.)
A “Probable” Crisis
The CDC has updated it’s Avian Flu page to include:
In late March 2024, a human case of influenza A(H5N1) virus infection was identified after exposure to dairy cattle presumably infected with bird flu. Some bird flu infections of people have been identified in which the source of infection was unknown.
You can tell when a narrative is being constructed, because it’s not made of science. It’s made of “presumably” and “cases” and “exposure.” It’s made of repeating phrases like “highly infectious.” In this case, the CDC wants you to ignore “correlation does not equal causation” and assume the dots are connected. The CDC continues…
The spread of bird flu viruses from one infected person to a close contact is very rare, and when it has happened, it has only spread to a few people. However, because of the possibility that bird flu viruses could change and gain the ability to spread easily between people, monitoring for human infection and person-to-person spread is extremely important for public health. (emphasis mine)
Here’s a perfect example of seeding a narrative. (Always look for qualifiers and presumptive statements)
When it has happened?
HAS it happened? When you click on “close contact is very rare”, you are linked to this:
In some clusters of epidemiologically related cases of avian influenza A virus infection, limited, non-sustained, human-to-human transmission is thought to have occurred to persons without poultry exposures. No instances of human-to-human transmission of avian influenza A viruses have been reported in the United States. Below are examples of probable limited, non-sustained, human-to-human transmission of different avian influenza A viruses in other countries. (emphasis mine)
(read the examples and you’ll find additional qualifiers)
I wrote about the rollout of this narrative a month ago and it’s moving along pretty much as planned.
We’re now testing ground beef and dairy, the raw milk warnings are being amplified, and two US vaccines (one mRNA vaccine and one inactivated, cell-based, adjuvanated vaccine) are “ready to ship.”
Ready to ship? The clinical trials are incomplete and the scientific consensus is that the virus would need to mutate significantly in order to pose a real threat to humans. A vaccine for the current strain would likely be useless… at best.
But as President Biden would say, “Never mind.”
Isn’t this all sounding very familiar?
Following the Science
Lately, when I see a science narrative ramping up, I check in with our local science propaganda factory: Rutgers University. A simple search pulled up some interesting research.
Rutgers was studying “America’s knowledge, perceptions, and probable responses to the threat of Avian Influenza in poultry” as early as 2006.
I wonder what the risk communication challenges were back then? (The presentation is archived, so we’ll just have to wonder.)
How did Rutgers determine whether Avian flu was on people’s minds in 2007? By calling them up and interviewing them about Avian flu…
The researchers conducted a total of 1200 telephone interviews on the topic between May 3 and June 5, 2006.
…The study focused on what American consumers would likely do if highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza were found in poultry in the United States.
…Americans see their current risk of infection with avian influenza as low and are not particularly worried about it. They see the current supply of chicken products as relatively safe, and they continue to eat it. However, most see the risks of infection from avian influenza as much greater for other people than for themselves.
This tendency to believe that others are at greater risk may be a problem in getting messages across, in influencing perceived susceptibility, and in persuading people to adopt appropriate behaviors, says Sarah C. Condry, the lead author of the study.
So, the risk of infection is low, but they’re worried about influencing perceived susceptibility and persuading people to adopt appropriate behaviors.
But this is the research that struck me the most.
From 2008:
The researchers have determined the three-dimensional structure of a site on an influenza A virus protein that binds to one of its human protein targets, thereby suppressing a person’s natural defenses to the infection and paving the way for the virus to replicate efficiently. This so-called NS1 virus protein is shared by all influenza A viruses isolated from humans – including avian influenza, or bird flu, and the 1918 pandemic influenza virus.
About 10 years ago, Professor Robert M. Krug at The University of Texas at Austin discovered that the NS1 protein binds a human protein known as CPSF30, which is important for protecting human cells from flu infection. Once bound to NS1, the human protein can no longer generate molecules needed to suppress flu virus replication. Now, researchers led by Rutgers Professor Gaetano T. Montelione and Krug identified the novel NS1 binding pocket that grasps the human CPSF30 protein.
“Our work uncovers an Achilles heel of influenza A viruses that cause human epidemics and high mortality pandemics,” said Montelione, professor of molecular biology and biochemistry. “We have identified the structure of a key target site for drugs that could be developed to effectively combat this disease.” (emphasis mine)
So what ever became of this research? It seems we should have some great solutions by now, “speed of science” and all. (If only they would do more to discover our strengths and not our weaknesses.)
According to Wikipedia, “work with Prof. R. Krug on structure-function relationships of the influenza A non-structural protein 1 (NS1) and SARS corona virus proteases have provided the basis for creation of attenuated virus vaccines and leads for antiviral drug development.”
The team’s work will build upon Dr. Montelione’s previous research. First, using bioinformatics, Dr. Montelione and his team found that a key protein from the hepatitis C virus closely resembles the coronavirus CLpro protease structure. Since several Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drugs target the hepatitis C protease, the next step was to determine if any of those drugs would also bind and block proteases of SARS-CoV-2.
In research published in Cell Reports, the team found that, out of the 10 hepatitis C drugs tested, seven suppressed the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Three of those drugs were acting not only on the main protease, CLpro, but on the PLpro protease, as well. Next, they discovered that, when combined with the polymerase inhibitor remdesivir, these drugs multiplied remdesivir’s antiviral activity by as much as tenfold.
So the research is the basis for the creation of drugs that work synergistically with remdesivir. Great.
Are you starting to see how this works?
Now consider how this story might proceed… and how it might end.
Assignment: You're writing a screenplay
Somebody tell the health care officials that the health care system in America, and much of the world, has been destroyed, and they are the ones that destroyed it. Questioning whether hospitals are “ready” for the next psmdemic is like questioning whether the family car is ready for the family vacation when it is clearly sitting in the driveway, sans wheels, with its engine removed and the interior burned to a crisp. You think?
Wondering out loud how many people have reached the point of view I was at in early 2020 when the great scamdemic hoax was cast upon us like the great plague or even worse, the great flood where there was no way to avoid “we’re all gonna die if we don’t follow the experts” fear porn of the highest degree. Luckily there are millions of us who now know what these flunkies are up to - they can only get their way if a large majority of us comply and push the narrative on anyone else who doesn’t. That will be hard if half of us just laugh in their faces and show them what a bunch of nonsense it is they are once again falling for. Remember in 2020 there was no Substack, no Rumble and the MSM was in total power. There also weren’t millions of vaccine injured or unemployed or deeply depressed souls singing loudly “We won’t get fooled again!”