Comments on: Flu viruses take the summer off to go travelling http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/14/flu-viruses-take-the-summer-off-to-go-travelling/ Mon, 26 Nov 2012 12:00:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: Ed Yong http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/14/flu-viruses-take-the-summer-off-to-go-travelling/#comment-4775 Ed Yong Tue, 15 Sep 2009 23:43:02 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/14/flu-viruses-take-the-summer-off-to-go-travelling/#comment-4775 Irreverence will always have a home on this blog ;-) Irreverence will always have a home on this blog ;-)

]]> By: momkat http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/14/flu-viruses-take-the-summer-off-to-go-travelling/#comment-4774 momkat Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:22:36 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/14/flu-viruses-take-the-summer-off-to-go-travelling/#comment-4774 "Nelson believes that the tropical belt acts like a virus training camp. Every year, it receives recruits from temperate areas that have been recognised by the immune system, fits them with new mutations, and chucks them back out to start new epidemics" I got a momemtary amusement when I read this, visualizing the little guys in black trousers and white shirts with ties, venturing out into the world to spread their "good news"! I know I will burn in hell for this (among other things), but it comes upon me, unbidden, this irreverence. “Nelson believes that the tropical belt acts like a virus training camp. Every year, it receives recruits from temperate areas that have been recognised by the immune system, fits them with new mutations, and chucks them back out to start new epidemics”
I got a momemtary amusement when I read this, visualizing the little guys in black trousers and white shirts with ties, venturing out into the world to spread their “good news”! I know I will burn in hell for this (among other things), but it comes upon me, unbidden, this irreverence.

]]> By: Sanguinity http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/14/flu-viruses-take-the-summer-off-to-go-travelling/#comment-4773 Sanguinity Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:41:13 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2009/09/14/flu-viruses-take-the-summer-off-to-go-travelling/#comment-4773 This article is really <i>very</i> developed-world-centric. "Foreign lands"? Foreign with respect to where? And why should it be "obvious" that the <i>World</i> Health Organization only keeps an eye on the virus during the epidemic seasons of developed nations, when for some parts of the world influenza is, as you say, "a year-round problem"? In fact, the biases apparent in this article rather highlights Indonesia's complaints about which nations receive the benefits of WHO's influenza research -- you really would think that the only thing important about influenza is how it affects developed nations. This article is really very developed-world-centric. “Foreign lands”? Foreign with respect to where? And why should it be “obvious” that the World Health Organization only keeps an eye on the virus during the epidemic seasons of developed nations, when for some parts of the world influenza is, as you say, “a year-round problem”?
In fact, the biases apparent in this article rather highlights Indonesia’s complaints about which nations receive the benefits of WHO’s influenza research — you really would think that the only thing important about influenza is how it affects developed nations.

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