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Preparing for a pandemic that never came ended up setting off another − how an accidental virus release triggered 1977’s ‘Russian flu’

The Conversation
Summary
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83% Informative

U.S. Army Pvt . David Lewis' death from an H1N1 swine flu was a harbinger of another global pandemic.

He says a new pandemic influenza virus did emerge in 1977 , but it was not the anticipated swine virus.

The Russian flu virus was actually a strain that had disappeared from the planet a quarter century early , he says.

Fears of a new H1N1 swine flu pandemic in 1976 prompted a worldwide surge in research on viruses and vaccines.

Donald S. Burke : An accidental release of one of these viruses was certainly possible in any of the countries where research was taking place.

Burke: In the global rush to head off a possible new pandemic, accidents could have happened anywhere.

It was a self-fulfilling-prophecy pandemic..

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87

Informative language

87

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51

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semi-formal

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English

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53

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not offensive

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not hateful

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detected

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medium-lived

External references

28

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