The real Superflu?

[nahaloth]

New guy here. I've been a fan of Mr. King's work for years, and "The Stand" is ranked my second favorite, right behind "IT."

I felt it necessary to point out something I thought was a strange and frightening coincidence.

I just read an article in the UK based Independent about a group of Dutch scientists who have just created what basically amounts to a weaponized strain of the H5N1 Avian flu. It can be transmitted through the air, thanks to these guys, and lab tests show that it is the deadliest strain of flu to ever appear on Earth. So now we have the real superflu.

Here's the kicker: the lead scientist's name is Ron Fouchier.

Am I the only one who noticed this?

[TheHardcase]

O.K. I know the Captain Trips groupies out there have been acting as harbingers of doom ever since The Stand came out. But maybe they're not so far from wrong this time.

New and Deadly Bird Flu Strain Developed in Holland.

[king family fan]

There are times when the Flu seems like the superflu. Welcome to the mb.

[nahaloth]

O.K. I know the Captain Trips groupies out there have been acting as harbingers of doom ever since The Stand came out. But maybe they're not so far from wrong this time.

I'm not a superflu groupie at all; the last thing I want to see is a pandemic with a 98% mortality rate. I just thought it was a weird coincidence that the lead researcher's initials are R.F., like our favorite recurring evil ne'er-do-well.

[Moderator]

I'm not a superflu groupie at all; the last thing I want to see is a pandemic with a 98% mortality rate. I just thought it was a weird coincidence that the lead researcher's initials are R.F., like our favorite recurring evil ne'er-do-well.

Just an FYI, TheHardcase had posted the message separately after you'd posted this thread and I merged them so as not to start another one, so it wasn't in response to your original post.

[nahaloth]

DOH! OK, thanks, Ms. Mod

[GNTLGNT]

....and there was a discussion elsewhere about this very topic, but I can't remember where-probably this damn runny nose and cough that's causing my confusion...HEY! Wait a minute.....

[Garriga]

Welcome!

Virlogy is my niche. viruses are smart little bugs. avian influenza can adapt via mutation or antigentic shift. Fouchier's little bug does not have to undergo antigentic shift to become airborne. he injected a ferret with a mutant strain and watched it evolve, which he said himself was stupid. I have written my immunology professor. he is reading about the experiment and is going to get back to me when he gets a chance.

people are fussing over Fouchier, but really he may have saved us from a future pandemic. mutations can happen in nature, and if we understand how nature evolves then we can stop pandemics.


When i find out more about Fouchier's experiment, i will post a brief review. I will try to leave out jargon.


I think the strain mutated via transposons. I am probably wrong but that would be my first hypothesis. if i still had my lab coat i would test it using florescent probing techniques.

[TheHardcase]

Just an FYI, TheHardcase had posted the message separately after you'd posted this thread and I merged them so as not to start another one, so it wasn't in response to your original post.

Sorry 'bout that. I've been away from the board for several months and I don't remember what goes where. Not attempting to cause any confusion.

[TheHardcase]

I'm not a superflu groupie at all; the last thing I want to see is a pandemic with a 98% mortality rate. I just thought it was a weird coincidence that the lead researcher's initials are R.F., like our favorite recurring evil ne'er-do-well.

One of the things that made The Stand so compelling was how credible was the curtain-raising plague that opened the narrative. Even in 1976, when SK first came up with the idea, it generated such a visceral reaction from readers because we all know, at some level, that a synthetic virus of the type described in the story was not all that far-fetched.

I'm not a Captain Trips groupie either. But the concept scares the bejesus out of me. But here we are, some 35 years later, and it looks like the world is on the threshold of having to deal with something eerily like the germ in Stephen King's masterpiece.

Sometimes life imitates art. Maybe this is one of those times.