avian influenza

And these key things are being ignored because of the narrative.

And So I wanted to get you on just to briefly explain again that they just invented this sequence of H5N1 20 years ago or so, and now they're looking for a tiny fragment of this in a PCR.

And if they use their other tests, all they're looking for is a protein that but which I think I've heard you say numerous times, those proteins are present in everyone anyway, but they've got some arbitrary cutoff and saying that, well, if there's this volume, that means the body's producing antibodies because of a virus, and that's not the case whatsoever.

So, yeah, how do we explain this to people? So, as I said, I think the public is quite bored of it, But, yeah, I just wish the media, surely there's someone in there who could have some brain cells and ask some questions.

Exactly.

And Paul, I mean, you've shown me the correspondence you've had with the so-called authorities in Australia and you put it to the question to them and said, hey, when you make this H5N1 diagnosis in these animals that you're finding in the environment, what exactly are you doing? Can you show me the protocols, the exact tests that you're using? And as far as I'm aware, they just were sending you back generic kind of answers.

And I think they're wary now after the COVID era that when they actually disclose to the public exactly which tests they're applying, people do an analysis of those tests and they find out that they're not diagnostic at all.

They are a complete sham.

Withdraw them.

The reason given was the forecast arrival of H5N1 bird flu and the psychological risk to the staff of living through a mass mortality event among the 2,500 elephant seals on the island.

They pulled the people out because of what the people would have to watch.

That's exactly what it was.

and nobody knows if they go back.

It depends on the birds, basically.

If H5N1 sweeps through the elephant seals the way it swept through seabird colonies in the North Atlantic, the next decision rights itself.

And if it doesn't, the rebuild is still delayed and the promise is still thinner than it was.

Uh, that's why influenza A viruses have names like H1N1, uh, which was the flu that caused the pandemic of 1918, or H3N2, which caused the pandemic of 1968.

And the strain that's commonly referred to as the bird flu is H5N1.

It first cropped up in 1996, and we'll get more into its history here in a minute.

But okay, how do new strains develop in the first place? Like many viruses, influenza can mutate through antigenic drift or shift.

In antigenic drift, small changes occur to a virus' surface proteins as it reproduces.

This is happening all the time, and these small changes can add up enough that your immune system eventually won't be able to recognize the virus anymore, and the virus will thus be able to infect you again.

It was novel.

Being that these viruses are new, new vaccines have to be developed in order to help fight them.

Well, that's, those are interesting questions, and it will vary with the pathogen, and the...

So things like H5N1, it's starting to ramp up.

So avian influenza-

Yeah

... maybe through January, I've seen it.

So a- basically increasing through January.

And I haven't seen it i- There wasn't H5N1 in my population at least last year, but it has-

Oh

The HAs are divided into two groups, um, based on their, uh, antigenic properties and sequences.

And so the, the monoclonals from both reacted with H5N1 and H7N9 influ-- avian influenza virus HAs.

Um, monoclonal specific for H3 that bound all six H3, uh, proteins in the H7 had higher levels of somatic hypermutation, uh, than the monoclonals that lacked cross-reactivity.

So that, that makes sense, right? That's how you get the cross-reactivity, by somatic hypermutation.

Fiona Broome with you this afternoon.

With H5N1 spreading in wildlife, the Victorian Government is considering emergency extractions of threatened bird species from the wild.

Victoria's most critically endangered bird species are already being held in captivity under strict biocontrol measures.

DECA has found 98 bird species are at risk of the impacts of H5N1, including black swans and braulgers.

Chief Biodiversity Officer and Director of the Arthur Ryler Institute, James Todd, said the already small populations could plummet further.

ADECA has assessed Victorian fauna for their risk to H5N1.

That assessment has shown that over 550 species are at risk.

Most of those are bird species, but some of those are, of course, marine mammals, and also there is a risk to terrestrial mammals like scavengers, for example.

Fushi Kawaka.

H5N1 bird flu, if it spills over, that means a bird virus gets into me or you, If he was H5N1 and he got into us, one of the two would die.

The kill rate, we have a phrase called case fatality rate, but basically the death rate is something can be 50%.

So if both of us got it, one of us would go and it would be me because I'm older.

We have COVID.

And we even now suspect H5N1 bird flu.

We published a paper on this.

That may have originated from the USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia.