flu-collage-may-4Three new-flu links from Minnesota: A vaccine will take a while to produce, public-health journalist Maryn McKenna writes for the University of Minnesota. The H1N1 novel influenza probably got its start with hogs, a U of M expert told pork producers last week; even though pigs haven’t transmitted the virus to people (yet), the industry has little choice but to ride out the bad PR. And a young vlogger in Orono hopes a fellow student tests positive — “as bad as that sounds” — so schools stay closed for a week.

McKenna, writing at the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) Web site at the U of M:

… [M]ajor manufacturing and regulatory hurdles lie in the path toward achieving a pandemic vaccine, hurdles that have been recognized by governments for years but never successfully dealt with. … [M]anufacturers could be asked to short-circuit work on the seasonal vaccine in order to begin handling the seed strain of the novel virus, a move that would reduce the amount of vaccine available in the northern hemisphere next winter. … Rumors are circulating among some flu scientists that the strain being used at the CDC for the vaccine seed strain is not growing well in eggs. … That production will go smoothly is not guaranteed: Since 2000, seasonal flu-vaccine delivery has been delayed several times because strains did not grow as well as predicted or eggs proved vulnerable to contamination.

Here’s a portion of Prof. Peter Davies‘ April 28 pork-industry presentation, transcribed from the audio/slide webinar that is linked here:

Genetically, certainly, there is evidence of a swine origin for the virus, but how the disease is unfolding in Mexico and other places appears to be almost entirely at this stage from human-to-human transmission. … But I think we’ll probably have to be having to deal with the fact that the media is running with the swine flu name. … This is probably a message that’s going to be hard to effectively transmit but needs to just be repeated: Influenza is not spread through food.

And here’s the video from “reidthebead” in Orono (UPDATE: The vlogger has removed it from YouTube):