Intro a new virus is spreading like wildfire and experts are warning that this could be more deadly than the covid-19 pandemic Co killed 7 million people and affected billions of others for years and now this virus is 50 times more dangerous than Co you see Co was scary but from a fatality point of view only less than 1% of people infected actually died and even then it caused 7 million deaths this new virus has a fatality rate of 56% meaning it has killed one in two people who are infected with it that is why scientists are ringing the alarm Bells trying to get the Public's and the government's attention if this thing gets out of hand like Co if we repeat the mistakes we made during Co the consequences could be drastically worse this time around the worst part is this virus is spreading already and it's spreading incredibly quickly that's why the World Health organization's Chief scientist Jeremy Ferrar has called this an enormous concern when comparing this virus to co the numbers are shocking you see Co only infected 10 species remember the theory at the start of 2020 that it might have jumped from a bat to a human and a Chinese flea market yeah I know I called it a theory please don't delete my channel YouTube I think by now it's it's at least reasonable to say that it might have been something else but anyways this Theory came about because we knew that Co infects bats and it infected humans plus a few other species this new virus has already infected 138 species including humans and that's a lot every new species means the virus is mutating and getting stronger it's able to beat a lot more immune systems these mutations and this speed are what's worrying scientists let me explain this in just a second but first we need to go over the history of the virus now the first question I'm sure everyone is asking is what is this virus that's so dangerous well the virus is named H5 in1 and it's a strain of the influenza A virus for those who know your viruses which in all honesty I wouldn't be surprised if it's a lot of you considering how much time we had all had during covid this virus is the same virus that caused the Spanish flu and luckily for us studying the Spanish Flu does give us some knowledge on how things may go what's not so lucky for us is the fact that the virus seems to be following the same footsteps as the Spanish Flu at least so far now the Spanish Flu spread during 1918 to 1920 and it killed a record-breaking 100 million people across the world making it one of the deadliest pandemics in human history that's more than all pandemics combined in modern history H5 5 in one is the newer and quite possibly just as powerful strain of the same virus worse yet the patterns are quite similar in this case let's take a closer look most pandemics including Spanish flu and Co follow this three-step pattern from early stages to their Peak the first stage is incubation many viruses much like the one we're seeing now are not something that just came out of nowhere even covid or the Corona virus was nothing new we've known about them for 2,000 years it's just that the new strain became something that was novel or new similarly the Spanish Flu was not something that just came out of nowhere this virus was likely around for years before in fact Studies have shown that less potent variants were already being found in other species years before the Spanish Flu became deadly then much like what happened to the Corona virus in 2019 the Spanish Flu mutated into a new strain that became so powerful that it infected onethird of the world's population and caused 100 million deaths the same pattern in covid-19 once it mutated enough it infected 700 million people and caused 7 million deaths China has identified the cause of the mysterious new virus Corona virus there are fears a rapidly spreading virus has reached Australia this is a rapidly emerging situation where there is not a cause for alarm and the number of affected countries has tripled now this new virus h5n1 has been H5N1 around since early 1997 it was first found in southern China of course I can't cover a topic on this channel without mentioning China now can I it was a novel virus but it wasn't too deadly for the longest time it was only infecting birds and poultry that is why it was nicknamed the bird flu in fact so far has infected over 90 million chickens in the us alone a lot of those chickens had to be killed just to make sure this pandemic doesn't turn into an even bigger one this was clearly a headache it caused billions of dollars in Damages and made life harder for many people but it was nothing like covid at least not yet but over the last few years H5 in1 has gotten more active than it has ever been it is now able to infect 138 different species including humans like you and me it's mutating and it's mutating fast into something that could be much more dangerous than covid once the mutation is over stage one the incubation stage is complete once stage one is over it's almost impossible to stop the spread because after this stage what comes is the Tipping Point stage the stage where the virus starts spreading at an exponential rate among humans so the question is what kind of mutation does the virus go through what's the science well viruses are not all dangerous it's just we talk a lot about the ones that are much like how the vast majority of flights take off and land safely but if you ever type flight news into Google the only new stories you will see are the ones where flights crash or almost crash we have a lot of immunity for a lot of viruses and in fact most of us likely have immunity from influenza A viruses as well then why is it that scientists are really worried about h5n1 which is a strain of influenza A because it's different unique compared to the past as a virus infects more and more people more and more species it starts learning and getting better so to speak with every new species it gains power points like in a video game where now it's able to beat immunities that species already have it's not an easy process and more often than not the virus loses and the immune system wins the fight in fact even if a virus is able to mutate into something that's stronger it doesn't really matter if the human dies because then the new stronger strain just dies with the human that's why hwo Chief scientist Jeremy Ferrar said it's a tragic thing to say but if I get infected with h5n1 and I die then that's the end of it but if I go around the community and I spread it to somebody else then you start the cycle so no Cows matter how strong the virus gets in an infected human's body it's not really that scary as long as it's not transmissible it's a dead end it becomes extinct but if it can become transmissible it can become a whole different story then it can get to a point like covid where everyday infection numbers are hitting a new record and that's extremely scary considering this virus has a more than 50% fatality rate for a virus to become a pandemic it's important that it learns how to jump from Human to human this is where recent news is troubling the scientific world just last month us officials announced that this virus was found in cattle when cows from nine different states tested positive there's some good news and some bad news with these infections luckily it's not deadly for the cows at least not yet that's the good news but the bad news is that now viruses can use Cows as effective mixing vessels meaning two different strains can now swap genetic material if they can meet in the same cow this way they can become stronger and more transmissible it can learn from other mutations and adopt things that can help it grow more powerful abilities like being able to transfer between people this is already happening it's able to go from cow to cow which is new and worrisome it's also able to go back to the birds from cows and birds can carry it to different different herds meaning it will infect More Cows and mutate faster again this is the most active the virus has been in the last two decades since its Discovery mutations are completely random but as it infects more and more mammals the likelihood for a mutation turning into something that can cause a pandemic only goes up right now only two humans have tested positive in the United States and they only got it because they work at a poultry farm based on information we have now humans can become infected if they come into close contact with infected Birds whether the birds are dead or alive or with surfaces that may have been contaminated by an infected Bird's saliva or feces there's no proof it Humans jumps from Human to human and luckily there are just two reported cases in the US One in Colorado and one in Texas worldwide though since 2003 827 human cases and 463 deaths have been reported that's a one and two fatality rate and every time it gets a new Maman host species like cows there's more risk of human transmission and reduced human immunity it could reach that point in mere months that's when things get problematic in terms of a pandemic in fact comparing the 1918 Spanish flu virus with the currently circulating h5n1 virus researchers have found that Aven h5n1 has acquired five of the 10 Gene sequence quence changes associated with human-to-human transmission in the 1918 virus a few more adaptations and it could reach the transmission Tipping Point that's why experts say there's a fine line between one person and 10 people with h5n1 by the time we've detected 10 it's probably too late to contain once it mutates into a strain that can be transferred between people the peak could be as problematic as the Spanish Flu especially if it's able to become airborne like Co now I talked about this a little earlier but compared to some other pandemics Co wasn't really that deadly only around a 1% fatality rate but what's scary was how easy it was to transmit it it was Airborne someone who was infected can just spread it around by sneezing or even shaking hands or a whole load of other ways that meant if one person had it in a city of millions and they didn't quarantine in time they could have spread it to hundreds of others every hour then those hundreds could spread it to even more that's how it was able to infect 700 million people in the world if something is that transmissible even a 1% fatality rate is scary that's why scientists want authorities to take steps before this H5 in1 virus gets to be airborne because it may be too late if we wait for that another reason Co was so easy to transfer was the symptoms a a lot of early covid symptoms like coughing running nose fever these are normal symptoms that any sick person experiences so it was hard for people to distinguish between having covid or having a normal you know under theweather day that all of us have felt from time to time this gives the virus another advantage of spreading before authorities are able to act well influenza A has similar symptoms too so if the h5n1 variant is able to become airborne it may be able to spread for days maybe even months before testing is properly available for everyone this is where viruses being able to mutate in cows now is an alarming sign for scientists scientists worry that if we don't take things seriously we may be playing ketchup millions of lives will be at risk or lost if we don't act in time that's why when 187 major scientists were surveyed asking what could be the next big pandemic 60% of them said it will be an influenza strain and it will be a lot bigger than Co even the World Health Organization has labeled it the biggest threat to Global Health okay so what's the solution what is the government doing and what should they be doing even more importantly what can you and I do to protect ourselves and our families at the moment there are more could happens than is happening or has happened with h5n1 although the virus is showing that it could adapt further to spread among humans so far it hasn't that means if we can act in time there will be no entry in the history books the best defense against a new deadly pathogen is aggressively suppressing early outbreaks which first requires detecting them quickly an order was already issued by the US agriculture Department it requires lactating dairy cows to be tested before moving across state lines those that test positive would have to wait 30 days and test negative before being moved unfortunately unlike with the millions of chickens killed to contain a pandemic that's not quite as simple as with cows the economic cost is a little too much right now for that perhaps the best news is that we have several h5n1 vaccines already approved by the Food and Drug Administration whose safety and immune response have been studied in fact the federal government has already developed hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses that are ready to be deployed against the Aven h5n1 strain in addition they have 10 million doses that need finishing touches which could be completed within weeks lastly as of now even if you are infected you would need to breathe in a large amount of the virus to develop a respiratory infection from the virus only then it becomes fatal otherwise you will have a mild case of conjunctivitis an eye infection that could occur after handling contaminated materials and then touching your eyes the best advice for people like you and me is to stay away from wild birds s for a while living or dead and make sure your dogs and cats Don't Go Near them either and people should avoid undercooked or uncooked food as well like raw milk you don't need that the chances of another pandemic coming are low but that doesn't mean that YouTube is not growing in fact YouTube Just overtook Netflix in terms of how much time people spent on their TVs and that's just television imagine how much time people are watching YouTube If you combine TV phones and computers if you're waiting on a sign to start a channel well this may be the perfect one and if you are looking to learn how people grow on YouTube in 2024 like this guy who got millions of views in Just 2 months after starting then I have the solution for you we are opening up the wait list for our first ever YouTube basic Academy cohort here we not only share the secrets we have learned about uploading for years on YouTube We also share how we're able to start channels in completely different niches and scale them to millions of views news in just a few months we will also have live q&as a community where everyone can interact and learn from each other and much more if you want information on the cohort then just click on the link in the description or scan the QR code that's on the screen right now you can also sign up for the wait list there