CDC In H3N2v Sequence Denial



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H1N1 Consulting Paradigm Shift Viral Evolution Intervention Monitoring Vaccine Screening Vaccine Development Expression Profiling Drug Discovery Custom Therapies Patents	Audio:Aug8 Aug16 Aug31 Sep6 twitter Commentary CDC In H3N2v Sequence Denial Recombinomics Commentary 21:30 September 6, 2012 Found in U.S. pigs in 2010 and humans in July 2011, this H3N2v virus appears to spread more easily from pigs to people than other variant influenza viruses. Most reported cases to date have occurred in people who are exhibiting or helping to exhibit pigs at fairs this season after close and prolonged contact with pigs. "So far more than 90 percent of cases have occurred in people who are exhibiting or helping to exhibit pigs, or who are family members of these people. That is why our message is so targeted," says Finelli. The above comments (emphasis added) are from the August 31 CDC update on H3N2v which clearly represent the CDC “story”. However the story isn’t based on hard data, such as the sequences from the H3N2v infected people and pigs, but is based on samples from a highly biased population with swine exposure who are H3N2v confirmed through aggressive testing using a suspect RT-PCR assay that performs well on samples with high RNA levels, but gives inconclusive or false negative results on samples with lower RNA levels. The positives are then used to further bias the sampling, which then creates more message that is “targeted”. Ironically, the increase in positives generates more hard data that thoroughly refutes the “story”, so the hard data is either ignored or misrepresented. The most glaring problem with the “story” of swine to human transmission of H3N2v, is the detection of the “wrong” H3N2v. All 2012 human cases are the sub-clade that was initially identified in late 2011 at a daycare center where attendees had no swine contact or exposure. Moreover, the cluster was large. Although only two confirmed cases were reported, 23 of 70 contacts of the index case had ILI. Moreover, this H3N2v was rarely detected in swine. The USDA had identified 26 matches with the human cases with an H1N1pdm09 M gene, but only 2 of the matches were the H3N2v sub-clade found in the 2012 human cases. More to the point however is the distribution of the 2011 H3N2v sub-clade. It was identified in the first 10 human cases in 2011, including the Iowa cluster, which also had no swine contact or exposure. That cluster yielded three confirmed cases, and the father and brother of the index case had ILI. Therefore, the 2011 H3N2v could clearly transit human to human in populations with no swine exposure, but no human cases have been identified after the Iowa cluster (in early November), even though the sub-clade was found in 24 out of 26 matches, including 17 matches in 2012 swine samples. Thus, the sub-clade that is rare in swine has been found in all 44 sequences from 2012 human cases, while the sub-clade that is dominant in 2012 swine isolates has not yielded any of the human cases. Moreover, when the CDC finally identified H3N2v in swine linked to a 2012 H3N2v cluster, the sequence signals the correct sub-clade, but does not match the human sequences which are identical in each human case. Thus, the LaPorte sequence data supports human to swine transmission, which places into 2012 swine the sub-clade that is in the 2012 human cases. The CDC doesn’t address the hard data, but instead cites its flawed data as a reason to send out its targeted message to acquire more biased samples to generate more hard data that refutes its “story”. The CDC pseudoscience remains hazardous to the world's health. Media Link Recombinomics Presentations Recombinomics Publications Recombinomics Paper at Nature Precedings

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