#flu virus

I still wear a mask in public places. So should you. It's not just to protect you from Covid.

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With H5N1 reported in at least two* humans in the past month, we need to talk about airborne transmission and how masks work. Again.

(*edit: https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/avian-influenza-bird-flu/oregon-reports-first-h5-case-farm-worker-california-reports-5-more)

Is flu airborne?

Generally yes. Even if it is not the most efficient mode of transmission for every virus.

Citations:

https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/testing-transmission-infection-h5n1-cows

https://newsinhealth.nih.gov/2023/12/clearing-air

"...recently measured how often virus is exhaled by people with the flu. He found that about 80% exhaled some influenza, the virus that causes flu. Most of the virus was found in the tiny airborne aerosols. People didn’t have to cough or sneeze to expel these viruses into the air. The flu virus was detectable in the air after normal breathing and talking."

Do N95 masks protect against viruses smaller than 300 nm (.3 microns)?

Also yes, because masks do NOT work like a sieve:

N95s employ electrostatic filtering to keep viruses stuck to the mask rather than passing through.

Brownian motion (particles moving through fluids / air randomly) also helps them get stuck to the surface.

And this is why you don't want to be touching the front of your mask, nor storing it improperly. For example, if you take it off and put it in your pocket, and then your hand later goes in that same pocket, then wipes your nose...

See also:

Escape from Death

Flu virus can spread via tunnelling tube-like structures they induce between cells, but how this process is initiated is unclear. Here, researchers find that the tube formation correlates with the onset of apoptosis – a particular form a cell death in response to infection

Read the published research article here

Image from work by Daniel Weir and colleagues

MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, Glasgow, UK

Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Published in PLOS Pathogens, June 2025

Researchers have witnessed two viruses – influenza A and respiratory syncytial virus – fuse together to form a single, hybrid virus.

While competition between viruses has been researched in some detail, this new finding provides researchers with an unusual example of one virus coopting another for its own benefits.

"This kind of hybrid virus has never been described before," virologist and senior author Pablo Murcia told The Guardian. "We are talking about viruses from two completely different families combining together with the genomes and the external proteins of both viruses. It is a new type of virus pathogen."

There are additional hospitalizations for bird flu. It is starting to affect vets who were treating cattle.

My only big eye squint is the "over 65 with underlying health" shade that is getting thrown at the first reported death. I know it is to be technical and specific and to avoid sensationalism, I do, but it gives me the shivers of January and February 2020.

ALSO -- Record numbers of flu cases this year

ALSO -- Unvaxxed people are causing a major measles outbreak right now. Measles deletes your body's immune system memory - if you get it and live, you must get all your shots again. Measles will also straight up fuck you up and make sure you take down everyone around you. Do not fuck around with measles.

Be careful, folks, start masking if you have stopped.