“Knowledge is the antidote to fear.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson – American essayist.
In past centuries, flu syndromes in humankind were never related to animal influences. Recently, however, it is happening in a way that may even appear alarming.
But should we really be alarmed? Is this real alarm or just scaremongering?
Let us seek clarity.
First and foremost, we need to understand whether the information we are being given comes directly from the scientific world or whether it has instead been manipulated by journalists who want to increase their readership, perhaps starting with a headline for effect and content with precisely alarmist overtones.
Usually, scientists, epidemiologists and virologists, when analyzing data on the evolution of epidemics, evaluate both the spread of pathogens and their genomic mutations. Based on these data, they try to hypothesize possible future scenarios, also taking into consideration information and data from previous experience with the disease studied.
However, despite the use of accurate mathematical models and precise epidemiological data, some pessimistic predictions made by scientists in the past have not always materialized with the expected severity.
Many remember the so-called “media flu,” and here we recall it in summary: In 2005, an excessive spread of fears about a precursor to the current H5N1 strain of Avian Influenza caused an unwarranted collapse in the consumption of poultry products that affected, with varying degrees of severity, all Western nations, without any real danger to the human population.
Initial predictions about the severity of the A/H1N1 pandemic in 2009 also proved to be exaggerated, prompting unwarranted purchases of vaccines and antiviral drugs.
“Never say never and never say always.”
This motto fits well with biology: viruses and bacteria are complex organisms that can rapidly mutate and adapt to their environment and hosts, but they can also quickly die out, sometimes making it difficult to predict the evolution of events.
It is precisely from these findings that we can objectively evaluate the information we receive from the scientific world. We know well that pathogenic germs in the vast majority of cases have adapted to specific hosts, with which, often from time immemorial, they have coexisted more or less peacefully, thus managing to survive in nature.
Occasionally, their pathogenicity also manages to manifest toward other species not specifically considered a target of theirs, giving rise to what is known as “spill over,” or the spread of disease from one species to another.
Crossing the species barrier usually does not happen easily, and once achieved, it is not painless for the new host species, which has to fight a virtually unknown organism.
However, in order for “spill over” to occur, it is necessary for the pathogen to be given the opportunity to have contact and infect the new host species, and if we are talking about influenza viruses, the conditions in which our ancestors lived in rural environments, in close contact with different animal species, often in situations of overcrowding, poor hygiene, and without putting in place any kind of prevention, favored the contagions and evolutionary phenomena of the virus, and, precisely because of this, over the centuries, mankind has been hit on average every 20 to 30 years by flu epidemics or pandemics that caused millions of deaths.
In this day and age (2025), the risk of a new pandemic due to viruses originating from animals must certainly always be kept in mind. However, compared to what happened in the past, we have more reason to be hopeful. Why?
First of all, contrary to what animal rights groups claim and publicize with ideologically distorted articles, if promiscuity between humans and animals has greatly decreased, we owe it precisely to intensive livestock farms, in which one man alone looks after tens of thousands of animals, and precisely because of intensive livestock farmsmost of the population lives in urbanized areas greatly reducing the risk of human infection or “spill over.”
In addition, prevention is done on intensive farms, people wear protective clothing, periodic monitoring is done, any suspicious symptoms are promptly analyzed, and if the suspicion of the presence of a flu virus is confirmed, the disease is promptly eradicated.
All this did not happen in the past, and humanity passively suffered the consequences of the natural evolution of viruses.
In addition to these points, today (2025) genomic analysis techniques make it possible to know every small mutation in viruses, understand whether these mutations are bringing new strains closer to the human species, and take appropriate preventive measures in advance.
Even if the unfortunate hypothesis of the adaptation of influenza viruses of animal origin to the human species were to occur, vaccines to counteract them have already been studied and can be quickly made available, not to mention that the efficacy of antiviral drugs, to be administered in case of infection has greatly improved over the years.
At this point, going back to the original question, should we really be alarmed?
The above arguments should reassure us and certainly suggest that we should continue, but without alarmism, to keep a close watch on the changes in influenza viruses, especially in those aspects concerning their affinity toward mammals, which generally precedes the species jump to humans.
Similarly, however, we must continue to reduce contact between infected animals and humans by implementing the prevention measures in the many operational manuals available in different countries around the world.
It is also important to receive/seek information and updates from sources that are definitely reliable and unbiased such as
The Center for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC – USA).
https://www.cdc.gov/index.html
o The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC-EU).
whose links dedicated to the topic of this article we have given below:
