# 3955
Today’s `must read’ comes from Helen Branswell of The Canadian Press, who takes us on a tour of the things we mistakenly thought we knew about influenza viruses and pandemics.
There are a lot of things I could say on this subject, but I’m smart enough to simply tell you to read it, and then step quickly out of the way.
Flu dogma being rewritten by a strange virus no one pegged to trigger a pandemic
By Helen Branswell Medical Reporter (CP)
TORONTO — The World Health Organization's top flu scientist often describes the virus he's studied for years as "humbling."
And Dr. Keiji Fukuda isn't alone in marvelling at the mercurial nature of influenza. Flu scientists repeat almost as a mantra that the only thing predictable about flu is its unpredictability.
Yet despite decades of evidence that influenza will repeatedly rewrite the rules, flu dogma emerges and takes hold. Scientists keen to sift patterns from chaos agree X is true about Y - until the virus sets them straight yet again.
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