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Guardian

Guardian

Health

Health

Virologist Wendy Barclay: ‘Wild avian viruses are mixing up their genetics all the time. It’s like viral sex on steroids’

Guardian
Summary
Nutrition label

75% Informative

Wendy Barclay is a leading British virologist and head of the department of infectious disease and the Action Medical Research chair in virology at Imperial College London .

She served on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies and the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group ( Nervtag ) during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The virus is able to replicate inside human cells but has not acquired mutations in the HA gene (the H in H5N1) required to transmit between people through the air.

We haven’t seen any evidence of that yet, either in people, cows or any animals in the wild.

VR Score

73

Informative language

71

Neutral language

20

Article tone

informal

Language

English

Language complexity

41

Offensive language

not offensive

Hate speech

not hateful

Attention-grabbing headline

not detected

Known propaganda techniques

not detected

Time-value

medium-lived

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