Avian Flu Vaccine & The End of Intelligent Design 
Avian flu is very contagious among birds. It is not so contagious among humans...yet. It is well known that almost every documented case of bird flu has been in people who had intimate and extended contact with infected birds. Some rare cases have been reported where human to human transmission are suspected. However, most of these were also in people who were in contact with birds as well. The relatively high mortality rate of those infected is a cause for concern. If human to human transmission of the infection became widespread, we would have a pandemic to rival or surpass the flu pandemic of 1918. Millions would die. Now for the good news.
Once a virus is inside, it then strips off its coating and inserts its DNA (or RNA) into the nucleus of the cell, hijacks the machinery and starts making lots of copies of itself. That identifies a second feature of the virus, a gene called PB2. PB2 codes for a protein the virus needs so its DNA can actually get copied in a useful way. Without active PB2, the viral DNA just isn't going to be useful.
As it turns out the spikes on H5N1 are the wrong key for the upper respiratory system. That means it doesn't infect cells in your mouth, nose, and throat. The keys do work deep down in the lungs, but that is less of a problem as far as transmission is concerned. Simply because if you have an infection near the top...you will spray stuff out when you sneeze and cough. If it is deep down, you aren't going to be spreading much unless you cough up a lung.
Mammals are really good at generating immune responses to foreign spikes. That is why flu season comes and goes. The herd basically builds up a response to the virus. If it didn't, the infection would just hang around. Spikes mutate like crazy. When they do, you get a new wave of flu. This is one reason why we have different flavors of flu shots. It turns out those spikes are also a real nail in the coffin of Intelligent Design. If you don't believe in evolution, then you should not need more than one flu shot in your life.
Different vaccines get made different ways. One way is to inject parts of the virus and generate a response. That works about 50 to 80 percent of the time. A better way is to inject a complete virus that has been "attenuated" somehow so you get to see the whole range of surface molecules. Obviously you want to be sure that virus is not active or you are just asking for trouble. That is where PB2 comes in. It turns out someone has actually patented recombinant forms of the PB2 gene. That means you should be able to isolate avian flu virus, modify it with the busted PB2 gene. Grow the new "attenuated" virus and use that to make vaccines!
Ok...not you personally, but someone with the right laboratory and equipment.
Taken together those two features (poor absorption in the upper respiratory tract and candidates for modifying genes critical to replication) are good news. They mean we may have a longer window before the spikes change enough to become infectious in your nose, mouth and throat. That means we have time to develop effective vaccines.
Obviously, there won't be enough vaccine to go around early on. Rationing health care is always a problem. But fortunately this time we have a way to rationally allocate this scarce resource. We can actually kill two birds with one stone here.
Lots of people criticize Intelligent Design and Creationism for being unscientific because they are not testable. WELL NOW WE CAN TEST THEM!!! I propose that when the first vaccines are produced, advocates of either Intelligent Design or Creationism should seize this opportunity to test their hypothesis by not getting vaccinated. If they are right, they should be fine. Some may question the wisdom of their decision, but it would be a truly scientific way of testing their notions.
KEYWORDS: intelligent design, avian flu, h5n1, bird flu
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