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Thu 21 Jan, 2010 06:22 am
And, "this virus" = 2009 H1N1 ?
Context:
What about the millions paid to vaccine companies? All the scientists contacted by New Scientist say launching vaccine production at the start of the pandemic was appropriate. "When a virus emerges from the animal reservoir you don't know how it will behave," says Ilaria Capua of the World Organisation for Animal Health's flu reference lab in Legnaro, Italy. "We were quite lucky with this virus. Would you prefer to have no vaccine? This was the only thing we could do."
"It" refers to the virus--and i would have thought that were obvious.
Not necessarily, but if so, only inferentially. Why are you making this unnecessarily complicated? "It" appears in an earlier sentence than the one in which "this virus" appears. The inference is, of course, that "this virus," as is the case with any other virus, can change after leaving the animal reservoir.
@oristarA,
"It" refers to "a virus that emerges from the animal reservoir", not H1N1 specifically although H1N1 is an example. "This virus" refers to the specific virus the article is about. It is not called out in this excerpt, but it is almost certainly H1N1.
@Setanta,
Quote:Why are you making this unnecessarily complicated?
Because in another thread "it" referenced something that was included
after the "It".
In this case "It" references something that is writen
before.
I can see how this would be confusing for an ESL student.
@Setanta,
Quote:"It" refers to the virus--and i would have thought that were obvious.
Sometimes, things are just not as obvious as one would think, Setanta.
This particular usage is not one of Standard English and yet you believe that there is some reason for using it.
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