Fab3 posted The Science Magazine excerpt: good catch. And it is true that thousands die from ordinary flu each year. However …
“clinical severity appears less than that seen in 1918”
The 1918 flu had three occurrences. The second wave was the worldwide killer.
Charlie wrote: “H1N1 kills mostly younger people, and leaves alone people over 30.”
Not quite. Ordinary flu kills mostly those with weak or underdeveloped respiratory systems: The elderly and infants, as expected. The 1918 pandemic attacked many but killed more of those in the “prime of life” group- like ours now.
Good news: In 1918 much of viral science was in its infancy; in fact, that pandemic spurred much of the biological science we take for granted today.
Bad news: Today’s medical folks are more worried about a repeat of 1918 because the world is so much smaller; the medicine may be better but will still lag behind the flu’s ability to move. As Science said, “Transmissibility is therefore substantially higher than seasonal flu”; cf. secondary attack rate comparison.
The significant financial cost has been covered quite well in the press IMO: billions of USD so far. This, in a world that is already fighting several military wars on several fronts AND dealing with a 1933-manqué “recession” AND where a large continent is losing a medical war with HIV/AIDS … and like that.
There is some illustrative dark humor involved with the 1918 second wave: Soon there weren’t enough healthy people in many areas to take care of the sick. Soon after, there weren’t enough living to bury the dead.
And there is another exacerbating factor, in operation continuously before and since 1918.
“Crosby [below] writes: ‘All the physicians of 1918 were participants in the greatest failure of medical science in the twentieth century or, if absolute numbers of dead are the measure, of all time.’ Lest the blame be placed entirely on the medical profession, Barry [below] makes this point: ‘Back then scientists fully comprehended the threat’s magnitude, knew how to cure many secondary bacterial pneumonias, and gave public-health advice that would have saved tens of thousands of American lives. Politicians ignored that advice.’”
That deadly parlay is from an Awake magazine article of 2005, “The Worst Plague in History”
References:
The Great Influenza, John M. Barry, Viking 2004
America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, Alfred W. Crosby, Cambridge U. Press, 1989
Like Ciji3, I plotz over Liō. But also like Ciji3, I didn’t laugh at this one. And if the second wave of flu is like 1918’s, a similar strip is likely to be censored by Gov’t. (Look it up.)
Fab3 posted The Science Magazine excerpt: good catch. And it is true that thousands die from ordinary flu each year. However …
“clinical severity appears less than that seen in 1918” The 1918 flu had three occurrences. The second wave was the worldwide killer.
Charlie wrote: “H1N1 kills mostly younger people, and leaves alone people over 30.” Not quite. Ordinary flu kills mostly those with weak or underdeveloped respiratory systems: The elderly and infants, as expected. The 1918 pandemic attacked many but killed more of those in the “prime of life” group- like ours now.
Good news: In 1918 much of viral science was in its infancy; in fact, that pandemic spurred much of the biological science we take for granted today. Bad news: Today’s medical folks are more worried about a repeat of 1918 because the world is so much smaller; the medicine may be better but will still lag behind the flu’s ability to move. As Science said, “Transmissibility is therefore substantially higher than seasonal flu”; cf. secondary attack rate comparison.
The significant financial cost has been covered quite well in the press IMO: billions of USD so far. This, in a world that is already fighting several military wars on several fronts AND dealing with a 1933-manqué “recession” AND where a large continent is losing a medical war with HIV/AIDS … and like that.
There is some illustrative dark humor involved with the 1918 second wave: Soon there weren’t enough healthy people in many areas to take care of the sick. Soon after, there weren’t enough living to bury the dead.
And there is another exacerbating factor, in operation continuously before and since 1918. “Crosby [below] writes: ‘All the physicians of 1918 were participants in the greatest failure of medical science in the twentieth century or, if absolute numbers of dead are the measure, of all time.’ Lest the blame be placed entirely on the medical profession, Barry [below] makes this point: ‘Back then scientists fully comprehended the threat’s magnitude, knew how to cure many secondary bacterial pneumonias, and gave public-health advice that would have saved tens of thousands of American lives. Politicians ignored that advice.’” That deadly parlay is from an Awake magazine article of 2005, “The Worst Plague in History”
References: The Great Influenza, John M. Barry, Viking 2004 America’s Forgotten Pandemic: The Influenza of 1918, Alfred W. Crosby, Cambridge U. Press, 1989
Like Ciji3, I plotz over Liō. But also like Ciji3, I didn’t laugh at this one. And if the second wave of flu is like 1918’s, a similar strip is likely to be censored by Gov’t. (Look it up.)
Wash them hands, folks. Regards, Doug