Quote:
Originally Posted by Bushrat
I must have heard the words world wide Swine flue pandemic on the news everyday for the last 4 days. I take exception to the media fearmongering. The last real pandemic was the 1918 spanish flue influenza pandemic killed between 20 and 40 million people in a year, more than 4 times as many as the 4 year black plague of the 1300's. This swine flue has been around for 2 weeks and you guys are right the WHO has not called it a pandemic yet the media goes on like we're on the verge of disaster. The use of the words 'pandemic' and 'World Health Org' in the same news clip, often the same sentence leads folks to believe they had declared such. ........anyway my rant still stands that the WHO while it's a necessary organization has too many generals and not enough soldiers, too much high living at the top while the WHO doctor in the camp somewhere with all the starving and sick has no medicine. Rant over.  |
Wrong Bush.
1. the black plague didn't develop into a killer of millions over three days. Or even three weeks.
2. The last pandemic was not the spanish flu.
Flu pandemics since 1918:
# The "Asian Flu", 1957–58. An H2N2 caused about 70,000 deaths in the United States. First identified in China in late February 1957, the Asian flu spread to the United States by June 1957. It caused about 2 million deaths globally.[33]
# The "Hong Kong Flu", 1968–69. An H3N2 caused about 34,000 deaths in the United States. This virus was first detected in Hong Kong in early 1968, and spread to the United States later that year. This pandemic of 1968 and 1969 killed an estimated one million people worldwide.[34] Influenza A (H3N2) viruses still circulate today.
AIDS (remember that one?)
Main article: AIDS pandemic
HIV went directly from Africa to Haiti, then spread to the United States and much of the rest of the world beginning around 1969.[39] HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is currently a pandemic, with infection rates as high as 25% in southern and eastern Africa. In 2006 the HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women in South Africa was 29.1%.[40] Effective education about safer sexual practices and bloodborne infection precautions training have helped to slow down infection rates in several African countries sponsoring national education programs. Infection rates are rising again in Asia and the Americas. AIDS could kill 31 million people in India and 18 million in China by 2025, according to projections by U.N. population researchers.[41] AIDS death toll in Africa may reach 90-100 million by 2025.[42]
How about smallpox?
Smallpox
Smallpox is a highly contagious disease caused by the Variola virus. The disease killed an estimated 400,000 Europeans each year during the 18th century.[43] During the 20th century, it is estimated that smallpox was responsible for 300–500 million deaths.[44][45] As recently as early 1950s an estimated 50 million cases of smallpox occurred in the world each year.[46] After successful vaccination campaigns throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the WHO certified the eradication of smallpox in December 1979. To this day, smallpox is the only human infectious disease to have been completely eradicated.[47]
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Measles, Tuberculosis, Leprosy.
At least check Wikipedia (although there are other more detailed and credible sources) before you set out your "facts" to try to downplay an issue.
This flu may fizzle out to nothing (Like SARS did). However, it does have the POTENTIAL to be a major problem. So, although panic is not called for (never really is), caution is probably prudent. If nothing else, educate yourself about the issue (step 1= turn off the t.v. and stop listening to Rutherford).
