If you read the entirety of my posting yesterday, this is a repeat (with minor augmentations) of a historical tale of relevance that appeared towards the end. Why am I doing this? The subject matter is so important that I want you to share it with your family and friends. What astounded me is that I've written about each of the following pandemics and never realized how they were connected and how quickly even I forgot. I'll begin with an important transition period for me, the 1957-58 period when I left Hawaii to fly away to college.
I've long forgotten this, but there was the H2N2 Asian Avian Flu Pandemic in 1957-58. You absolutely won't believe the following:- Up to 4 million were killed, and was a health threat to those UNDER 50. Our present pandemic is especially deadly for the elderly. How can two viral infections be so different?
- There was no economic upheaval, no one in the U.S. wore masks. Few even knew there was a pandemic. I certainly was not aware, and was traveling away from Hawaii for the first time.
This Asian Flu originated in Guizhou, China, which is about 600 miles from Wuhan City.- The population of the world in 1957 was 2.9 billion.
- Today, 7.8 billion.
- Thus, on a per capita basis, the extrapolated deaths number would have been nearly 11 million.
- How many have died so far from this COVID-19 virus? A total of 2.6 million deaths. It's possible that this total could double by the end of the pandemic, but probably won't.
- What made the 2020 pandemic so serious?
How long did it take to develop the H2/N2 vaccine way back more than 60 years ago? FOUR MONTHS!!! This vaccine ended the pandemic. Remember this name: Maurice Hilleman of the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research. I urge you, read that link!!! Here today we had the entire scientific world attempting to develop a vaccine. Hilleman and his team did it alone.
- The exact origin was never reported, but it certainly was somewhere in China during the Cultural Revolution, so records were sparse.
- American troops returning from the Vietnam War brought the virus to the U.S.
- Again, globally, up to 4 million died.
- AGAIN, FOUR MONTHS LATER A NEW VACCINE WAS DEVELOPED. This ended the pandemic. Who did this? Maurice Hilleman.
- The H3N2 virus (right--certainly looks like a coronavirus) returns every year as part of the seasonal flu.
- The annual flu shot usually prevents two type A's (H1N1 and H3N2) and two type B's. No effect on the coronavirus.
- H1N1 caused the Spanish Flu of 1918.
This is getting somewhat technical for a Saturday, but just to be more complete:
- There are four types of influenza viruses: A, B, C and D
- A and B are responsible for the seasonal flu, but only type A causes pandemics
- here is where those H (hemaggulutin) and N (neuraminidase) come into play
- there are 18 different H subtypes
- 11 different N's
- 198 different combinations possible, but "only" 131 subtypes have been detected
- C is mild
- D mainly affects cattle
- However, it is not as simple as stated above, for there are also lineages, clades and sub-clades:
- A finer definition exists, but only for those in the medical field:
- COVID-19 is a coronavirus and is distinctly different from the type A and B viruses.
- You can catch COVID-19 and the flu at the same time.
- Next, that dreaded H1N1 virus.
The H1N1 virus caused the Spanish Flu in 1918-20. The Big One, where about a third of the world population got infected, and 50 million died. Remember, COVID-19 world deaths so far are only just bit above 2.5 million. And the number of people then on Planet Earth was only 1.8 billion. I'm repeating myself, but today, 7.7 billion. Do you remember when this virus returned and caused a more recent pandemic?
Of course you don't. We forget so quickly. IT WAS IN 2009 THAT H1N1 RETURNED AS THE SWINE FLU TO CAUSE A PANDEMIC AND INFECT UP TO 1.4 BILLION!! Want to guess how many COVID-19 cases so far? 0.16 billion. HOW EASILY WE FORGET. You would think that the world would panic, for this was the same virus that killed 50 million a century before. No mask, no jobs lost.
So what happened in 2020 that uplifted just a coronavirus outbreak into something beyond the pale? Since 2009 SOCIAL MEDIA matured into a powerful force that apparently went out of control. CLEARLY, SOME SERIOUS THOUGHT NEEDS TO BE GIVEN TO WHAT HUMANITY WILL DO WHEN THE NEXT POTENTIAL PANDEMIC COMES ALONG! It could well be a variant of a coronavirus or a type A. But that's irrelevant. How can science, society and politics work together in a cohesive manner to control the next pandemic? I think part of the solution is suggested in my Huffington Post article of a decade ago: A Pandemic Worse Than the Swine Flu. I blamed the media then, more in jest. This time I think they, in the form of social media, caused the pandemonium.
Changing subjects, did you know that the ten most dangerous cities are located geographically below the USA? Oh well, this is a Saturday, so let me end with a few maps we get in our e-mail from friends. The first one shows how Brazil has so many homicides that their number equals that of all those blue countries, combined. Just deleted Brazil from my next around the world journey, plus anything south of the U.S.
How large is Australia?
The population in each below segment is the same:
Finally, here is a lady who has lived a full life. Lucile Randon, or Sister Andre of France, survived the 1918 Spanish Flu Pandemic, but unfortunately caught COVID-19. At the age of 117, the second oldest person in the world to Kane Tanaka of Japan. She tested positive in mid-January. However, she was luckily asymptomatic. For her latest birthday she enjoyed a feast of Champagne, red wine and port. Hmm...sounds like me. These went with foie gras and a capon (castrated rooster) with fragrant mushrooms. Just like me. She skipped dessert and had a nap. Wow, me again.
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