Influenza Author Says Swine Flu 'Can't Be Contained'

[RamboLiberal]

NEW ORLEANS -- As the swine flu grows near what the World Health Organization would call an official pandemic, one New Orleans author sees real similarities between this latest health concern and one of the worst outbreaks of the past 100 years.

The Great Influenza of 1918 killed more than 50 million people worldwide and 675,000 in the United States alone. John Barry spent years documenting the virus for his New York Times bestseller "The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History."

"If this does become a pandemic virus, it will find you," Barry said Wednesday from his home in New Orleans. "Every place is equally vulnerable."

Barry said the current outbreak of swine flu, or H1N1, is already demonstrating that it could soon reach pandemic levels.

http://www.wdsu.com/news/19325850/detail.html

[kestrel91316]

1. It may not be containable, but it may not be virulent enough for us to

care, either.

We need a lot more hard numbers on how many infected, and case fatality rate before I get all het up.

[RamboLiberal]

2. There's a lesson in the 1918 flu

The Unfolding of the Pandemic:

The pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred in three waves. The first wave had occurred when mild influenza erupted in the late spring and summer of 1918. The second wave occurred with an outbreak of severe influenza in the fall of 1918 and the final wave occurred in the spring of 1919.

In its wake, the pandemic would leave about twenty million dead across the world. In America alone, about 675,000 people in a population of 105 million would die from the disease.

http://1918.pandemicflu.gov/the_pandemic/01.htm

It may go somewhat dormant over the summer and erupt more virulently in the fall.

[kestrel91316]

4. I'm gonna need to conserve my worrying. I'll have plenty to do in the fall,

if it acts like the 1918 bug.

[FiveGoodMen]

3. Neither can the common cold