Post #426,816
12/16/18 4:27:52 PM
12/16/18 4:27:52 PM
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The 'Spanish Flu" epidemic post WW-I..which few young-uns have heard of..
on npr, natch:
On The Media
Plague of Suspicion
It’s been 100 years since one of the deadliest diseases... well, ever. The 1918-1919 flu pandemic (usually and mistakenly called the “Spanish Flu”) infected roughly a third of the world’s population and killed somewhere on the order of 50-100 million people, leaving no corner of the world untouched. It came just as the world was beginning its recovery from the other global catastrophe of the time — the First World War. The pandemic is sometimes referred to as the “Forgotten Plague” because the extent of the devastation wasn’t realized at the time, and it’s been missing from most history books since. This week On the Media looks back at what happened and ask: could it, would it happen again?
Add-to-list of the fallout from the dis-U.S.'s dive into the depths of the Id and promotion of the most execrable-specimen of 'man-Un-Kind' into a position to dismantle (even U.S. "Democracy"-pretense) --> towards Universal Nihilism ... at the most crucial time in the homo-sap-history of Planetary mindless- greed-driven exploitation. Can a similar strain of Pandemic-scale re-appear, within the unaffordable-medicine tribes amongst a majority of the over-Population worldwide? W.T.F. does You thimk, Bunkie?
(Just keep-on buying those Lamborghinis, three at a time): in the heavily-gated compounds where All the planetary 'money' is stashed like cordwood, moved around like Chess pieces: to Keep It That Way™©®, perhaps the planet's most hilarious Comedo-Tragedy yet choreographed ..for a Grande Finale. Though, most improbably-of-all: it Could be a Renaissance of reform ...but who??s 'banking' on That? Gots my popcorn; can still do a riff on Taps on the er, 'conical-bore cornet' ..but guitars can take a stab, too. (Maybe Cthulhu shall intercede--keep his fav amusement fed?--and turn all the gold-ingots in vaults: into Big-Macs®--starting to rot immediately? ;^>
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Post #426,820
12/16/18 7:04:18 PM
12/16/18 7:04:18 PM
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Deaths were very uneven by age and demographics . . .
. . and the world wasn't recovering from WWI. It as the Spanish Flu hitting Germany's army first that forced them to call it quits, when victory had seemed near.
It is now understood that a vast number of deaths were not from the flu, but from the treatment favored at the time. It was thought at the time that fever must be suppressed. The patent on Aspirin had run out, so it was then very cheap, and it was used in incredible amounts to suppress fever - amounts that would be considered absolutely criminal today.
Today, physicians know that fever is the body's first line of defense, and extremely important for recovery. It should only be discouraged if it exceeds 104°F, or if it stays at that level for several days.
It is now recognized, that a large number of people died not of the flu, but of a type of pneumonia that left blood in the lungs - a type of pneumonia now known to be a symptom of aspirin overdose.
It has also been noted that the death rate among children was much lower than for young adults - and that aspirin was not approved for younger children so not used.
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Post #426,829
12/17/18 8:37:20 PM
12/17/18 8:37:20 PM
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Understood might be a bit strong
The only study linking aspirine to increased mortality related to he Spanish Flu is a 2009 study by Karen Starko, MD. It is uncorroberated and applies only to the US. (See https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/50/8/1203/451446)India serves as a useful vignette. Mortality in India was staggering, with estimates of 18.5 million persons dead [3] and higher [4]. Indeed, the Indian peasant population was so severely affected that economics Nobel laureate Theodore W. Schultz used the pandemic as a natural experiment in per capita agricultural output [5]. Given the huge number of deaths in India and the burden among subsistence agricultural workers, it is extremely implausible that salicylates played an exacerbating role in anything other than a trivial percentage of Indian mortality.
Thus, Starko's intriguing hypothesis fails the test of dose-response. That is to say, in countries such as the United States, where salicylates were more available, mortality was much lower compared with regions where salicylates were less readily available. Continental European period newspaper articles describe an extreme quick progression from onset of symptoms to death. It went so fast, doctors had no time to do anything. https://anderetijden.nl/aflevering/620/De-Spaanse-GriepAanvankelijk lijkt de ziekte op een gewone griep. Maar razendsnel ontwikkelen de patiënten een viskeuze longontsteking. Twee uur na opname hebben ze al roodbruine vlekken op hun jukbeenderen en een paar uur later zie je al hoe de blauwzucht zich vanaf de oren over het hele gezicht verspreidt….De dood laat dan nog slechts een paar uur op zich wachten At onset, the disease resembles a common flu. But patients develop a viscuous pneumonia extremely quickly. Two hours after admission, they already have redbrown discoloration at the cheekbones and a couple of hours later you can observe cyanosis starting at the ears and covering the entire face... Death then arrives within a few hours At that speed, the cause is the virus, not an opportunistic bacterial infection or other external factor. Doctors could do nothing. The Spanish Flu was H1N1. The 2009 H1N1 outbreak was also more severe in young adults when compared to other age groups (with aspirine not being on the radar anymore.)
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Post #426,830
12/17/18 9:17:31 PM
12/17/18 9:17:31 PM
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anecdotal, in the village of hooper bay a coast guard ship visited and was blamed for the following
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts" – Richard Feynman
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Post #426,846
12/19/18 7:27:44 AM
12/19/18 7:27:44 AM
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Also appears that is how we know it was H1N1
The virus was preserved in the body of an Inuit woman buried in permafrost.
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Post #426,831
12/17/18 9:24:33 PM
12/17/18 9:24:33 PM
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Captain Trips
Regards,
-scott
Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson.
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Post #426,845
12/19/18 1:03:10 AM
12/19/18 1:03:10 AM
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Among the living
>is caught in a mosh<
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Post #426,833
12/17/18 11:14:45 PM
12/17/18 11:14:45 PM
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Coincidentally, just had my first pneumonia shot today.
But, it does take a couple weeks or more to fully kick in. And I've had my flu shot a few weeks ago. So, please hold up the epidemic for a bit! :) Alex
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
-- Isaac Asimov
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