That might sound like a weird and morbid title, but we have had pandemics before in this country and they have taken millions of lives over the years.
During the influenza pandemic of 1918, otherwise known as the “Spanish Flu,” between 20 and 50 million people died. The worst hit demographic was adults between the ages of 20 and 40. In Maine, Cadillac hearses roamed the streets because there were so many people dying from the Spanish flu. Some of the ports along Maine’s coast were quarantined to help contain the virus and funerals could only last for 10 minutes because there were so many that it created a shortage of resources. In addition, there was a shortage of nurses and doctors in relation to those affected by the sickness, making matters even worse.
There are several similarities between that pandemic and the current swine flu. Some are saying today’s influenza virus is not going to be as bad as it was nearly 100 years ago while others are predicting the worst. Those are the people saying businesses will shut down because there will not be enough healthy people to work and millions of people could die as a result of the swine flu. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
No comments:
Post a Comment