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Gun Smoke
04-11-2020, 08:01
Note: I didn't refer to it as the chink virus in the heading.

The Spanish flu or the 1918 flu ended about as quickly as it appeared. No cure was ever developed. It is said that it only stopped because everyone who was susceptible to catching it DID. 1/4 to 1/3rd of the worlds population was infected and as many as 100 million died from it.

Now we have this chink virus which has different strains I hear and different symptoms in people--sometimes no symptoms. No vaccine has been developed yet and if/when that occurs it may not work for everyone.

I've watched a couple of documentaries recently on the 1918 flu. Both films were made around 1998 and ended with the sentiment of "with all the advances in technology and medical discoveries we can be assured that nothing like this will ever occur again". Since then we've had the SARS epidemic and others plus this "chink virus" that no one saw coming. Not us anyway.

Thoughts:

I wonder if mosquitos can transmit this. If so the government will not acknowledge it.

Can these viruses that have no cure come around again and if a vaccine is discovered can the virus be immune to it via different strains?

Can this even become a seasonal recurrence?

With little (hardly any) testing how many will carry this flu so that it never, in fact dies out? This includes animals that catch it and definitely aren't tested, plus those animals that live in the wild. So far it has been found in dogs, cats and a tiger at the Bronx zoo.

From all that I hear I conclude that this is like a typical flu. Most who catch it get over it. Those that have existing health conditions or who are very weak may die from it. I read that it is a painful death mostly affecting the lungs. You either smother to death or drown due to the lungs filling with fluid. Those who die, die alone since they are in confinement.

Not the best way to leave this world.

S.A. Boggs
04-11-2020, 08:24
The only thing we know for sure it that we don't know. IMHO this must be looked at as a long time issue and plan accordingly. The economy MUST BE REOPENED in some way or who will survive?
I wish I had some glimmer of an answer as the only thing I can do is what I can do in my AO.
Sam

togor
04-11-2020, 02:16
A couple things.

The CDC has a web page describing the reconstituted 1918 influenza virus. It was lethal for the combination of genes, not because humans had never seen something like it before. People over 40 had lower mortality, indicating it was a rerun for them.

This new virus is not influenza, and is novel. Some immune systems just don't handle it well. Immune response is a delicate balance, and there's no guarantees that even a young person won't get seriously damaged or killed by it.

Any disease that gets deep into the lungs is a concern because of the ramifications of inflammation.