Does anyone recall the Hong Kong flu pandemic?
No? I didn't think so ....
Its been largely forgotten, but was also known as 1968 flu pandemic. It ran from 1968, through 1969 until 1970, and worldwide it killed an estimated one million people. It emerged from a H3N2 strain of the Influenza A virus, and although the first openly recorded case was in British run Hong Kong (hence the name), there was much speculation that it had originated in mainland China (where it had been hushed up .... sound familiar?), and followed on from the earlier outbreak of 'Asian Flu' in 1957/58 which also originated in China, and which had also taken one million lives.
The 1957 Asian Flu mostly killed the elderly, until a vaccine was produced by October that year (just 6 months development and testing). The 1968 outbreak had mixed impacts in the West, for instance in the divided German states of East and West, they registered 60,000 estimated deaths ascribed to the Hong Kong flu, while in some areas of France, half the workforce was laid low, and the economy was impacted.
However in those days, we didn't have the same attitudes to the reality of pandemics on the human existence that we apparently do now .... The diseases were allowed to spread through the population without restrictions on economic activity, until a vaccine became available. The Hong Kong flu vaccine was produced within four months after the outbreak started (even faster that the Asian flu vaccine).
Whilst our current sensibilities, appear to preclude governments letting the current pandemic run its natural course without taking extreme actions, the outcome appears to be following much the same pattern. Currently the worldwide death toll is approx 300,000, but given that its still developing in many third world countries, that figure will surely rise, especially as its estimated that with under reporting in many countries, the actual death toll from coronavirus may be almost 60 per cent higher.
So although the jury is still out, the review of how the world has handled this pandemic may conclude that the end outcome was no better that those earlier pandemics. Except that this time we have created a worldwide recession, and caused many millions of people worldwide to suffer greater additional hardships, such as long term debt, hunger (or even starvation), poverty and homelessness.
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| American Responses To Pandemics Are Pretty Uniform Over The Decades ....... |
No? I didn't think so ....
Its been largely forgotten, but was also known as 1968 flu pandemic. It ran from 1968, through 1969 until 1970, and worldwide it killed an estimated one million people. It emerged from a H3N2 strain of the Influenza A virus, and although the first openly recorded case was in British run Hong Kong (hence the name), there was much speculation that it had originated in mainland China (where it had been hushed up .... sound familiar?), and followed on from the earlier outbreak of 'Asian Flu' in 1957/58 which also originated in China, and which had also taken one million lives.
The 1957 Asian Flu mostly killed the elderly, until a vaccine was produced by October that year (just 6 months development and testing). The 1968 outbreak had mixed impacts in the West, for instance in the divided German states of East and West, they registered 60,000 estimated deaths ascribed to the Hong Kong flu, while in some areas of France, half the workforce was laid low, and the economy was impacted.
However in those days, we didn't have the same attitudes to the reality of pandemics on the human existence that we apparently do now .... The diseases were allowed to spread through the population without restrictions on economic activity, until a vaccine became available. The Hong Kong flu vaccine was produced within four months after the outbreak started (even faster that the Asian flu vaccine).
Whilst our current sensibilities, appear to preclude governments letting the current pandemic run its natural course without taking extreme actions, the outcome appears to be following much the same pattern. Currently the worldwide death toll is approx 300,000, but given that its still developing in many third world countries, that figure will surely rise, especially as its estimated that with under reporting in many countries, the actual death toll from coronavirus may be almost 60 per cent higher.
So although the jury is still out, the review of how the world has handled this pandemic may conclude that the end outcome was no better that those earlier pandemics. Except that this time we have created a worldwide recession, and caused many millions of people worldwide to suffer greater additional hardships, such as long term debt, hunger (or even starvation), poverty and homelessness.
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