Replies

There used to be a freeper who posted here as ‘Mother Abigail’.

She was a retired CDC scientist who studied fun stuff like Ebola and the other hemorrhagic fevers. In fact we learned from her that fruit bats would be the reservoir for Ebola, long before that fact hit the news wires.

Anyway influenza was also one of her interests. It may have been her major interest. She was following and mapping any reported outbreaks.

She told us that recombinant animal/human flus are extremely dangerous, capable of inflicting a near-extinction event. So when you hear “avian flu” or “swine flu” pay attention, those are the flus that she was warning about.

The 1918 Flu was one such flu. It likely started in rural western Kansas and spread across the globe with our soldiers. It killed more people than World War One.

Hybrid flus leverage your immune system against you, and unlike most normal flus they will kill the young and strong. The cytokine storm it stimulates in your bloodstream can drown you in your own antibodies, or otherwise shut down your organs, and kill you in just hours.

So people can reject vaccines and take their chances if they want. Pretty sure Mother Abigail wouldn’t recommend that route.

The 1918 Flu was one such flu. It likely started in rural western Kansas and spread across the globe with our soldiers. It killed more people than World War One.

“unlike most normal flus they will kill the young and strong.”

We saw a TV special recently where this was discussed. They said with a certain flu the strongest people with the best immune systems were dropping like flies. Something like the flu virus hooking up with the strong immune system and making the virus stronger. It was a scary documentary.

She was a retired CDC scientist who studied fun stuff like Ebola and the other hemorrhagic fevers. In fact we learned from her that fruit bats would be the reservoir for Ebola, long before that fact hit the news wires. Anyway influenza was also one of her interests. It may have been her major interest. She was following and mapping any reported outbreaks. She told us that recombinant animal/human flus are extremely dangerous, capable of inflicting a near-extinction event. So when you hear “avian flu” or “swine flu” pay attention, those are the flus that she was warning about. The 1918 Flu was one such flu. It likely started in rural western Kansas and spread across the globe with our soldiers. It killed more people than World War One.

During the Ebola scare, I called a friend down in Infectious Diseases (I was a long-term Federal contractor for the CDC), and I asked him, "Is ebola the threat the press makes it out to be?"

He laughed and replied "No!"

I expressed relief and was about to hang up, when he said, "However...."

I listened.

"However, if you want nightmares, I have one for you. China is presently trying to weaponized H7N9, the very deadly bird flu. They are trying to make it easily human-spread, and it has a mortality rate of 30%. That means 1/3 of the population of the world will die, if this thing goes airborne. Devastating to society. We'd probably collapse into a global third-world status, which would kill many more."

I gasped. He went on:

"We've been BEGGING them not to play with this dangerous bug, but they won't listen."

Yeah, I had some nightmares after that conversation.