Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Why hasn't the US eradicated the plague?
BBC News ^ | 15 October 2015 | Vanessa Barford

Posted on 10/15/2015 4:54:02 AM PDT by WhiskeyX

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-78 next last
To: MARKUSPRIME

Yeah, it is a pretty dumb question.


21 posted on 10/15/2015 5:16:25 AM PDT by skeeter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: camle

“i understand that the plague is not only very rare in the USA, but relatively easily treated, and cured. we have bigger fish to fry.”

It isn’t the current form of the plague which is worrisome. Researchers recently discovered what made the plague deadly enough to wipe out a third of all humans on the Earth and more. It turns out that there is a single gene which gets turned on every so often that makes the plague super destructive. It is only a matter of time before this gene switch will take place in the wild again. When it does so, a single organism is capable of rapidly infecting whole human populations in days. Given the modern transportation systems, another of these super-plagues could begin the destruction of more than half of all human beings on the Earth before quarantines can stop the spread of the disease.


22 posted on 10/15/2015 5:18:33 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: heartwood
Can’t lay this one on the Mexican/Central American/Mestizos/Indios.

Agreed. The plague is an old-world disease. My point is more general: We will be seeing many more disease outbreaks now that there are no border controls.

As you know, Ellis Island had health inspectors. They were able to catch at least some problems.

23 posted on 10/15/2015 5:18:39 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Tax-chick

Fleas....it’s the fleas..(I think)...


24 posted on 10/15/2015 5:21:31 AM PDT by unread (Joe McCarthy was right.......)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX

Probably for the same reason it hasn’t “eradicated” influenza, measles and other infectious diseases. Actually, however, even if plague hasn’t been eradicated, it’s been brought under control to the extent that it’s extremely rare, and never the result of poor sanitation, malnutrition and the proliferation of the species that carry it.


25 posted on 10/15/2015 5:22:53 AM PDT by Mr Ramsbotham (Sanders/Cruz in 2016!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX
The moon landing, the current absence of a lunar program and the resurgence of third world diseases are all driven by politics.

26 posted on 10/15/2015 5:23:10 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (I'd rather have Unequal Wealth than Equal Poverty.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX

Agenda 21 - they might need it, some day.


27 posted on 10/15/2015 5:35:54 AM PDT by Mr. Jeeves (Heteropatriarchal Capitalist)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX

There are thousands more cases of debilitating LYME disease in the country and yet almost nothing is being allotted to fight that.


28 posted on 10/15/2015 5:36:46 AM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like it)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: heartwood
Can’t lay this one on the Mexican/Central American/Mestizos/Indios.

What occured in the past was fixed in the past. Currently, the diseases are brought in from the outside, just like before, but by a different set of people who didn't fix their problem in the past.

29 posted on 10/15/2015 5:39:49 AM PDT by GingisK
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Mr Ramsbotham

Think again. See this prior FreeRepublic post and go to the source article.

The Mutant Genes Behind the Black Death
Quanta Magazine ^ | 10/6/15 | Carrie Arnold
Posted on ;PM by LibWhacker
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3346880/posts

Once this bactria changes a gene or two again as it has in the past, it could get out of control and almost immediately produce yet another pandemic far beyond the mortality experienced by all the past human plagues combined.


30 posted on 10/15/2015 5:40:03 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX

We need the plague. It is natures way of keeping the surpluss population down.


31 posted on 10/15/2015 5:41:54 AM PDT by Autonomous User (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX

Well how about this one. For the last 50 years we have spent untold 100’s of Billions on Cancer research and have no cure or even a vaccine. Why is that?

Think about just who would lose out if there was something to control or eradicate cancer. Cancer is Big Business and without it a lot of Doctors, Treatment Centers, Hospitals, Etc., would be out of business.

I no longer contribute any monies to any of these charities that promote cancer research as I don’t know where the money is going. If you look at these big outfits their expenses are unreal, and look at what these people who run these places make in salary and benefits.

After 50 plus years of research we should be a lot further along than we are.


32 posted on 10/15/2015 5:44:19 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: An.American.Expatriate

Because the disease is endemic everywhere but Australia. It is a problem for the United States because it is also endemic in the United States, and the United States cannot escape the consequences of a new outbreak of the Black Death in the Old World or the New World.


33 posted on 10/15/2015 5:47:28 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX

Because when you can’t stop human beings from jumping the border from Mexico, how you gonna keep the rats out?


34 posted on 10/15/2015 5:58:25 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX

Up in the San Gabriels there are BLM campsites with warning signs not to fuss with rodents, because some are plague carriers.

To eliminate plague you’d either eliminate the rodents, or somehow prevent them from getting close to people.


35 posted on 10/15/2015 6:03:18 AM PDT by DBrow
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX

Eradicated? They elected a plague twice!


36 posted on 10/15/2015 6:05:45 AM PDT by xp38
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: heartwood
... so maybe the desert is more its home, in its low virulence form.

I'm given to understand that when the Great Plague hit Europe, it was during a time of suddenly-colder-and-wetter weather.

(as an aside, apparently induced by a sudden dearth of sunspots)

37 posted on 10/15/2015 6:08:01 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX

We have prairie dogs.


38 posted on 10/15/2015 6:09:25 AM PDT by Lion Den Dan
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: WhiskeyX
Why do we have the plague in the first place?

Credit where credit is due:

In the 1850's there was a Plague outbreak in San Fransisco's Chinatown.

It was detected early on by a local physician, who promptly reported it to City Hall, and recommended a rat catching program, quarantine, and general clean up of the area.

The city fathers refused to acknowledge that there was Plague in their fair city. It festered until the problem could no longer be ignored, and finally a cleanup of Chinatown was instituted.

But by then Plague had spread from the rats to the ground squirrel population. Now one can be exposed to the Plague anywhere in the western US.

Feel free to draw parallels to any more recent plagues...

39 posted on 10/15/2015 6:18:19 AM PDT by null and void (Reality 1, Liberal Academics 0)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Captain Peter Blood

“Well how about this one. For the last 50 years we have spent untold 100’s of Billions on Cancer research and have no cure or even a vaccine. Why is that?”

You are basing your conclusions upon a gross misunderstanding of about what cancer is and the forms of medicine that can treat cancer. A vaccine is a weaker form of an infectious disease organism that can be used to stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies capable of destroying those malicious infectious organisms. Cancer is not an infectious organism, so there is no cancer organism to be prepared in a weaker form to produce a vaccine.

Instead, cancer is a medical condition where the body’s own cells begin to grow abnormally and can spread the malformed cells to other parts of the body. When this incorrect cell growth reaches a point where they affect critical bodily functions, health can be impaired or death can result. Because there are so many different types of cells which can undergo cancerous cell growth as a result if still countless different reasons ranging from exposure to natural and artificial radiation, exposures to carcinogenic chemicals, environmental conditions, and natural cellular mutations, each type of cancer must be researched for its own treatment and cure. This is why there is a vast research effort underway, because there are a multitude of different types of cancers and potential avenues of finding treatments and cures for each kind of cancer.

You should also note that it is untrue to say there is no cure for cancer. There are some forms of cancer where all of this research has finally discovered ways of treating and even stopping the cancerous cell growth.


40 posted on 10/15/2015 6:22:39 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-78 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson