The year 1876 start of Hopkins University, is one of the rare moments where the scientific approach started preparing the U.S. for the modern world’s challenges. Yet big chunk of our population still lingers in the 19-century approach disregarding scientific knowledge. No wonder so many of us do not believe in natural diseases, preferring conspiracy theories. Observing popular culture is not hard to conclude. I think the reason our public is more susceptible to it is, in general, disregard for intellectuals and knowledge.
Yet, there are several Viruses, pandemics not yet invading our reality but waiting to happen.
Nipah Virus (From bats), listed currently as one of the 10 most dangerous viruses, has a 10% survival rate and 45 days incubation rate. Already experienced on a few occasions in Malaysia, Bangladesh, and India with fatal consequences for humans.
There are more like, for example, MERS – Middle Easter Respiratory Disease 10- times more deadly than Cove 19 first experienced in Saudi Arabia in 2012, 4 different swine flu viruses with the potential to develop the ability to infect humans, MARBURG VIRUS DISEASE, EBOLA, LASSA FEVER, SARS, ZIKA, CRIMEAN-CONGO HAEMORRHAGIC FEVER, RIFT VALLEY FEVER, MONKEYPOX, and many more.
1918 Influenza with estimated worldwide death tool between 50-100 million was erased from collective memory. Nobody is talking about priests cruising the street of Philadelphia in horse-powered wagons announcing the public to bring out their dead. Bloody nose bleeds are not part of today’s reality.
The first cholera pandemic (1817–24) began near Calcutta and spread throughout Southeast Asia to the Middle East, eastern Africa, and the Mediterranean coast.
The second cholera pandemic (1826–1837), also known as the Asiatic cholera pandemic, reached from India across western Asia to Europe, Great Britain, the Americas, and east to China and Japan.
1855. Wikipedia: “The third plague pandemic was a major bubonic plague pandemic that began in Yunnan, China, in 1855 during the fifth year of the Xianfeng Emperor of the Qing dynasty. This episode of bubonic plague spread to all inhabited continents and ultimately led to more than 12 million (perhaps 15 million) deaths in India and China, with about 10 million killed in India alone, making it one of the deadliest pandemics in history.”
Please do not forget the 1866 cholera outbreak in New York and many other cities.
And the fact that Cellular Connection, WI-FI, and 5G blamed by some for today Cove 19 could not have such explanation hundred or more years ago. The high speed of the 19-century new invention Steam locomotives in Great Britain over 20 miles per hour did not prevent pregnancies, and Early Trains Were Thought to Make Women’s Uteruses Fly Out.
So WEAR THE MASK!
The top Image credit “An 1883 illustration of the Grim Reaper draped in a cloth labeled “cholera,” arriving in America on a British ship. Bettmann / Bettmann Archive”