Wednesday April 29 (Swine Flu) President Obama will be celebrating (Swine Flu) his first 100 days in office (Swine Flu) and that’s the only thing everybody is going to be talking about… with one possible exception (Swine flu).
Okay… We at USDemocrazy admit that we have been thinking rather a lot of late about the dreaded Swine Flu and the prospects of a nasty pandemic.
We at USDemocrazy also have to admit that up until 2 days ago, we did not know what a pandemic was…
Now after copius amount of research, punctuated by bouts of nail biting, we know a healthy unhealthy amount on the subject.
We have learned about great pandemics of the past. There was the Spanish Influenza of 1918-1919 that spread to every continent and killed an estimated (better sit down for this one) 50 million people. (More than World War One!)
More recently, there was the Asian Flu (1957-58) and the Hong Kong Flu (1968-69) that had only 70,000 and 34,000 deaths in the USA respectively.
The good news is the world is much better prepared today to contain flu outbreaks than ever before. There is more information and medical knowledge available to stem the spread of a disease and care for those afflicted. Groups like the World Health Organization (WHO) help direct international efforts to tackle any outbreak.
However there is one modern bug-a-boo… air travel. The spread of affordable international travel means flu bugs can get a free fast ride around the globe.
After reading and learning lots about the current Swine Flu concern (we were instructed not to use the word PANIC), we are feeling much better about the whole thing.
It appears there is no pandemic yet… and there is no need to worry… just yet.
Now we just are hoping that our fingernails will grow back!
