As one who is really knocked on his ass by UR infections (flu and colds) I
am very aware of hygiene and also old enough to remember when if you had a
cold you did not go out in public. Or if you were a kid in a movie theater
with a cold the usher took you outside. Or if someone coughed in public,
people would look and ask quietly if they had TB. I also remember the Polio
summers. Today most people have personal hygiene that would embarrass a pig
and think nothing of exposing others to their colds and flu's. The spanish
flu (1914?) killed a third of the human population (someone correct me on
the numbers).
It would appear we are building the human density, transportation to spread
disease and a lack of hygiene that will set us up for another "spanish flu"
event.
In future history, 911 will be a footnote.
Ralph
At 10:10 AM 10/18/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>Ralph Lewis wrote:
>>
>> Bouvier & Grant in "How Many Americans?" , a Sierra Club Book (not noted as
>> a right wing organization!) give a rough estimate of a substantiable
>> population for the US as 180 million. We are at what over 250 million now? I
>> doubt if even the worst anthrax bio war would get the number that far down!
>
>280 million or so Americans at present, plus 9-30 million illegal
>immigrants, plus 300 million temporary visitors annually (mostly
>Canadians and Mexicans).
>
>While Anthrax wouldn't likely hurt that bad, a good runaway smallpox
>attack could wipe out a third of the population. Note that few Americans
>under 25 have been immunized against smallpox, and normal smallpox
>vaccines have limited efficacy against some weaponized smallpox
>variants.
>
>On that score, Bush is proposing spending $1.5 billion to build up a
>stock of 300 million doses of smallpox vaccine. This many doses should
>be effective against a major attack that initially infected several
>thousand people or more (or multiple attacks).
>
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