Posted on 06/29/2013 7:27:20 AM PDT by LibWhacker
A scary virus is sweeping Saudi Arabia. Six million religious pilgrims are about to descend on the country from across the world. The result could be disastrous.
When the Black Death exploded in Arabia in the 14th century, killing an estimated third of the population, it spread across the Islamic world via infected religious pilgrims. Today, the Middle East is threatened with a new plague, one eponymously if not ominously named the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV, or MERS for short). This novel coronavirus was discovered in Jordan in March 2012, and as of June 26, there have been 77 laboratory-confirmed infections, 62 of which have been in Saudi Arabia; 34 of these Saudi patients have died.
Although the numbers -- so far -- are small, the disease is raising anxiety throughout the region. But officials in Saudi Arabia are particularly concerned.
This fall, millions of devout Muslims will descend upon Mecca, Medina, and Saudi Arabia's holy sites in one of the largest annual migrations in human history. In 2012, approximately 6 million pilgrims came through Saudi Arabia to perform the rituals associated with umrah, and this number is predicted to rise in 2013. Umrah literally means "to visit a populated place," and it's the very proximity that has health officials so worried. In Mecca alone, millions of pilgrims will fulfill the religious obligation of circling the Kaaba. And having a large group of people together in a single, fairly confined space threatens to turn the holiest site in Islam into a massive petri dish.
(Excerpt) Read more at foreignpolicy.com ...
Not. One. Dime.
Let it be Allah’s will!
Hmmm...end times....God’s justice?
Has the State Dept already begun seeking out
those infected ... to bring in as nurses and
caretakers at US hospitals?
What was that about ‘Sowing and Reaping”?
Insallah! Allahu akbar!
Just a warm up! It’s going to get better!
“Has the State Dept already begun seeking out
those infected ... to bring in as nurses and
caretakers at US hospitals?”
I don’t know, but I’m sure Bill Gates is interested in such an idea.
Well ..... that story has a happy ending.
For “us” anyway.
Time for Zer0 to jump on AF1 and pay these poor people a visit.
Plague spread by Muslims....Now I stay 200 feet away from any I see.
Aw, heck. There goes the vacation to Mecca I was planning.
Did Mohammed sell trinkets or something in Mecca under another name?
Good idea. Shrapnel can carry germs.
Nature is obviously islamophobic.
The known mortality rates at the outset of a novel disease are always stated to be absurdly high. This is simply because no one knows how many people have actually been infected. The large majority of those infected will never go to the hospital and are certainly not in any early statistics.
Consider the very high mortality rates in early reports during the 2009 H1N1 “pandemic”. After the disease had run its course it was found that the mortality rate was 0.03%.
Not really, Coming to an Arab near you too!
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