Posted on 03/18/2020 9:01:45 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
In all of the hysteria we are seeing I think it behooves us to look back at two Pandemics that have happened in the last 65 years that were worse than this, worse than the Swine Flu, SARS, AND MERS in terms of people infected and deaths from it.
1957-1958 Pandemic (H2N2 virus)
In February 1957, a new influenza A (H2N2) virus emerged in East Asia, triggering a pandemic (“Asian Flu”). This H2N2 virus was comprised of three different genes from an H2N2 virus that originated from an avian influenza A virus, including the H2 hemagglutinin and the N2 neuraminidase genes. It was first reported in Singapore in February 1957, Hong Kong in April 1957, and in coastal cities in the United States in summer 1957. The estimated number of deaths was 1.1 million worldwide and 116,000 in the United States. Number infected in U.S. not quite known but was undoubtedly 50 to 60 Million.
THE 1968 HONG KONG FLU PANDEMIC In reading the following you will that this was a very dangerous flu epidemic that has some characteristics to the Cornavirus in terms of contagion . An estimated 70 million people were infected in just the U.S. and there were over 214,000 deaths here and about 1 to 2 Million worldwide. I don’t remember a panic and the hysteria we are seeing now, then again there was no social media to fan to flames.
Hong Kong flu of 1968, also called Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968, global outbreak of influenza that originated in China in July 1968 and lasted until 1969–70. The outbreak was the third influenza pandemic to occur in the 20th century; it followed the Asian flu pandemic of 1957 and the influenza pandemic of 1918–19 (also called Spanish flu). The Hong Kong flu resulted in an estimated one million to four million deaths, far fewer than the 1918–19 pandemic, which caused between 25 million and 50 million deaths.
The 1968 pandemic was initiated by the emergence of a virus known as influenza A subtype H3N2 (also called Hong Kong flu virus). It is suspected that this virus evolved from the strain of influenza that caused the 1957 pandemic. The 1957 Asian flu virus, or influenza A subtype H2N2, is believed to have given rise to H3N2 through a process called antigenic shift, in which the hemagglutinin (H) antigen (a substance that stimulates an immune response) on the outer surface of the virus underwent genetic mutation to produce the new H3 antigen. Because the new virus retained the neuraminidase (N) antigen N2, persons who had been exposed to the 1957 virus apparently retained immune protection against the 1968 virus. This would explain the mildness of the 1968 outbreak relative to the pandemic of 1918–19.
Although the Hong Kong flu outbreak was associated with comparatively few deaths worldwide, the virus was highly contagious, a factor that facilitated its rapid global dissemination. Indeed, within two weeks of its emergence in July in Hong Kong, some 500,000 cases of illness had been reported, and the virus proceeded to spread swiftly throughout Southeast Asia. Within several months it had reached the Panama Canal Zone and the United States, where it had been taken overseas by soldiers returning to California from Vietnam. By the end of December the virus had spread throughout the United States and had reached the United Kingdom and countries in western Europe. Australia, Japan, and multiple countries in Africa, eastern Europe, and Central and South America were also affected. The pandemic occurred in two waves, and in most places the second wave caused a greater number of deaths than the first wave.
The 1968 Hong Kong flu caused illness of varying degrees of severity in different populations. For example, whereas illness was diffuse and affected only small numbers of people in Japan, it was widespread and deadly in the United States. Infection caused upper respiratory symptoms typical of influenza and produced symptoms of chills, fever, and muscle pain and weakness. These symptoms usually persisted for between four and six days. The highest levels of mortality were associated with the most susceptible groups, namely infants and the elderly. Although a vaccine was developed against the virus, it became available only after the pandemic had peaked in many countries.
These two examples are just to show the response then and also how lethal these were as opposed to what we are seeing right now. Of course the statistics on the Cornavirus can change for the worse.
If Social Media had been around then just imagine the Hysteria, which is what we are seeing now. Fanning the flames does not help and I don't think shutting the country down will work either.
I remember the Hong Kong Flu. It was happening about the same time they were going to put “The Nutcracker Suite” on TV. I was about 6 years old. My mother wouldn’t let me stay up to watch it. It didn’t scar me for life.
These terms, along with German measles and Spanish flu are racist and should be stricken from our lexicon.
Social media and extensive “globalization” did not exist before this pandemic.
I imagine those two factors drive a lot of this.
Too much logic, sense and reality going on in here! I would rather see graphs, charts and anecdotal stories about Italian doctors triaging in hallways of dirty hospitals. Or I need internet imbeciles lecturing me on exponential growth.
To this day, I remember how sick my whole family was in 1957. I was 7-years old. My folks were tough people who never slowed down - but this time they were in bed for at least four days. My baby brother was not good at all. I must have thrown up five times a day for about a week.
Interestingly enough, I remember old Dr. Humphreys making a house call each day for our family. He did not get ill.
But we’re doing so much better now you see? All we have to do is destroy the economy and people’s lives to defeat this thing.
Barf.
I guess we just didn't know what was good for us...
The “Hong Kong” and “Asian” flu? How did these racist names survive for so long? I’m aghast. AGHAST I tell ya!
case closed!
Same thing with Vietnam war vs WWI/Korean War. Quick filming distribution shaped public mindset.
I had the Asian flu. As a kid I remember I called it the ‘Asiatic flu’. It was never called that, as a kid I thought that was the name.
I had it for about 3 weeks, with high fevers, was real sick. I still remember being on the couch watching tv forever and sooo sick.
Around, around, around go the satellites.
Asiatic flu is winning the fight.
Like "Around the World in 80 Days" too,
I've got the satellite fever and the Asiatic flu...
A satellite moves at 20,000 per,
Asiatic flu gets him or her.
About either one, there ain't much you can do,
I've got the satellite fever and the Asiatic flu.
I remember the NYPD being hit with a big wave of cases of “Hong Kong Flu”(/s) at the start of the epidemic. Then the rest of us got it. Thankfully, my boss’s wife would stop by my tenement with a hot lunch for me every day. Ya gotta love chicken soup!
Got back to work after a week, still kinda weak, and the next day my boss was down and I had to take care of the business myself. His wife continued to stop by with a hot lunch for me since I couldn’t leave.
Boss also showed his appreciation in my pay envelope for my running the business for the week he was gone.
I had the flu in March, 1958, but I think it was the regular flu and not the Asiatic variety, since it only sidelined me for a few days.
This is not the flu, its amazing that people still don’t get that.
That said the reaction has been way over the top and much of the fear has been engineered. At this point I am far more concerned about the economy, we are doing massive damage to our economy.
Didn't remember that measles were from Germany. I remember the Spanish flu. What I never knew was Germany or Spain are races. Guess my elementary school taught me wrong. Wonder how those little snorting pigs felt about the Swine flu. Then you have the Avian flu - poor little tweety birds.
Worst of all was the BLACK PLAQUE - need I say more?
Heck, I remember getting the mumps in the fall of ‘69. The chicken pocks also, which I had in the mid 60’s.
German measles, (Rubella) was also the big scare.
Isn't that a city?
Thanks for a good overview.
I was born in 1951, so I was 6 for the 1957 pandemic. We lived in Whitesboro, NY at the time (suburb of Utica). Nobody got sick.
In 1968, we had moved to Chesterfield, MO in the St. Louis western suburbs. I call hearing about the Hong Kong flu. Nobody got sick.
In 2020, I’m splitting time between California and Idaho. So far, nobody got sick (knock on wood!).
There’s no doubt globalization and instantaneous global PERSONAL communications have fanned the flames of hysteria.
In 1957, only newspapers could transmit data and images globally. A few years after the 1957 pandemic and a few years before the 1968 pandemic, Walter Cronkite intoned, “Good evening, Europe. This is the North American continent live via AT&T Telstar, July 23, 1962.” That was the birth of instantaneous global TV which really impacted the perception of the war in Viet Nam a few years later.
Now we have instantaneous global person-to-person communications with text, images, audio and full video.
I would add a third big factor here: the fantastic growth of our understanding of molecular biology, the emergence tools to decode genomes, splice genes and the invention of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in 1983. Nations have various levels of biological safety controls with China reportedly being far from the best. Plus, nations are no doubt still clandestinely pursuing biological weapons and we have the possibility of the escape of a pathogen from a military lab.
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