Posted on 03/18/2020 9:01:45 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
Agreed. People keep talking about numbers. But the death rates for those other flus were under 1%.
So far, COVID-19 has shown a higher death rate. That doesn’t mean the gov’t should be sending $1,000 checks to people or that our civil liberties should be dismissed. But this is a serious situation.
The other day I saw some posts about Asian Flu, and called my parents to ask about it. They were kids in ‘57, and one of them has a 1-in-a-million memory (the other claims to have antibodies for that).
Answers: Neither one of them got either flu, and they were surrounded by filth and disease (cesspool NYC). They had measles, mumps and all sorts of poxes and plagues common to the era, but avoided both the ‘57 and the ‘68 flu. They knew exactly four people who had the ‘57 flu and one infant that died of it. Otherwise, they were mainly worried about polio, “the bomb,” “mono,” and Viet Nam.
Wish I’d been born much earlier. :(
I understand that, but it is Flu like. I am only giving comparative numbers to give an overview. It’s all we have to go on.
I got the Hong Kong Flu in 1968...the doctor told me he had no medicine to give me and to “go home you will either die or get well”...
One thing I can correct about your dates...I had the Hong Kong Flu in August 1968...I was in New Zeeland...it was winter time there...If it started in China in July it could easily have gone to NZ right away...It may have started earlier though...
Oh and by the fall of 1969 (March-June) Australia had a shot for that flu...it was the first flu shots in that country...
Heck I didn’t even know there was a Hong Kong Flu in 1968. Nixon was president so the press must not have been completely weaponized at that point, though their bias was quite evident then.
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 for the Hong Kong flu I was living in Seattle, Washington. Nobody got sick. I was in college so there likely were disease vectors there.
I think there was some flu in 1979. I was working hard running my small business. Nobody got sick. Not my staff, clients or anyone that I knew.
Save for later
I am old enough (barely) to remember how freaked out my mom was about the Hong Kong Flu.
I worked in a paper mill in Longview in the summer of 1974 (Weyerhauser, I think). I went to a “Steam Up” in Kelso and still remember all the great old steam tractor demonstrations cutting lumber, threshing, and plowing. It was a real nice area.
Ha! As a child I had all 3 of those at some point between 1968 and 70 or so. Interestingly enough, since then I’ve always had a very, strong immune system. Go figure?
Yes, Longview and Kelso are interesting areas. The lumber barons came out from Missouri and established the lumber and paper mills in the area.
Longview is a lovely planned city with the river running through the middle of it with walkways.
Kelso is much more humble. It is where the mill workers lived and the owners lived in Longview.
I drive through there sometimes on my way from Seattle to the Oregon beaches.
That’s the report weathermen should give. It will either rain, or it won’t. Then they’d never be wrong.
Lyndon Johnson was President.
A bit before my understanding years, but I was wondering if the Asian flu was called the Kung Flu?
On second thought, probably not. I don’t this this country even knew what Kung Fu was until Bruce Lee.
Yeah, Nixon didn’t actually take office until 1969. He won the 1968 election.
I remember this from my childhood.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.