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This essay is adapted from Mr. Ferguson’s new book, “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe,” which will be published by Penguin Press on May 4. He is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.In 1957, the U.S. rose to the challenge of the ‘Asian flu’ with stoicism and a high tolerance for risk, offering a stark contrast with today’s approach to Covid-19...“Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive,/But to be young was very heaven!” Wordsworth was talking about France in 1789, but the line applies better to the America of 1957. That summer, Elvis Presley topped...

The nation’s reaction to the current CCP Virus epidemic has been fascinating. It has revealed an impressive ability of many businesses to adjust their operations at a moment’s notice. It has demonstrated the great advantages offered by modern technology as tools like Microsoft Teams, Webex, GoToMeeting and Facebook Live have enabled employees and students to move their tasks from office to home. It has shown the flexibility of the logistics network as we switched over to home delivery at a moment’s notice. It has reminded the world, once again, of the huge generosity of the American people, as Americans make...

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...

AP MEDICAL WRITER WASHINGTON -- Mass production of a new vaccine that promises to protect against bird flu is poised to begin, as the government on Thursday agreed to stockpile $100 million worth of inoculations. The new contract with French vaccine maker Sanofi-Pasteur marks a major scale-up in U.S. preparation for the possibility that the worrisome virus could spark an influenza pandemic. While the vaccine is still experimental, preliminary results from the National Institutes of Health's first testing in people suggest the inoculations spur an immune response that would be strong enough to protect against known strains of the avian...

Influenza pandemic 'could be avoided' By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 04/08/2005) A global influenza outbreak with the potential to kill millions could be stopped in its tracks with concerted action and enough antiviral drugs for three million people. Britain would be "overwhelmed" if a deadly strain was allowed to reach its shores, said an author of one of two international studies published today in the journals Nature and Science. The World Health Organisation has given warning that the current outbreak of bird flu in the Far East could seed a human pandemic.However, for the first time it appears to...

Samples of a potentially lethal flu strain sent to Lebanon and Mexico did not reach the respective laboratories, the World Health Organization says. The WHO said it was trying to trace the samples, which were sent by a US testing organisation. The samples are of Asian flu, which killed between one and four million people in 1957 but disappeared by 1968. More than 3,700 laboratories in 18 countries received the testing kits and have been racing to destroy the virus. The WHO says the virus could "easily cause an influenza epidemic" if not handled properly. All but five of the...

VIRUS MISSING GENEVA (April 16) - Shipments of a killer influenza virus destined for testing in Mexico and Lebanon remain unaccounted for, but the U.N. health organization said 15 other countries that received the samples were expected to have destroyed them by Saturday. The virus was sent in testing kits to 18 countries starting last year at the request of the College of American Pathologists, which helps laboratories conduct proficiency testing in virus detection. Ten countries - Hong Kong, Belgium, Singapore, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Taiwan - already have destroyed the H2N2 virus, a strain...

Officials Race to Destroy Samples A dangerous strain of the flu virus that caused a worldwide pandemic in 1957 was sent to thousands of laboratories in the United States and around the world, triggering a frantic effort to destroy the samples to prevent an outbreak, health officials revealed yesterday. Because the virus is easily transmitted from person to person and many people have no immunity to it, the discovery has raised alarm that it could cause another deadly pandemic if a laboratory worker became infected, officials said. As a result, health authorities were urgently working to make sure all samples...

Scientists around the world were scrambling to prevent the possibility of a pandemic after a nearly 50-year-old killer influenza virus was sent to thousands of labs, a decision that one researcher described as "unwise." Nearly 5,000 labs in 18 countries, mostly in the United States, were urged by the World Health Organization to destroy samples of the dangerous virus because of the slight risk it could trigger a global outbreak. The labs received the virus from a U.S. company that supplies kits used for quality control tests.... ...The vials also were sent to labs in Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, Chile, Brazil,...

Labs Urged to Destroy Pandemic Flu Strain Email this Story Apr 12, 6:17 PM (ET) By EMMA ROSS LONDON (AP) - Thousands of scientists were scrambling Tuesday at the urging of global health authorities to destroy vials of a pandemic flu strain sent to labs in 18 countries as part of routine testing. The rush, urged by the World Health Organization, was sparked by a slim, but real, risk that the samples, could spark a global flu epidemic. "The risk is relatively low that a lab worker will get sick, but a large number of labs got it and if...

Not too long ago, the Far Eastern Economic Review made this prediction: The world's next flu pandemic will probably originate in southern China, then transit through Hong Kong and on to the world. How ready are we? It comes from a report, written in the wake of an outbreak of killer avian flu, from our issue of June 7, 2001, which opens: THE FEAR IS THAT when Hong Kong sneezes, the world catches the flu. The world's leading influenza experts are virtually unanimous in their suspicion that Hong Kong will be close to the epicentre of the next pandemic of...