Free Republic

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...

Unleashing a Pandemic: U.S. Style William John Hagan Houston Home Journal July 6, 2005 Allow me pose a hypothetical scenario. Around 1958 a virulent strain of influenza kills 70,000 Americans. Let’s give it the name: “H2N2”. When the pandemic ended the United States Government stored samples for research purposes. Years pass and by 2005 no one in the population born after 1968 had immunity. If the public was exposed to H2N2 today, millions could potentially die due to population growth and the fact that in1958 people had some immunity toH2N2 stemming from the 1918 flu pandemic that killed 50 million...

Unleashing a Pandemic: U.S. Style William John Hagan Allow me pose a hypothetical scenario. Around 1958 a virulent strain of influenza kills 70,000 Americans. Let’s give it the name: “H2N2”. When the pandemic ended the United States Government stored samples for research purposes. Years pass and by 2005 no one in the population born after 1968 had immunity. If the public was exposed to H2N2 today, millions could potentially die due to population growth and the fact that in1958 people had some immunity toH2N2 stemming from the 1918 flu pandemic that killed 50 million people. Today’s flu vaccine does not...