“JUST LIKE THE FLU”
In a section called “Dispatches” in the Vanity Fair issue of November 2005, William Prochnau and Laura Parker published their article called “The Waiting Plague.” It is about the H5N1 flu which is not caused by a corona virus. Flu viruses have no spikes, thus no corona.
But wait no more. It’s not a deadly flu virus like the one that almost killed my mother in 1918 and did kill her doctor. It’s a MORE deadly virus but acting exactly as this article describes in the case of the sequence of avian flu viruses. It was a clear and vivid warning, but wait no more.
https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/share/2c623509-dfdd-4c7d-9f92-8e629b66a08b
This particular virus had not been known for a century, so no one was immune. And it “species-hopped,” killing 147 Bengal tigers in a Thailand zoo in 2004. But the worst aspect is having wings. This virus was carried by birds, esp. migratory birds, but through sheer luck it didn’t get into the human airborne vectors.
This time of year in about 1985, I helped a rancher turn over the still-damp hay bales standing to dry in a field briefly inhabited by migratory geese. I’ve never been so sick again so I must have gotten antibodies, but I don’t know whether it was H5N1.
No one knows how many people in the remote parts of SE Asia died of this virus, but when it hit Hong Kong it killed 6 of 18 patients. The health officials simply destroyed 14 million chickens and ducks, the likely hosts. When it got to the US, the response was snuffed by Katrina. Both were mishandled.
It takes two days for a flu virus — they are very shambolic little sub-microsopic beasts — to hit on a formula that might give them stronger access to humans. The consequences, say the authors, no one would believe. “Collapsing housing and stock markets; failures of the airline, tourism and insurance industries; and panic that could keep a large portion of the workforce at home.” Now these are our realities. The authors recommend investing in “cash, gold, funeral homes and “death-related” industries,” like Ivanka’s body bag business.
Then we come to China, who tried to hide SARS which was found out because of friendly HongKong, a leak that is now closed. This virus only killed 800 people. Tamiflu, a medicine that was supposed to help prevent virus infection, was ordered by wealthy countries for enough to treat 20% of their populations, but the US only ordered enough for maybe 2% The writers traveled with their pockets full of Tamiflu capsules.
Im 1968 a “mild” pandemic went global and killed a million people. In 1957 another flu pandemic circled the world twice, went into back country and killed two million people. That was my first year at Northwestern University and I was the only resident of my dorm who didn’t get sick. I must have gotten antibodies in Portland which is a port city and has a big Asian population. Or maybe I somehow inherited them from my mother. She was very interested when researchers found a woman buried in an Arctic cemetery who had the virus still in her body, well-enough preserved to analyze the genome of the DNA fragment plus the antibodies. So weird that a viral particle, which IS DNA, is not always considered to be alive.
The rumor is that Moderna is working on a combination bird flu and corona-booster vaccine. If it comes on the market I’ll ask for it. I’m 82 but there are still things I want to do. They don’t include Disneyland. More like learning to understand quantum physics. (I can try.) I used to rally depressed people who felt suicidal by advising them to “make the bastards kill you.” This turns out to be a lot easier to achieve than “make the bastards save you.” I’m referring to those who refuse to get vaccinated in defiance of consideration for protecting others.
This article is on bird flu, which can be fatal or not, depending on factors like recipient’s basic health and genome, the amount of virus taken in, and so on. “There is currently no vaccine available to the public. The government does have a supply of a vaccine for one type of H5N1 bird flu virus and could distribute it if there was an outbreak that spread easily from person to person.” To be infected, one must make direct contact with the bird that carries it, or at least the bird’s droppings. Birds are not likely to breathe on you.
The places where these viruses originate and spread are the most densely populated places on the planet. You’d think that a fatal virus would self-limit, wiping out the susceptible half or more of the population. It could still happen.
When I recently discovered that my doc had not been immunized for Covid 19, I was not passive. I didn’t argue — just stood up and walked out. But then I tried to contact his hospital CEO. She didn’t return my calls but this hospital is part of a network who must have someone at that top, so I began searching. Finally I found another hospital CEO who was able to send an email to this one, reassuring her that I was not determined to tear her to ribbons but rather seeking information and a new way into the problem. Then she called and we talked.
Also, I contacted the American Medical Association’s CEO and we talked. Actually, I talked and told her things I’m not telling you. All of this is highly political and unpredictable. All sources agreed that Gianforte and other politicians had basically prevented them from doing what they should have, which is providing transparency. People are able to ignore the seriousness because they just don’t know enough. Medical people want to look good. I had no idea that a doctor could practice without being immunized. It is against the law for the hospital to tell me so. Thanks, Gianforte.
Now the game changer is the denial of federal benefits to hospitals, particularly in the instance of Medicare and Medicaid money. But to quote Charlie Russell, “it’s not meat ‘till it’s in the pan,” and the states have shown that they are perfectly capable of hoarding the money meant for their citizens as unemployment, eviction prevention, and child support. But now we’re waking up. We begin to know things.
