The Great Influenza Book Review
The Great Influenza: The story of the deadliest pandemic in history
As fears of the 2009 Swine Flu outbreak increase, the inevitable comparisons are being made to the 1918 - 1919 outbreak which killed an estimated 50 - 100 million people.
The Great Influenza is a fascinating account of the 1918-1919 outbreak. Focusing on the American experience, author John Barry offers an exhaustive, yet still readable story. It begins with a look at the state of American medicine at the end of the 19th century and into the early 20th and examines how professors at Johns Hopkins worked to “modernize” the system. Unfortunately, that modernization was still in progress when the epidemic hit. Beginning with a few deaths in military camps, then spreading to urban centers, the pandemic quickly overwhelmed the public health system of the time. In a single week in Philadelphia, more than 4,500 died, and bodies were left in the streets for lack of a system to dispose of them.
One of the things that struck me about the 1918 - 1919 pandemic from reading this, and several other books, is that it occurred in what had to be the perfect environment for such a disease. Thanks to the war, millions of young men were densely packed into army camps; troop and supply transport moved the disease rapidly about; there were worldwide food shortages; sanitation in many areas was nonexistent. No one could have come up with a better environment for infectious disease than the trenches of Europe. and, with the Wilson administration totally focused on the war effort, what government agencies that did exist failed to respond unil it was too late.
It’s a terrific book, and important reading in these times.
Read more about the greatest epidemics and pandemics in history.
Posted by The Editor on 04/30 at 06:55 PM
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The Worst School Massacres, Shootings and Killings
The Worst School Massacres In the United States and In the World
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Posted by The Editor on 10/27 at 12:23 PM
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The Ten Deadliest Hurricanes World Wide
The Ten Worst Hurricanes Worldwide
The Deadliest Worldwide Hurricanes
The Ten Worst Cyclones
***UPDATED***
2008 Burma Cyclone/Hurricane may top 100,000, making it the sixth worst recorded cyclone.
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Posted by The Editor on 05/07 at 12:26 PM
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The Worst Bus Disasters In The United States
The Worst US Bus Disasters
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Posted by The Editor on 02/28 at 02:47 PM
Man Made Disasters •
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Coldest and Warmest Days In the United States
As large as it is, the United States has been subject to an incredibly wide range of temperatures. Read on to discover the Coldest Temperatures recorded in United States History, the Coldest Day in Continental United States History, and the Warmest Day recorded in the United States.
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Posted by The Editor on 02/11 at 05:00 AM
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The World’s Worst Airline Disasters
While airline disasters are spectacular and often cause tragically large losses of life, it’s worth noting that airline travel remains among the safest modes of travel. In a statistical sense, airplanes are far safer than cars. Each day, three million people fly; In 2000, commercial airliners carried 1.09 billion people on 18 million flights, while suffering only 20 fatal accidents. On the other hand, automobile accidents kill more than 40,000 each year in the United States alone.
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Posted by The Editor on 01/17 at 09:20 PM
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