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The Last Time We Had a Pandemic Like This
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Michael Ejercito
Apr 29, 2020, 10:21:30 PM4/29/20
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http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2020/04/the-last-time-we-had-a-pandemic-like-this/
The Last Time We Had a Pandemic Like This
APRIL 28, 2020 BY GENE VEITH
91 COMMENTS
In 1968-1969, as John Fund reminds us, we had another pandemic very much
like this one. But we reacted to it in a completely different way.
The so-called Hong Kong Flu was much like COVID-19, a highly-contagious
disease that attacked the respiratory system and was especially fatal to
people over 65 with pre-existing health problems. It filled up the
hospitals and in the United States killed 100,000 people. The death toll
worldwide is estimated at one million.
So by death toll it was actually worse than the COVID-19 epidemic.
But it never occurred to anyone to close schools or shut down businesses or
forbid going to church or impose stay-at-home orders. People took a few
precautions but basically took the epidemic in stride. (See also this
account from the Wall Street Journal [subscription required]).
I have only the dimmest recollection of the Hong Kong Flu. I was getting
ready to graduate from high school back then and my mind was filled with
lots of other things, so the pandemic left zero impression on me.
I’m not saying, as some are, that the COVID-19 virus is no more serious than
the flu, so we shouldn’t be taking drastic measures to try to mitigate it.
The Hong Kong Flu, despite its name, was much more serious than the
garden-variety influenza. Again, the death toll in the U.S. reached
100,000, which is a huge number. Maybe back then we should have done more
to try to stop the epidemic.
My question is, why didn’t we? And why are we doing so now? What has
changed?
Read John Fund’s article, The Forgotten Hong Kong Flu Pandemic of 1968 Has
Lessons for Today in National Review and consider the possible reasons he
cites for the different response:
We were more resilient then, there were no helicopter parents, and we were
brought up in an era when it wasn’t unknown to get chicken pox, measles,
mumps, German measles, or scarlet fever. Polio had haunted people’s
nightmares until a vaccine was developed in the mid-1950s. . . .
During the Hong Kong flu, Americans rode buses less often, washed their
hands, and practiced social distancing. But they went to work. . . .
Philip Snashall, a now retired professor of medicine, wrote in the British
Medical Journal that his two-year-old daughter contracted the first known
case of the Hong Kong flu to hit Europe. “How things change,” he noted. “The
stock market did not plummet, we were not besieged by the press, men in
breathing apparatus did not invade my daughter’s play group.”
The global response to COVID-19 couldn’t stand in starker contrast. Leaders
have made the decision to do everything possible, including bringing entire
economies to a crashing halt, to limit the loss of life. . . .
Joel Hay, a professor of pharmaceutical economics and policy at the
University of Southern California, told me that the role of science has also
changed. Medical technology has vastly improved from a time when people
still did computations on slide rules. But the data it produces has seduced
some into thinking that we know more than we actually do and that we can
produce useful models to predict the course of this novel coronavirus
disease. “We’re being bombarded with data, but we often act like the guy who
looks for his keys under the lamppost because the light is better there,” he
told me. “We aren’t asking more fundamental questions, like ‘Does this $20
trillion experiment in lockdowns actually work?’”
Our politicians also face new pressures that their counterparts in 1968 didn’t.
Susan Craddock, professor at the Institute for Global Studies at the
University of Minnesota, told the Wall Street Journal that 24-hour news
coverage, social media, and heightened public anxiety mean today’s leaders
face far more pressure to do something.
In 1969, a vaccine was developed for the Hong Kong Flu and the pandemic
ended. But that particular strain of the Influenza A H3N2 virus still
exists, and it’s one of those that regularly comes back during flu season
and is included in today’s flu shots.
Do we have a greater concern for human life today than we did in 1968?
I do know that parents were much less protective of their children today
than they were then. Schools, communities, and the legal system were not
nearly as concerned with safety as they are now. (I recall that our school
yard had “monkey bars” installed in concrete, which made for hard landings.
There were always kids in my class with a broken arm or leg. Nobody sued.
Cars mostly had seat belts by then, but hardly anyone used them until states
made them mandatory beginning in the 1980s.) Probably we should have been
more concerned about health and safety, but we weren’t.
Was it that we had a greater acceptance of risk, seeing it as just part of
the human condition, than we have today? Do we have less courage, or less
willingness to endure hardships of any kind?
Perhaps we have become so affluent and so comfortable that we can’t tolerate
any threat to our physical well-being. Perhaps the decline of religious
belief has shifted all of the burden of protecting and caring for ourselves
on us, or, if we must depend on a higher power, on the government.
What do you think?
Photo by USCDCP, public domain via Pixnio
The Last Time We Had a Pandemic Like This
APRIL 28, 2020 BY GENE VEITH
91 COMMENTS
In 1968-1969, as John Fund reminds us, we had another pandemic very much
like this one. But we reacted to it in a completely different way.
The so-called Hong Kong Flu was much like COVID-19, a highly-contagious
disease that attacked the respiratory system and was especially fatal to
people over 65 with pre-existing health problems. It filled up the
hospitals and in the United States killed 100,000 people. The death toll
worldwide is estimated at one million.
So by death toll it was actually worse than the COVID-19 epidemic.
But it never occurred to anyone to close schools or shut down businesses or
forbid going to church or impose stay-at-home orders. People took a few
precautions but basically took the epidemic in stride. (See also this
account from the Wall Street Journal [subscription required]).
I have only the dimmest recollection of the Hong Kong Flu. I was getting
ready to graduate from high school back then and my mind was filled with
lots of other things, so the pandemic left zero impression on me.
I’m not saying, as some are, that the COVID-19 virus is no more serious than
the flu, so we shouldn’t be taking drastic measures to try to mitigate it.
The Hong Kong Flu, despite its name, was much more serious than the
garden-variety influenza. Again, the death toll in the U.S. reached
100,000, which is a huge number. Maybe back then we should have done more
to try to stop the epidemic.
My question is, why didn’t we? And why are we doing so now? What has
changed?
Read John Fund’s article, The Forgotten Hong Kong Flu Pandemic of 1968 Has
Lessons for Today in National Review and consider the possible reasons he
cites for the different response:
We were more resilient then, there were no helicopter parents, and we were
brought up in an era when it wasn’t unknown to get chicken pox, measles,
mumps, German measles, or scarlet fever. Polio had haunted people’s
nightmares until a vaccine was developed in the mid-1950s. . . .
During the Hong Kong flu, Americans rode buses less often, washed their
hands, and practiced social distancing. But they went to work. . . .
Philip Snashall, a now retired professor of medicine, wrote in the British
Medical Journal that his two-year-old daughter contracted the first known
case of the Hong Kong flu to hit Europe. “How things change,” he noted. “The
stock market did not plummet, we were not besieged by the press, men in
breathing apparatus did not invade my daughter’s play group.”
The global response to COVID-19 couldn’t stand in starker contrast. Leaders
have made the decision to do everything possible, including bringing entire
economies to a crashing halt, to limit the loss of life. . . .
Joel Hay, a professor of pharmaceutical economics and policy at the
University of Southern California, told me that the role of science has also
changed. Medical technology has vastly improved from a time when people
still did computations on slide rules. But the data it produces has seduced
some into thinking that we know more than we actually do and that we can
produce useful models to predict the course of this novel coronavirus
disease. “We’re being bombarded with data, but we often act like the guy who
looks for his keys under the lamppost because the light is better there,” he
told me. “We aren’t asking more fundamental questions, like ‘Does this $20
trillion experiment in lockdowns actually work?’”
Our politicians also face new pressures that their counterparts in 1968 didn’t.
Susan Craddock, professor at the Institute for Global Studies at the
University of Minnesota, told the Wall Street Journal that 24-hour news
coverage, social media, and heightened public anxiety mean today’s leaders
face far more pressure to do something.
In 1969, a vaccine was developed for the Hong Kong Flu and the pandemic
ended. But that particular strain of the Influenza A H3N2 virus still
exists, and it’s one of those that regularly comes back during flu season
and is included in today’s flu shots.
Do we have a greater concern for human life today than we did in 1968?
I do know that parents were much less protective of their children today
than they were then. Schools, communities, and the legal system were not
nearly as concerned with safety as they are now. (I recall that our school
yard had “monkey bars” installed in concrete, which made for hard landings.
There were always kids in my class with a broken arm or leg. Nobody sued.
Cars mostly had seat belts by then, but hardly anyone used them until states
made them mandatory beginning in the 1980s.) Probably we should have been
more concerned about health and safety, but we weren’t.
Was it that we had a greater acceptance of risk, seeing it as just part of
the human condition, than we have today? Do we have less courage, or less
willingness to endure hardships of any kind?
Perhaps we have become so affluent and so comfortable that we can’t tolerate
any threat to our physical well-being. Perhaps the decline of religious
belief has shifted all of the burden of protecting and caring for ourselves
on us, or, if we must depend on a higher power, on the government.
What do you think?
Photo by USCDCP, public domain via Pixnio
Loose Cannon
Apr 29, 2020, 11:11:41 PM4/29/20
to
On Wed, 29 Apr 2020 19:21:27 -0700, "Michael Ejercito"
<meje...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2020/04/the-last-time-we-had-a-pandemic-like-this/
>
>
>The Last Time We Had a Pandemic Like This
>APRIL 28, 2020 BY GENE VEITH
> 91 COMMENTS
>
>
>In 1968-1969, as John Fund reminds us, we had another pandemic very much
>like this one. But we reacted to it in a completely different way.
>
>The so-called Hong Kong Flu was much like COVID-19, a highly-contagious
>disease that attacked the respiratory system and was especially fatal to
>people over 65 with pre-existing health problems. It filled up the
>hospitals and in the United States killed 100,000 people. The death toll
>worldwide is estimated at one million.
>
>So by death toll it was actually worse than the COVID-19 epidemic.
>
Your people brought America both the Hong Kong Flu and COVID-19, and
<meje...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2020/04/the-last-time-we-had-a-pandemic-like-this/
>
>
>The Last Time We Had a Pandemic Like This
>APRIL 28, 2020 BY GENE VEITH
> 91 COMMENTS
>
>
>In 1968-1969, as John Fund reminds us, we had another pandemic very much
>like this one. But we reacted to it in a completely different way.
>
>The so-called Hong Kong Flu was much like COVID-19, a highly-contagious
>disease that attacked the respiratory system and was especially fatal to
>people over 65 with pre-existing health problems. It filled up the
>hospitals and in the United States killed 100,000 people. The death toll
>worldwide is estimated at one million.
>
>So by death toll it was actually worse than the COVID-19 epidemic.
>
you wonder why we don't want your kind here in America. Go back to the
Orient, where you belong.
Carolina Reb
Apr 30, 2020, 12:28:03 AM4/30/20
to
On Wednesday, April 29, 2020 at 11:11:41 PM UTC-4, Loose Cannon wrote:
> >
>
> Your people brought America both the Hong Kong Flu and COVID-19, and
> you wonder why we don't want your kind here in America. Go back to the
> Orient, where you belong.
Yes. The Gook Rejecto and others like him have been bringing
> >
>
> Your people brought America both the Hong Kong Flu and COVID-19, and
> you wonder why we don't want your kind here in America. Go back to the
> Orient, where you belong.
strains of unknown pathogens from the Far East for many years.
He should be ejected immediately!
Loose Cannon
Apr 30, 2020, 6:32:32 AM4/30/20
to
In article <t9gkaf9qonfipiu4h...@4ax.com>,
FAKE Loose Cannon <efbe...@gmx.com> wrote:
> WHY??
> http://tinyurl.com/lnscf3m
> "Face of German neo-Nazi Party" Sucks Black Dick on Camera
You REALLY don't know, you dumb shiteater?
Andrew Andrzej Baron
Apr 30, 2020, 6:33:32 AM4/30/20
to
In article <1d944ed1-368c-4138...@googlegroups.com>,
Carolina Reb <walt.h...@att.net> wrote:
[shit flushed down Walt's hungry throat]
Meet the White Man's role model: POOFER-BOI Walt "Pigshit"
Hampton ("Carolina Reb", "SC Reb")
***********************************************************
"As a young adult, I worked in the adult entertainment industry
(as a technician) in the '70s. The term 'poofer' was used to
denote one or more individuals to prepare the actor(s) into an
aroused sexual state prior to the actual shoot." -- Posted by
Walt "Pigshit" Hampton, Message-ID: <78uj89....@news.alt.net>.
Michael Ejercito
Apr 30, 2020, 12:14:24 PM4/30/20
to
Michael
Michael Ejercito
May 4, 2020, 11:31:31 AM5/4/20
to
"The Peeler" wrote in message news:ehvqG.706774$e1n.3...@usenetxs.com...
>On Wed, 29 Apr 2020 23:11:40 -0400, Loose Sphincter, the unhappily
>married nazi homo, whined again:
>> Your people brought America both the Hong Kong Flu and COVID-19, and
>> you wonder why we don't want your kind here in America. Go back to the
>> Orient, where you belong.
>retarded nazoids inside America giving America a bad name and therefore
>detested by are real Americans?
Indeed.
>BTW, "Loose Sphincter", Caroloony is already behind you again, taking you
>up
>on your offer! You know what I'm talking about, "Loose Sphincter"! LOL
No doubt about it!
Michael
Carolina Reb
May 4, 2020, 11:39:00 PM5/4/20
to
On Thursday, April 30, 2020 at 12:14:24 PM UTC-4, Michael Ejercito wrote:
>
>
> Those like me are Americans, for I am an American!
>
>
>
Those you like you are Asians:
>
>
> Those like me are Americans, for I am an American!
>
>
>
https://www.instagram.com/MEjercit/
The images that you provided reveal your Asian/Mongoloid
racial characteristics. A Korean born in South Carolina is
still a Korean.
NEMO
May 5, 2020, 3:55:38 AM5/5/20
to
In article <3edbb3fe-6d2e-433d...@googlegroups.com>,
Fuck off, you inferior, jizz-slurping lump of turd.
POOFER-BOI: How Walt "Pigshit" Hampton, aka "Carolina Reb", made a living
Michael Ejercito
May 5, 2020, 12:18:39 PM5/5/20
to
"Carolina Reb" wrote in message
news:3edbb3fe-6d2e-433d...@googlegroups.com...
Michael
Carolina Reb
May 5, 2020, 2:28:40 PM5/5/20
to
born in a stable, he would not become a horse. He
would still be a Korean.
Zaire
May 5, 2020, 4:02:05 PM5/5/20
to
NEMO
May 5, 2020, 4:40:31 PM5/5/20
to
Carolina Reb
May 5, 2020, 5:01:29 PM5/5/20
to
On Tuesday, May 5, 2020 at 4:02:05 PM UTC-4, Zaire wrote:
>
>
> What if he was born in a donkey barn? He would then most assuredly be an ass.
...sort of close like you....assclown.
>
>
> What if he was born in a donkey barn? He would then most assuredly be an ass.
NEMO
May 5, 2020, 5:12:19 PM5/5/20
to
In article <71e0298a-c184-4cd7...@googlegroups.com>,
"The nazoid sub-louse cries out in joy when the turd is about
to enter its gob"
Michael Ejercito
May 6, 2020, 12:06:13 PM5/6/20
to
"Carolina Reb" wrote in message
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state
wherein they reside
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