What an absolutely fascinating (and in many ways, absolutely terrifying) article. The number of people who don't vaccinate their children because of an urban legand that has been proven to be maliciously false and yet still is quoted as "gospel truth" amazes me. The possibility of another plague always looms on the horizon and as our populations continue to grow and we crowd together more and more, the possibilities become greater. Especially when you consider that bioterrorism seems to be becoming more "thinkable" to some people in power. The recent attack on Syria could have easily been a bioweapon instead of a chemical one. Thanks for sharing this.
I thought bringing it back to SARS (since I lived through that one) was especially telling. The thought of 1/7th of the world gone in modern times like this was more than a little alarming.
You have to wonder, would SARS be more likely to hit the more industrialized nations or the less industrialized nations hardest? And 1/7 of the world's population gone in a twinkling so to speak? I don't know if civilization would collapse exactly but I thing we would probably regress to more of a "might makes right" mentallity which would not suit me at all. I am pretty certain our global economy would take a massive hit. Maybe the "preppers" have it right (I hope not.) I am also pretty sure countries would go back to a more isolationist policy.
SARS would hit less industrialized nations harder, I would think, simply due to availability of health care to the level required (including ability to quarantine etc.). And yes, agreed on the hit to the global economy. It would be awful. We definitely don't need more isolationist policy... see too much of that already, if you ask me.
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